Results for “THE”

Ace were rooting for Phill's team last night on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Although always impeccably dressed, there was something about his outfit last night that really stood out.... 

Andy Crofts is the singer, songwriter and guitarist in The Moons, a Northampton and Kettering five piece founded in 2007. The Moons are known for heading a return to classic songwriting, mixing Beatleish melodies with Kinksy guitars on their smashing March 2010 debut album "Life On Earth", an indie Top 30 hit that spawned the four contagious singles 'Torn Between Two', 'Nightmare Day', 'Let It Go and Everyday Heroes'. Other influences include Brian Wilson, The Coral, Joe Meek, The Doors and Buzzcocks. The group are currently in Edwyn Collins’ West Heath Yard studio recording their second record. Fans of the band already include Paul Weller, The Kinks’ Dave Davies, The Bees, Richard Hawley and The Coral. Andy also plays keyboards in Paul Weller’s band.

1998

The “Miami Rockabilly” CD finally appeared from the glades, with its tale of a ‘Knocked Out Joint On Mars’ from Buck Trail and Curley Jim with ‘The Rock’n’Roll Itch’ — boy, is he anxious to tell us all about it. Screamin’ rockabilly from the bastard offspring of the Memphis Flash. Well worth the wait. Later in the year, Benny Joy “Crashed The Rockabilly Party” with very distinct versions of the album’s title track and dance hall perennial ‘Spin The Bottle’. The records were originally on Antler, a label owned by Platters manager Buck Ram.

Back in the day no black American ever said, “Let’s make a record for all those upcoming teens in the north of England who in a few years will like dancing to uptempo soul while bombed on speed”. Admittedly a few “tailor-mades” did happen but these were a mere footnote to a scene that spent its life scouring record lists, oldies shops, auctions, warehouses and lofts for the next big sound.

Northern Soul is any record that has been played at a Northern Soul dance. That is a ridiculously large number of recordings that stretch from the late 50s to the present day and can vary between Charles Sheffield’s 1961 R&B mover ‘It’s Your Voodoo Working’ to some recent housey thing by Bob Sinclair called ‘Tribute’. The epitome of Northern Soul is 1965-66 uptempo Motown such as ‘It’s The Same Old Song’ by the Four Tops. It has the tempo, the production and Levi Stubbs’ emotion-drenched voice telling us how his girl has legged it; misery often features in the happiest sounding songs. Motown was the benchmark of this music but it was the following crowd that aped their sound and came up with myriad variations that are the essence of Northern.

Take ‘That Beatin’ Rhythm’ by Richard Temple on Mirwood, for many the first Northern label. It wasn’t released in theUKin the 60s and did not reach these shores until the early 70s. Some keen English youth would have found a copy on a US sales list, or in a UK junk shop that a few imports had sidled into, played it at his local club and created a stir. When the big-time DJs got to hear about it, the sharpest and richest charmed it into his own DJ box and regaled the eager dancers at the biggest club of the day, thereby creating a monster sound. It got bootlegged and even legally reissued, sold in the tens of thousands and can still be heard at venues every weekend around the now global Northern Soul world. The sound later embraced 70s shufflers, big-beat ballads, some Latin boogaloo and R&B stompers but it’s that mid-60s sophisticated soul with the on-the-fours beat that is the bedrock. 

Arthur Mathews has written for television since the early 1990s. Among the shows he has created and/or written (many with co-writer Graham Linehan) are Toast of London, Paris, Father Ted, Hippies, Big Train, The All New Alexei Sayle Show, Brass Eye, Harry Enfield and Chums, The Fast Show, Black Books and The Eejits. He has written a ‘bogus memoir’, Well Remembered Days, as well as The Craggy Island Parish Newsletters, Father Ted - The Complete Scripts (with Graham Linehan) and The Book Of Poor Ould Fellas (with Declan Lynch). As a cartoonist he contributed Doctor Crawshaft's World Of Pop to the New Musical Express and The Chairman to the Observer Sport Monthly. In the theatre, he created the long-running musical I, Keano. His film Wide Open Spaces was released in 2009 and he has recently cowritten (with Paul Woodful) the sitcom Val Falvey starring Ardal O'Hanlon.