Beginnings

Well, where to start. The only way we can do this is to think back to the beginnings of soul in the town as I remember it. Some of the people in this brief history may disagree with some of the detail, but if you remember it differently, tell me, and I will put it right.

A number of older lads in the town had started to travel to exotically-named places called "The Wheel", "The Torch", "Va-Va" and "The Catacombs", and the music they heard there began to be loaded into local youth club and pub jukeboxes, and influence the playlists of the local discos and nightclubs, normally due to soulies taking their precious records with them and asking the DJ to "here, play this, mate".

This started a following among our age group (albeit only a couple of years younger, but too young), who started travelling to northern soul venues about the time of the Wigan Casino First Anniversary in 1974, and the craze rapidly spread throughout the town. I personally remember being involved with one of the first pure northern soul events at the Hinckley Constitutional Club, which showcased the talents of Paul Rudzitis of Leicester's Centre Soul Club.

After this, northern soul became a regular feature of the social calendar in the town. Most of the 16-20 age group became involved in one way or another, as playing northern soul became part of any disco playlist. Given the eventual commercial exposure of northern soul on TV programs such as Top Of The Pops due to the horrendous re-hashes of "Footsee" and "Ski-ing In The Snow" entering the Top 40 Chart, it became the "in thing".

Learn the rest of the story in detail by navigating through the Local Venues and National Venues sections, get involved in the Social section, listen to some tunes in the Tunes section and perhaps even have a bit of a giggle at a few old photos in the Gallery!