There has been a lot of documentaries about northern soul made, but not many are very good or interesting. And don't even get me started on the movies...Soul Boy might have been fun in it's own way, but let's be honest: it is basically just Saturday Night Fever with better music and set in a dead end town in north England during the early 70's. That being said I do have some hope in the new Northern Soul - The Film, which premieres october 17th this year...but more about that one in a later post.
This documentary, called Way Of The Crowd, is however one of the better I've seen on the subject. Clocking in at a little over 40 minutes it features not only interviews with some of the original faces from the scene (some well known, some not so well known) and a lot of great dancing as well as (naturally) good music, but it also contains some footage from the heydays which at least I had not seen before (combined with the usual footage from Wigan Casino that seems to be in every documentary about northern soul ever made of course). You even get some interviews with a few of the original artists that were brought out of obscurity by the northern soul explosion.
All of this, combined with the fact that it actually tells the history of northern soul as well as explains (or at least tries to explain) the movements cultural roots, development, all of the things it started and influenced (DJing, disco, breakdancing etc) and where it stands today makes it well worth watching whether you are a true aficionado or just wonder "northern soul - what?".
Song of the day:
Evie Sands - Picture Me Gone
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