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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. 

** We regret to inform you that Little Bob's London date has been postponed until the spring. (Bob had a bad fall in Le Harve yesterday and broke his arm in two places). **

Legendary French rockers Little Bob Story see their classic 1977 album "Off The Rails" reissued this month and to celebrate, their frontman plays a super-rare London show with his new band Little Bob Blues Bastards at the 100 Club.

Where soul and R&B are concerned, Ace’s mostly male A&R team makes make no secret of its total admiration for the music of the fairer sex. We like to release as much of it as we can, as often as we can. If you don’t believe us, take an in depth look at the Ace website or our printed catalogue. You’ll find the titles of dozens of great compilations by some of soul’s foremost females from the past 50 years. That great declaration of admiration made by the Impressions and Jerry Butler almost 50 years ago is as true today as it was in the mid-60s – “The Woman’s Got Soul”.

The women we love recorded up north, down south and from coast to coast – as can be seen from the cross-section of releases just across the page – and always with an excellence to match and often exceed their male counterparts. There are no two ways about it, when it comes to singing about “the good, the bad, the hurt”, women have never been the weaker sex in soul music.

We could probably fill a whole edition of Sure Shots with fantastic packages by our soul girls, and still have plenty left over for the next one. Rather than do that, we’ll tantalise you with a representative selection, and leave the rest of the voyage of discovery to you. It doesn’t matter if you prefer your lady soulsters to sound sweet’n’teeny like Nella Dodds, sassy’n’saucy like Millie Jackson or gritty’n’gospel like Mitty Collier, we definitely have lots to suit you.

Let’s hear it for the girls!

Joe Bihari’s death on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 88, now leaves Art Rupe and Phil Chess as the sole survivors of a unique group of post-war independent record men. Their efforts created a body of music which remains a major influence on popular music.

(17 June 1957 - 8 October 2013)

Johnny Jukebox has smashed his last Telecaster through the television screen.

56 is no age to be dying. With Philip’s sad and sadly not unexpected death we sorely miss the old man he should have become and who would undoubtedly have continued to exercise his active and enquiring mind with such passion, purpose and humanity.