The Junction Disco

Based in the Youth Centre located in the grounds of the Hinckley Technical College, the Junction Disco was a Friday night event, run by three older (in my eyes at the time) blokes named Mick Carson, "Plum" Robinson and Rob Furborough. Mick was an ardent deep soul fan, being passionately interested in artists like Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight, Otis Redding and the like, Plum was a general soul fan, and Rob had just discovered northern soul. The music was mainly commercial soul and reggae, and unknown to most of us at the time, a considerable amount of northern soul. Fridays were always well attended, most of the punters being 16 or thereabouts. The Philly Sound was in vogue, as were "penny round" Ben Shermans, "Rupert" trousers and "Skinners" jeans. Pop and crisps were the order of the day.

The disco came about as something to do on Fridays. The Junction used to open on Tuesdays and Thursdays as a youth club, and on Fridays there was little to do for the under-eighteens, as the local nightclubs had a strict over-eighteens only policy. The disco was built (literally) by Mick, Plum and Rob, and from the start was instantly successful. Heavily into standards of the day, reggae classics like "The Liquidator" and "Wet Dream" would always initiate the original form of line dancing, mainly by ex-skinheads. Motown played a big part, as did the up-and-coming Philly Sound. Slowly though, a new style of music started to be played, featuring artists that had never been played at local discos before. Major Lance had recently released the now classic album "Live At The Torch", and the classic track "Ain't No Soul" became a standard. Jimmy James - "A Man Like Me" and The Contours - "Baby, Hit And Run" were soon as popular as The Supreme's - "Baby Love".

One night, Rob Furborough played this strange record with a big hole in the middle that stopped everyone dead... The Righteous Brothers - "Rat Race". The older lads in the youth club were dancing to it in this strange, shuffling way, on their own! Next came Dean Parrish -"I'm On My Way" and I remember standing there, completely mesmerised along with a good few others. Northern soul became a fascination, the younger people like myself not fully understanding exactly what it was and what it was all about. And of course, you had to be part of the "In Crowd" (pun intended) to be in the know. Gossip had it that there was this club in Stoke-On-Trent that was playing this strange soul music, and people were travelling all the way there just for a disco! And it started after midnight? Nah, can't be right!

It also became apparent that these "all night discos" sold cloth badges that were worn with pride, announcing very clearly that you had actually been to the venue, as they could only be bought at the venue. Many a Torch and Va Va badge were seen, and not to be outdone, the Junction Disco came up with it's own. In terms of rarity nowadays, I wonder if one of these is worth a few bob!