Motown Treasures

Keeping the Faith - A History of Northern Soul ( Stephen Catterall & Keith Gildart)

I managed to get hold of a copy of this book, courtesy of Manchester City Council Libraries.
It's very political and I nearly gave up on the introduction.....trying to relate Working Class issues , Government policies, Young Mod  styles and history etc.
All Coal mines, Cotton Mills , youthful activities, Football Violence etc, Northern Desolation. It's a hard read.
Now, I was born and  lived in 2 of the most deprived areas of Manchester  until I was 29. I Followed Manchester United and saw the violence first hand. I can relate to much of the stuff in the book, but I always saw the love of rare soul music as just that! I know I would have been within the influence of many of these issues but .....it's a hard read.

But I persevered and eventually it got a bit easier to read, and concentrated on the early clubs and the music.
As I left the 'scene' ( and I was perhaps too young to be a fully fledged member) by 1972 , I found the stories interesting.

However, I found the years after the 70-72 period the best section.
The Blackpool Mecca, and it's policy of playing a mix of 60s NS and new Soul 45s , and then a more radical playlist of ONLY 1970s , was an area that I was vaguely aware of, but I found that I understood the politics of the scene  ( and there were a lot) better.
The Wigan era....formation, massive following, downhill .....was also good information.

The Mecca sounds, which I always call "70s"...but I believe is better known as  "Modern"  ( As Roger says) led me to youtube and searching under "Modern" produces quite a collection. I do have many "70s/Modern" but I intend to follow up on these.
However, as with the book, the anything relating to Jazz Funk will be left alone.
Worth reading, but perhaps leave the lengthy introduction alone. Very heavy.

John
You'd struggle with this then..hard work.
But fills in some gaps.
Reading this makes me glad I wasn't involved....but that I was lucky to have been at the start, love the music and could return to the MUSIC and miss all the politics.