A New Northern Soul?

Northern Soul is pretty much one of my favourite things ever. The music itself is amazing, obviously, but the whole story around it is brilliant too. If you broke the history of Northern Soul down into a timeline, it would look like this:

THE SIXTIES - Some people in America make some brilliant pop songs that for one reason or another get completely ignored on their release and are largely forgotten about.

THE SEVENTIES - Some people in Wigan discover said brilliant pop songs and start playing them in nightclubs in Wigan. Everybody in the north becomes obsessed with obscure long-lost American pop music.

How amazing is that? You literally couldn't make it up. Men used to sprinkle the dancefloor with talcum powder and then go and do ridiculously complicated dance routines. DJs would go over to America to find 'new' tracks, bring them back and then to stop their rival DJs from seeing what they were called and stealing them, they would cover up the names of the songs on the records when they were playing them. Amazing.

My favourite Northern Soul song is either Out On The Floor by Dobie Gray or The Snake by Al Wilson. Or Sweet Talkin' Guy by The Chiffons. Or the original version of Tainted Love by Gloria Jones.

Anyway, it got me thinking, it would be incredible if something similar happened these days. I would love it if all there was a club playing all the best overlooked pop gems from the last few years. I'd be there with a whole bloody vat of talcum powder.

Here are some songs that would be playing.

Scooch - More Than I Needed To Know

Annie - Chewing Gum

Aly and AJ - The Potential Break-Up Song

Robbie Williams - Rudebox

All Saints - Chick Fit

Girls Aloud - Graffiti My Soul

Rachel Stevens - I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)

Natasha Bedingfield - I Wanna Have Your Babies

Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Today The Sun's On Us (This would have to be the last song of the night, during which everyone would cry themselves to death)

Ok, so not all of these songs are desperately obscure, and some of them were even actual hit singles, but I have never heard any of them in a club and I'm never likely to and that makes me a bit sad. I might even have to start it myself. I'll look into it.