Up The Junction

Up The Junction was a nightclub whose existance is ignored by many northern soul histories, but I have included it as it seems to me that the venue played a major part in the early days of the evolution of northern soul.

Based on South Street in Crewe, it was originally run by Ken Smith, and consisted of two rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs room was the main room, downstairs being smaller. It wasn't a particularly large venue, but what it lacked in size it made up for in music quality.

The naming of the club and a theme running through the whole venue is railways, probably due to Crewe being a major hub in the English rail network. The two rooms were named "Platform One" and "Platform Two" and as can be seen from the "timetable", initially hosted mainly live acts. Many a major artist appeared at the club, including Donnie Elbert, Doris Troy, Geno Washington, Inez and Charlie Foxx, Arthur Conley and Al Green.

The all-nighters began in 1970, and were a fortnightly event, running from 8:30pm on the Saturday until 8:30am on the Sunday. Once The Golden Torch began it's all-nighters in 1972, the Up The Junction all-nighters were scheduled to alternate with The Torch. The DJ team was headed up by Alan Day, aided and assisted by Tony Jebb, Ian 'Pep' Pereira and reportedly, Keith Minshull. Apparently, the DJ booth was something not unlike a space capsule or 'a modern day lift' above the dancefloor and had to be accessed via a ladder!

Top tunes at the time included:

While researching Up The Junction, we came across this quote from Michael Corrigan in a Soul Source Forum Thread.

In terms of personal experience I'd rate Up the Junction on a par with The Catacombs, The Torch, and Va-Vas. The dance floor was never less than busy and frequently frenetic. Above all else, there was an atmosphere that at that moment, at that place, a couple of hundred souls had gone to some trouble to celebrate music that struck such a chord, that there was nowhere else you would rather be.

And this one from 'Torch56'.

I only went the once and it was a time when, in my opinion, the standard of records played was rarely matched, but in terms of atmosphere and playlist, Up the Junction holds its own in terms of comparison with other, more iconic venues of the era.