0:00:01 > 0:00:06MUSIC: "You're Gonna Make Me Love You" by Sandi Sheldon
0:00:06 > 0:00:10Northern soul is the musical religion that refused to die.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15Based on a devotion to obscure American soul music,
0:00:15 > 0:00:19this underground dance scene exploded across Britain in the 1970s.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25At its peak, people travelled hundreds of miles to dance
0:00:25 > 0:00:29all night, defying mainstream fashions and the charts.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35For a time, places that had been music hall jokes hosted
0:00:35 > 0:00:38some of the coolest nightclubs in the world.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Northern soul was the birth of late-night dance
0:00:42 > 0:00:45culture in Britain and I was there.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48# You gonna make me want you You gonna make me want you
0:00:48 > 0:00:51# You gonna make me need you, baby You gonna make me need you
0:00:51 > 0:00:55# You gonna make me love you You gonna make me love you... #
0:00:55 > 0:00:58It's the 40th anniversary of the first Wigan Casino all-nighter
0:00:58 > 0:01:01and this music still haunts me.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07For its devotees, Northern soul is a way of life and even now,
0:01:07 > 0:01:13it is perhaps the biggest underground music scene in the UK.
0:01:13 > 0:01:14But why?
0:01:14 > 0:01:17We were young, white, working class, thin,
0:01:17 > 0:01:22for reasons we'll come to, but we loved obscure black music.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27This was pre-Thatcher, pre-punk - welcome to the mid-1970s.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30This is how we looked.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34This is what was on TV.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39MUSIC: "Love Me For A Reason" by The Osmonds
0:01:39 > 0:01:42And this is what we were supposed to dance to.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45This is how we reacted.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49MUSIC: "Self Soul Satisfaction" by Earl Jackson
0:01:59 > 0:02:03So, picture the scene - electricity blackouts have cut the working
0:02:03 > 0:02:07week to three days, there's industrial unrest...
0:02:09 > 0:02:12..football violence...
0:02:12 > 0:02:16terrorism and bad fashion.
0:02:16 > 0:02:17Though I'd like to be able to pretend that,
0:02:17 > 0:02:19as a future economics journalist,
0:02:19 > 0:02:22I was gripped by the crisis we were living through
0:02:22 > 0:02:26but I was bored with it, bored with pop music and now,
0:02:26 > 0:02:31right on my doorstep, was something underground and dangerous.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34One Saturday night, I left home with a change of clothes,
0:02:34 > 0:02:39telling my mum I was staying with a friend but that was a lie.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41In fact, age 15,
0:02:41 > 0:02:46I was going to probably the greatest nightclub in the world.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50MUSIC: "Blowin' Up My Mind" by The Exciters
0:02:53 > 0:02:56At its height, Wigan Casino was pulling in crowds of up
0:02:56 > 0:02:59to 2,000 people every Saturday night from 2:00am
0:02:59 > 0:03:02until 8:00am on a Sunday morning.
0:03:04 > 0:03:05You'd get to Wigan around midnight
0:03:05 > 0:03:09and all the ordinary people had melted away and the streets were
0:03:09 > 0:03:14just full of hundreds of young kids ready to dance to Northern soul.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16Take it easy, please!
0:03:16 > 0:03:20By 1:30am, the queue was about ten-deep and you had to shove
0:03:20 > 0:03:23your way in and then edge along the wall till you got to the front.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27All the while, people were buying and selling records and drugs
0:03:27 > 0:03:31and as for the door policy, one bouncer and you were in.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Stop pushing at the back!
0:03:34 > 0:03:39MUSIC: "If This Is Love (I'd Rather Be Lonely)" by The Precisions
0:03:49 > 0:03:54On the dance floor, it felt like, well, freedom.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56It felt like finding a new family.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02And a small part of me is still always there.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07But what is Northern soul?
0:04:07 > 0:04:11All we knew then was that we loved the music, it was like Motown
0:04:11 > 0:04:15but rougher, the emotions more raw.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20This was music made by unknown black singers in tiny
0:04:20 > 0:04:24studios for local labels in America's industrial heartland.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27Most of the time, we had no idea what they looked like.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Some tracks were only ever demos and for many of the records,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33only a few hundred were ever pressed.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39And it was this obscurity that fascinated us.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Soul music had exploded into the British charts during the 1960s.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48MUSIC: "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" by Stevie Wonder
0:04:48 > 0:04:50But the super-cool mods,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53who went to clubs like the Twisted Wheel in Manchester,
0:04:53 > 0:04:57wanted harder-edged sounds to distinguish themselves from the mainstream.
0:04:58 > 0:05:03Some DJs started going to America to dig through crates of old vinyl,
0:05:03 > 0:05:06stacked up in warehouses, to feed our appetite for soul.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11Northern soul was about wanting records that had flopped
0:05:11 > 0:05:12because they had been overlooked,
0:05:12 > 0:05:15it was about finding the hit that nobody else had found.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18It's artists trying to be The Supremes, The Temptations
0:05:18 > 0:05:21or Marvin Gaye who didn't have the money to make sophisticated
0:05:21 > 0:05:23records so the records are slightly out of tune
0:05:23 > 0:05:25and slightly rough round the edges.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28You'll never find a bad Northern soul record, you know,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31the quality control is out of this world.
0:05:31 > 0:05:32Unbelievable.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35You know, you listen to those records, you think, "Why wasn't this
0:05:35 > 0:05:38"a smash?" We thought that at the Twisted Wheel but we didn't
0:05:38 > 0:05:41care cos we didn't have anything to do with the pop world, you know.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44We thought pop music was for morons.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48MUSIC: "It's The Beat" by Major Lance
0:05:48 > 0:05:52The term "Northern soul" was coined by music journalist Dave Godin
0:05:52 > 0:05:54when he noticed that northern football fans,
0:05:54 > 0:05:56coming to his record shop in London,
0:05:56 > 0:06:00kept asking for heavy dance beat records nobody had heard of.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05I think the soul music you might hear on the radio would probably
0:06:05 > 0:06:08have been sugary sweet, a lot of them.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12I mean a lot of the labels started to add strings about 1964-65,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and that was to get into a larger audience, a white audience.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18There was a more earthy feel to Northern soul.
0:06:18 > 0:06:22I mean I did once term Northern soul as "deep soul with a dance beat."
0:06:22 > 0:06:25I think it was the joyous coming-together of the writers,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29the musicians, the arrangement to create a record like The Velvettes -
0:06:29 > 0:06:31"I've Gotta Find Me Somebody", which is
0:06:31 > 0:06:34almost like a religious experience when you listen to that record.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37Just the intensity that's gone into it all.
0:06:37 > 0:06:42MUSIC: "I've Got to Find Me Somebody" by The Velvettes
0:06:43 > 0:06:47# I'm gonna find me somebody
0:06:47 > 0:06:50# Whoo! Gotta find me somebody
0:06:50 > 0:06:53# I'm gonna find me somebody
0:06:53 > 0:06:57# Whoo! Gotta find me somebody... #
0:06:57 > 0:06:59The Twisted Wheel was shut down in the early '70s
0:06:59 > 0:07:02but the flame had been lit.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05A circuit of all-nighters sprang up, places like the Golden Torch
0:07:05 > 0:07:10in Stoke and Blackpool Mecca would become legendary.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Suddenly, the venues our dads and granddad had danced
0:07:13 > 0:07:16ballroom in were repopulated but with black music.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19Bit by bit, youth clubs,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23which had been home to kids dancing like zombies on Top Of The Pops were
0:07:23 > 0:07:28infiltrated by soul boys practising their back drops and their spins.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31And Elaine Constantine's soon-to-be-released feature film
0:07:31 > 0:07:35"Northern Soul" captures perfectly what happened for a lot of us.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52So this is what? This is the Torch? This is the Twisted Wheel period.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Twisted Wheel. You can really see the mod influence then.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57And then it changes when it gets to Wigan.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00Yeah, the hair got longer, the sideburns got longer.
0:08:00 > 0:08:01God, I remember that.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Working class culture was very pub-orientated,
0:08:04 > 0:08:08it was very pop-orientated. Mm-hmm.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10What were Northern soul people doing
0:08:10 > 0:08:13when they created that sub-culture, do you think?
0:08:13 > 0:08:16It was an elitism, kind of aspirational thing.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19There was a kind of special thing about Northern soul that
0:08:19 > 0:08:24elevated you out of the day-to-day. Let's see you on that floor.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Frankie Valli's "The Night."
0:08:29 > 0:08:33The idea that it didn't sound cheesy and commercial was a big appeal cos,
0:08:33 > 0:08:39you know, no-one wants to be spoon-fed shite from the charts, do they?
0:08:39 > 0:08:41I was in a youth club
0:08:41 > 0:08:46and the whole experience of the music with these lads who
0:08:46 > 0:08:48were like older lads from school who would never show any emotion
0:08:48 > 0:08:51were suddenly in this, kind of...
0:08:51 > 0:08:54You know, dramatic situation where they were a spectacle
0:08:54 > 0:08:56and they didn't give a shit.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59I said to my cousin, my older cousin, "What's this?! What is it?
0:08:59 > 0:09:03"What's going on?" She went, "Oh, it's Northern soul."
0:09:04 > 0:09:08MUSIC: "The Night" by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons
0:09:10 > 0:09:13We sort of took over when we got going
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and there were still people hanging around who were into Status Quo
0:09:16 > 0:09:18or whatever who were really annoyed about it
0:09:18 > 0:09:20but there was nothing they could do.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24For me, Northern soul, more than anything, is about the people.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27It's about the characters that it attracts,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30how extreme they are, how obsessive they are.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33You know that every single person is going through every
0:09:33 > 0:09:38beat of that record with you and you know that when you do that...
0:09:38 > 0:09:40CROWD CLAP IN UNISON
0:09:40 > 0:09:43..it's all going to happen at that moment
0:09:43 > 0:09:45and it's that sort of feeling of like...
0:09:45 > 0:09:47It's almost like you're all running the same race together,
0:09:47 > 0:09:48do you know what I mean?
0:09:48 > 0:09:50And then that break's coming up, you're like,
0:09:50 > 0:09:52"Here we go, are we all ready for this? Right."
0:09:52 > 0:09:54Bang!
0:09:54 > 0:09:57And you're up there and you're spinning and whatever and you can just...
0:09:57 > 0:09:59In your periphery, you can just see it all happening around you
0:09:59 > 0:10:02and everyone else is locked into it as well.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04You're making me remember a lot, actually.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09It was quite exotic in a way cos we were listening to black
0:10:09 > 0:10:14people's voices from America and that was weird, you know.
0:10:14 > 0:10:15We didn't even know any black people,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18there were hardly any black families in our town.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20So, it was like something very special.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23This Northern soul, it's actually from America.
0:10:23 > 0:10:28MUSIC: "I Want to Testify" by The Parliaments
0:10:28 > 0:10:30# Friends
0:10:30 > 0:10:32# Inquisitive friends
0:10:32 > 0:10:37# Are asking me what's come over me? #
0:10:37 > 0:10:40There's something weirdly romantic about unknown black kids
0:10:40 > 0:10:44from no-hope towns in America making these records that then
0:10:44 > 0:10:46communicate across time
0:10:46 > 0:10:52and space with white kids from equally no-hope towns in Britain.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58It's only a few years ago that I actually got to go to Detroit
0:10:58 > 0:11:00and Chicago.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02I covered the housing crisis there and it was
0:11:02 > 0:11:06heartbreaking to see the birthplaces of soul reduced to slums.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11But I met people quite surprised to find a white guy obsessed
0:11:11 > 0:11:15with soul singers few people in Motor City could still remember.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22What's also striking is the way those records go on communicating.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Many of the original people are still on the scene,
0:11:25 > 0:11:27having followed that old Wigan motto:
0:11:27 > 0:11:29"Keep The Faith."
0:11:29 > 0:11:34This is certainly the case for Pete and Susan Davies from Nottingham.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36They're getting ready to go to the Stoke all-nighter,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38one of the biggest in the country.
0:11:38 > 0:11:39I don't think it's changed,
0:11:39 > 0:11:43it doesn't change even from when you're sort of 15, 16, to even now.
0:11:43 > 0:11:44Oh, no.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48You know when people say they're living for the weekend? It's true.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51The rest of the week's just a rest period in-between.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55On the Saturday, it's a soul nighter, then on Sunday,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57an all-dayer, then probably another nighter.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00And there's one on the Bank Holiday Monday as well.
0:12:00 > 0:12:01Yeah, we do that as well, don't we?
0:12:01 > 0:12:03I mean a lot of us lasses, you know,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06we wanted to go out with lads who were dancers.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Didn't want to know anybody else.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11If they were a good dancer, they were there, I'll tell you.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15It's me, you mean? Exactly.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17I think it was a bit of one-upmanship, you know?
0:12:17 > 0:12:20They started with really quite wide trousers,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23they got wider and wider and wider as people tried to better each other.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26Multiple pockets, multiple buttons on the sleeves.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29They are all the same shoe but different colours.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31That's my baby, that is. That one there.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Over the years, we've seen our friends, including ourselves,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36go through divorces and things like that.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41I mean they've not had partners that are not...sharing that love.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43It can be very...
0:12:44 > 0:12:46..very stretching for a relationship.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48And they can't understand that passion, that drive,
0:12:48 > 0:12:50that you need to go.
0:12:50 > 0:12:52It's something you need to do.
0:12:57 > 0:13:03MUSIC: "'Cause You're Mine" by The Vibrations
0:13:11 > 0:13:13# I don't care what your friends say
0:13:13 > 0:13:15# Oooh
0:13:15 > 0:13:17# I'm going to love you anyway
0:13:17 > 0:13:19# Cos you're mine You're mine
0:13:19 > 0:13:21# Mine You're mine
0:13:21 > 0:13:23# Mine Mine, mine, mine
0:13:23 > 0:13:27# Oh, baby, you're mine Mine, mine, mine... #
0:13:35 > 0:13:37I was born in 1961.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40I'm one of the originals, back in the day, still on the soul scene
0:13:40 > 0:13:45and it doesn't matter where I go, I always feel welcome.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48You meet different people from all walks of life.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51Believe it or not, you get judges, solicitors, police, you know,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54all sorts of people.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57MUSIC: "You Should O' Held On" by 7th Ave Aviators
0:13:57 > 0:14:01# There's been something that I've
0:14:01 > 0:14:04# Been longing to say
0:14:04 > 0:14:09# It's been on my mind for such a long time... #
0:14:12 > 0:14:16It just took over my life, basically. It is a way of life.
0:14:18 > 0:14:20It's like when a song comes on and you know it,
0:14:20 > 0:14:22I just go in my own world, I sing it, and that's me,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24no-one will disturb me through that song.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26# And all I've got to say is
0:14:26 > 0:14:30# You shoulda held on just a little tighter
0:14:30 > 0:14:34# Cos when I needed you, you were never there, girl
0:14:34 > 0:14:36# You shoulda held on just
0:14:36 > 0:14:38# A little tighter
0:14:40 > 0:14:43# And showed me that you cared... #
0:14:48 > 0:14:50I love dancing.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53If I haven't danced half the night, I haven't enjoyed it.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57If my wife said to me, "It's either me or Northern soul,"
0:14:57 > 0:14:59Northern soul would come on top every time.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And you can print it.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05MUSIC: "I Feel Alright" by Turley Richards
0:15:05 > 0:15:07# All right
0:15:12 > 0:15:15# Hey now
0:15:15 > 0:15:18# I've found a new lover
0:15:18 > 0:15:21# She's everything that I could need
0:15:21 > 0:15:23# And I feel all right
0:15:25 > 0:15:28# I want to feel the feel of her touch
0:15:28 > 0:15:31# And feel all right
0:15:31 > 0:15:33# You know that I feel like shouting
0:15:33 > 0:15:38# And I feel like screaming that I feel all right
0:15:38 > 0:15:44# I feel all right
0:15:44 > 0:15:47# I feel all right... #
0:15:56 > 0:16:00I haven't been to an all-nighter for over 30 years but I think somewhere,
0:16:00 > 0:16:05I must have some kind of muscle memory of how to do the dancing.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Fran Franklin first went to Wigan in 1975, the same year as me.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11If you remember, back then,
0:16:11 > 0:16:14guys weren't really upfront on the dance floor,
0:16:14 > 0:16:16they were sort of more like standing along the edges,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18eyeing up all the girls thinking,
0:16:18 > 0:16:21"Oh, I'd love to get a slow dance with her." But it wasn't like
0:16:21 > 0:16:25that on the Northern soul scene, it was pretty much a blokes thing.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27Where do we think the dance style came from?
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Do we know whether American dance styles had anything to do with it?
0:16:30 > 0:16:32I don't think so because I think, at the time, it was
0:16:32 > 0:16:36all about Soul Train and that's all about hips and boogie
0:16:36 > 0:16:42and disco and stuff like that so I think it came from Bruce Lee.
0:16:42 > 0:16:43Really?
0:16:43 > 0:16:45All them rugged boys that had been to see
0:16:45 > 0:16:52Bruce Lee at the cinema...thought, "Oh, you can use these moves..."
0:16:54 > 0:16:56..show off...
0:16:56 > 0:16:59be damn hot on that dance floor
0:16:59 > 0:17:01and all the girls will come flocking to us for a change.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04I think that's the secret. It didn't completely work for me but...
0:17:04 > 0:17:05SHE LAUGHS
0:17:05 > 0:17:09I've got a memory of being like this - one, two, three and one,
0:17:09 > 0:17:11two, three. My mind goes in threes.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Yeah, two, three, but it's not, it's... One, two...
0:17:14 > 0:17:18Well, what am I missing? What should I be doing? Go on, go on.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22One, two, three, turn, one, two, three, four. One...three...
0:17:22 > 0:17:24See, I'm missing one. I can't seem to...
0:17:24 > 0:17:27When you're doing your change-over, that's a one-two.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29When you change direction, that's your fourth step.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31So do you want to give me a spin? Right, OK.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35You can't do it by thinking about it, it's this. Oh, you just do it.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39That's it. And you keep... With the right shoes, it's fine.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43That was pretty good. Then you finish it with doing that. Yep.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46But I'm not sure I can even get away with touching the floor.
0:17:46 > 0:17:47Get down and do a drop, there you go! I did it.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50But you've got to push your knees in a bit more
0:17:50 > 0:17:52and have your knees over your feet.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54You've got to get your knees over you feet? Yes. Right.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58I don't think we'll be practising that one today.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01You've not got the right shoes on, we'll leave it at that.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Shall we do a bit of Northern soul dancing? Shall we? Let's have a go.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11MUSIC: "Out On The Floor" by Dobie Gray
0:18:11 > 0:18:13# Yeah, yeah, yeah
0:18:13 > 0:18:16# Babe, it's out of sight... #
0:18:26 > 0:18:29What did Wigan mean to you in your life?
0:18:31 > 0:18:35This is the bit that gets me. It meant everything.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40Like, I grew up in a place called Muirhouse in Edinburgh
0:18:40 > 0:18:45and my mum was on her own, there was four of us, and I spent most of
0:18:45 > 0:18:49my time as the big sister, I had to cook and do all the chores and stuff.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53So the minute that the soul scene started, my mum was like,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55"OK, that's your outlet. Off you go."
0:18:55 > 0:18:59What did it feel like to be black in that immensely white,
0:18:59 > 0:19:00working class scene?
0:19:00 > 0:19:06Well, for me, it was like I fit in, I've got a family.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09Every single person that I ever met on the scene
0:19:09 > 0:19:11felt like they were my brother or my sister.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15We were all...we are the Northern soul crew.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17We went through good times, we lost people together,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21but we came together at the end of it as one.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31THEY LAUGH
0:19:31 > 0:19:33I haven't done that for 30-something years.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41You had to be fit to dance Northern soul but not just that.
0:19:43 > 0:19:44Here you go, mate.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Illegal drugs, speed, usually amphetamines
0:19:48 > 0:19:52stolen from pharmacists, were a big part of the sub-culture.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56Essentially, dancers were overdosing on slimming pills or
0:19:56 > 0:19:59anti-depressants and you had to be as expert in the names of drug
0:19:59 > 0:20:01companies as record labels.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06How dependant was Northern soul on amphetamines?
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Very dependant.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11It couldn't have happened without the drugs? No. Why?
0:20:11 > 0:20:13The music was fast.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16You couldn't drink and maintain that kind of energy.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19It was a completely nocturnal lifestyle.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21For a lot of kids, it became all-encompassing,
0:20:21 > 0:20:25they couldn't keep their jobs down, they couldn't live a normal life.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27It was an obsession. Yeah.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31When the rave scene happened at the end of the '80s,
0:20:31 > 0:20:35it was almost exactly the same as Northern soul to me.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40It was essentially 4/4 beat music with thousands of kids going
0:20:40 > 0:20:42to all-nighters.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Swap speed for ecstasy and you've essentially got the same scene.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50By the late '70s,
0:20:50 > 0:20:54Northern soul was beginning to splinter into different factions.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59Some people wanted to stick with the old '60s sounds
0:20:59 > 0:21:02but I'd become more interested in how black music was
0:21:02 > 0:21:06evolving into disco, hip-hop and funk.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09# See that black boy over there runnin' scared
0:21:09 > 0:21:12# His old man in a bottle
0:21:14 > 0:21:16# He done quit his 9 to 5
0:21:16 > 0:21:20# He drink full-time and now he's livin' in a bottle... #
0:21:25 > 0:21:29In 1977, a Granada film about the casino was seen by up
0:21:29 > 0:21:32to 20 million people.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34It helped put what had been a small,
0:21:34 > 0:21:37underground scene in front of the whole country.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40But the casino was forced to close its doors for the last
0:21:40 > 0:21:46time in 1981 for a civic centre extension that was never built.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49For many, this was the end of an era.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54If Wigan shut down, I wouldn't know what to do. It'd be like...
0:21:56 > 0:21:58Instant nostalgia, that would be it.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00You'd think, "God, I'm going
0:22:00 > 0:22:02"to be looking back for the rest of my life."
0:22:05 > 0:22:07I wouldn't really be able to cope.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11That was how a lot of us felt then.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15We couldn't imagine life without the weekly buzz of Wigan.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18But as Dave Withers, star of the original Wigan Casino film,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20proves...
0:22:21 > 0:22:23..life does go on.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27I got married, had two children, got divorced,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30spent a lot of time in America buying records and ended up moving up there
0:22:30 > 0:22:31about 12 years ago,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35and I occasionally visit England probably about once a year.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37So, yeah, life goes on.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44But the Northern soul scene also carried on.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49It's the first law of sociology -
0:22:49 > 0:22:52all youth sub-cultures eventually come back.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55In a small hall in Wigan, people from the Spotify
0:22:55 > 0:23:02generation are wearing, well, very wide pants and dancing to vinyl.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05They call themselves Wigan Young Souls.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Our aim was to bring a younger audience in, we knew that
0:23:09 > 0:23:14if we did play this music that this younger audience had never
0:23:14 > 0:23:17heard before, that they would grow to love it.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20In the '70s, there was stuff like Bee Gees being played
0:23:20 > 0:23:22and now there's stuff like...
0:23:22 > 0:23:26I don't know, Rihanna and what not but it's not the same as soul music.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28It's not pure.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33MUSIC: "There Was A Time" by Gene Chandler
0:23:39 > 0:23:42# There was a time
0:23:42 > 0:23:45# When I used to dance
0:23:46 > 0:23:49# There was a time
0:23:49 > 0:23:52# When I used to prance
0:23:53 > 0:23:56# Dig me now, baby, ha
0:23:56 > 0:24:00# Don't worry 'bout later, ha
0:24:00 > 0:24:03# Here's a dance I used to do
0:24:03 > 0:24:05# They call the mash potatoes
0:24:05 > 0:24:07# Ahhh... #
0:24:15 > 0:24:18More and more young people are getting into it and we are
0:24:18 > 0:24:21passionate about the music and we're passionate about us dancing.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23It's just life. Mmm.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25Like, if I was to go clubbing, it just wouldn't be for me.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29The music's rubbish, people usually start fights and stuff.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32At soul nights, everyone's like a family.
0:24:32 > 0:24:33And it's an expanding family.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Dozens of events take place every week with an all-nighter
0:24:36 > 0:24:39happening somewhere in the country almost every weekend.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48Northern soul today has become part of a global culture.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52There are nights held from Tokyo to Dubai.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56MUSIC: "Tainted Love" by Gloria Jones
0:24:58 > 0:25:01It's influenced musicians, designers and choreographers
0:25:01 > 0:25:04and some of the scene's best-known songs have been re-imagined
0:25:04 > 0:25:07and remixed into global hits.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18But I'm still not sure what it'll feel like to go back after so long.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20I've not been to one of these for 35 years
0:25:20 > 0:25:23and my big fear in coming here was that it would be a bunch of old,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28sad Northern blokes re-living their youth but it isn't, really.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32However, we can do something about that.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38MUSIC: "I'm Where It's At" by The Jades
0:25:44 > 0:25:47# If you want someone to love you
0:25:47 > 0:25:51# I'm where it's at Where it's at
0:25:51 > 0:25:54# And if you need someone to hug you
0:25:54 > 0:25:57# I'm where it's at, baby Where it's at
0:25:57 > 0:26:00# And at night when your feet are cold
0:26:00 > 0:26:03# I'll be there...
0:26:03 > 0:26:06# I'm where it's at Where it's at
0:26:06 > 0:26:08# Baby, baby... #
0:26:08 > 0:26:14What it feels like now is what it felt like then except
0:26:14 > 0:26:17plus 35 years in a body that can't really do it.
0:26:17 > 0:26:20But that music just takes hold of your body
0:26:20 > 0:26:22and it took hold of my body
0:26:22 > 0:26:27and finally made it remember how to do that step I couldn't do before.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31It's not just nostalgia because what is the same is the music
0:26:31 > 0:26:36and some of that music captures not just something about black
0:26:36 > 0:26:39America, it captures something about working class Britain
0:26:39 > 0:26:41and it captures something about me.
0:26:45 > 0:26:50It is the music that still communicates with you over
0:26:50 > 0:26:54continents and over four decades.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08I think once you're locked into that record,
0:27:08 > 0:27:13it provides that escapism that you want from music.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24You're thinking the lyrics, you're thinking the beat.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29You can hear the pain and the love and the glory in the music.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33You feel like you belong.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41Northern soul in the end, for me, is all about emotional truth
0:27:41 > 0:27:44and what life should be like.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49MUSIC: "Time Will Pass You By" by Tobi Legend
0:27:52 > 0:27:56# Passing seasons all but fade away
0:27:56 > 0:28:00# Into misty clouds of autumn grey
0:28:00 > 0:28:04# As I sit here looking at the street
0:28:04 > 0:28:07# Little figures, quickly moving feet
0:28:07 > 0:28:10# I'm just a pebble on the beach
0:28:10 > 0:28:14# And I sit and wonder why
0:28:14 > 0:28:18# Little people are running around
0:28:18 > 0:28:25# Never knowing why
0:28:27 > 0:28:30# Life is just a precious minute, baby
0:28:30 > 0:28:34# Open up your eyes and see it, baby
0:28:34 > 0:28:37# Give yourself a better chance because
0:28:37 > 0:28:42# Time will pass you
0:28:42 > 0:28:46# Right on by
0:28:46 > 0:28:52# Time, time is going to pass you by so quickly
0:28:52 > 0:28:55# And it waits for no man
0:28:58 > 0:29:02# This big, old world is spinning like a top
0:29:02 > 0:29:06# Come and help me while we make it stop... #
0:29:06 > 0:29:09Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd