upon first hearing about the “northern soul movement ” ,I was baffled as a ‘merican  living in london…because  1. I had been to the north, to manchestor  and although -down to earth and friendly….where was this  SOULFUL music they used to make here?  what happened to it ?   After some time,it finally made sense what NORTHERNSOUL was. They had been dancing to vintage   U.S. northern soul I grew up hearing.  A wise man once told me ” the Britts are the librarians of the world”.   ( to u.k. readers:  start your american jokes now) on a side note abt. connotation confusion : when i first heard a newscaster mention  ”guerilla warfare” i wondered…”you mean ,planet of the apes  was real?!!!” and they are in  el salvador. oh dear.back to my post:

  soon, i saw a short  film clip ( too short) which showed the level of skills these northern soul  dancers had. everyone  took pride in working their body to the maximum and dancing together ( i dont mean partner dancing just interacting while your’e doing your own thing )  2.  People in the U.K. actually  do know how to dance ( or did) . During the decade i lived there, I was a fish out of water ,because everytime i turned my back on the dj and tried to interact with a dancer ( ny style) I could tell it made folks uncomfortable . They seemed to prefer to be in a huddled mass swaying back and forth ,facing the dj ,like zombies. a true phenomenon. I used to think they were “dancing inside” as I knew their passion for music was high, but could not figure out the lack of dance expression.  when me and my friends would dance up a storm, we were  looked at as show-offs or pushed once our backs were turned on more than one occasion.  what a culture shock.  The gay clubs were more extroverted , however in the 90’s up until approx 1997…the gay scene had deplorable taste in music…preferring boybands and the spice girls before they found their new calling in 98’ when  nag nag nag and  several punky high energy clubs suddenly opened up with enough originality in music  and punky  ( not punk at all)  energy  that they impacted producers worldwide and electroclash gave direction to the dancefloor and pop radio. Finally , the gay clubs were drawing straight kids into their promoted events . ( like NY had always been ) .It was exciting , but still…awkward dancing at best. and Raves….forget about it…..UK raves had the tackiest dancers on stage with cheesy  zirconia routines ( atleast the ones i saw)  instead of the natural free styling dancers i was used to back home in small ny clubs and at u.s. raves.  i am  excited for this movie and think I’ll want to dance while watching it…  because …I grew up listening to this music from my mom’s inspiring stack of party records, many were rare 45’s. I need to SEE these music lovers DANCING  their asses off to  soul music recorded by live musicians with chord changes , bridges , breaks , often orchestrated- all what’s missing from 99% of todays new dance music . It seems obvious that without these dedicated northern soul dancers …Raves would not have existed on the huge scale that they did in the U.K. when loving DANCE  was taken to that level , of dancing for 5-6 hours a night with 10,000 others. I’d love to get reactions from real northern soul clubbers about this movie. This is their era.  They cherished those nites. those nites belong to them. we are just the inspired. -lady miss kier…www.ladykier.com

thanks for letting me know about this  chilenavalleygirl:

finally a northern soul movie!!!