I've met a few people over the years who used to go The Twisted Wheel in the 1960s, the original "northern soul" club, and they told me they used to call it "R&B" at the time - they've also told me that they used to play The Who, Small Faces, Booker T & The MGs, as well as Motown...Twisted Wheel, Golden Torch, Catacombs are the famous ones.
Yeah, but the garage stuff was in the mix from the late 60s throughout.
The Twisted Wheel started in 1963, one of the people who went around then told me that they were basically mods, wearing suits and swallowing pills ( they mentioned SFK as being the preferred brand - apparently some people would have "SFK" tattoos..) -Interesting.... Green Onions always seemed to be a big thing with mods etc
Yeah but this isn't northern soul, when did that start to become a thing?The Twisted Wheel started in 1963, one of the people who went around then told me that they were basically mods, wearing suits and swallowing pills ( they mentioned SFK as being the preferred brand - apparently some people would have "SFK" tattoos..) -
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Yeah but this isn't northern soul, when did that start to become a thing?
That makes sense to me, I think of it as more a 70s than 60s scene... but I'm prepared to be corrected.I think the Twisted Wheel DJs started playing the more obscure soul records about 1968, and by the time the Twisted Wheel closed in 1970 the hardcore would travel to the Golden Torch in Stoke - I think 1970 is when it first became known as "northern soul"
So even as early as 1977, "post-punk" was a word beginning to circulate.
I'm pretty sure no 6Ts band said "we are a freakbeat band" and Northern Soul was so called cos of where it was played... northern England. I think it was Dave Godin who kinda inadvertently named it.