Tonight we revisit memories born in the smoke and sweat of the
cool mod clubs of the 1960s. Everyone of us carries a story
carved out of those nights, and tonight this one is mine.
I'm sure you all have a tell to tell about your experience of
the Northern scene. Well, this is mine and it was
way before the torch, the Wigan Casino and the Blackpool Mecca.
It goes right back to 1967. What we're?
Going to do right here is go back way back back into time.
If you think you can hurt me just by running all round round
round. If you think you can break my
heart just by putting me down down, down.
And if you think that you can make me cry and leave me all
alone and down, I've got this for you.
I've got this for you. I've got this for you.
And if you think about the love, I'll make you happy.
And if you think I'm not a love baby, it's gonna be true.
Yeah. And when you find yourself, I
don't know, thinking there's a place for you back home.
But I've got news for you. News for you.
I've got news for you. And in the morning, when you
look, nobody's going to be there.
Here comes the birthday. This time you're going to pay.
You're going to pay.
Yeah. And where you find yourself all
alone, thinking there's a place for you back home.
I've got news for you, News for you.
I've got news for you. You can't help me no more, baby,
I've got news for you. Oh baby, I've got news for.
Being a teenager in Manchester in the 1960s, music was
everywhere. Pouring out of shop doorways,
transistor radios, passing cars. It was part of everyday life.
I enjoyed all kinds of music, but you never forget the first
soul record that you heard. A friend of mine had a older
brother and to us he was a proper DJ.
He had double decks, lights and a crate full of imported
records, music that hadn't travelled across town but across
the Atlantic. One night he took us along to
one of his gigs. It was a church hall, not
upstairs, this was down in the basement.
Low ceiling echo on the walls, that familiar dam smell and
something in the air. Then the music hit.
Got to find somebody, got to find somebody, got to find
somebody. But I could never, never, never.
No, we don't come back here. None.
There was Motown loud. Proper loud.
The sound of Motown Records bouncing off those walls like it
belonged there. I was only 15, probably too
young if we're honest. It was meant to be a 16 to 18
year old knight. There was no alcohol, no
distractions, just music and a room full of people completely
lost in it. Proper dancing, not posing, not
shuffling, but movement with intent.
Every beat felt and every note lived.
And those voices, those black American voices coming through
the speakers at full volume. In my shoes this her side is too
much for me. Just walk in my shoes.
You see I love the love it used to be Try my hearty go ahead and
try it on the side. Just walk in my shoes and you'll
see through someone else's eye what you've done to me.
You have my love when you walk down and I just can't get myself
together anymore. I need a new love that we have.
Don't you walk in my shoes? Walk in my shoes and I play You
remember where? Just walk in my shoes.
What you say you want my love again.
Try on each new day. Welcome to rolling inside the
world. Just walk in my shoes and to see
how much I love you. So walk in my shoes.
Walk in my shoe what you've done to me.
You are all when you walk down and I just can't get myself
together anymore. To me and me, the love that we
have. Why don't you walk a walk, a
walk in my shoe. Walk in my eyes and I'll tell
you remember when and then the shoe fence.
What if you send you are not there again.
Walk in my shoe. Walk in my shoe.
The funny thing is I heard that track by the Magnificent Men,
just walking my shoes, which is a cover of the terrific Gladys
Knight and the Pips song, and it just filled the room.
In fact, the room, it just owned it.
And I remember asking the DJ, which was my friend's older
brother, what is this music? He just said it's so Colin and
it makes you feel good and that was it just.
Because you've got a problem let you know you've got to face.
Keep on moving girl. You can't stop now 'cause the
world is a happy place and you try and work out every angle,
knowing that you didn't succeed. Your love turned you down.
You're upside down. Sooner later, baby, you'll see
in dark, Miss, I'll bring you light, help you to see into the
night, show you a world to journey, to live the dream of
tomorrow for you, we go to the sunshine girl.
Open up your heart, we go to the sunshine girl.
Rise to a brand new * You think that you're all alone in a world
I've hurt again. Believe in me.
Take my hand together, we'll chase away pain.
You need a helping hand because you feel that you can't.
Go on baby, I'll be there. So take that stand.
Just remember to look for the dawn in darkness.
I'll bring your light, have you to see into the night, show you
a world to journey to. There's a dream of tomorrow for
you. Wake up to the sunshine girl.
Opening up your heart. Wake up to the sunshine girl.
A rise to a brand new *. As you cross through life's
horizon, there's a rainbow of happiness, and for all the pain
and all the hurt, there's a pot of gold you possess.
When you're given to the one you love, you'll be able to gaze at
the sunrise. You'll feel the warmth and all
the love he has shining through his eyes in darkness.
I'll bring your light through the sea into the night, Show you
a world to journey to. There's a dream tomorrow for
you. Wake up to the sunshine girl,
open up your heart. Wake up to the sunshine girl.
Rise to a brand new * We go to the sunshine girl.
Open up your heart. In the area I used to live, the
place to go for Seoul, in those days especially, Nor the Seoul
was a place called the Bird Cage, and it had its own
reputation. A proper local hotspot with the
sound always on point and the crowd knew exactly why they were
there. Different nights, different DJs,
but the same energy. That feeling of everyone chasing
the next record, the next moment and the next dance floor high.
It wasn't just another club, it was part of the circuit and if
you were into Seoul in that area, you ended up there sooner
or later. The.
The.
Now by the time I started work and college on a day release, I
began meeting people who felt the same way about music as I
did, and that's when things really started to take shape.
There was Eddie now. Eddie was soul man.
He had the Crombie coat, the two toned trousers Bros you could
see your face in, and always sharp, always with his
girlfriend Adele. But more than the clothes, Eddie
knew his records and he introduced me to a place called
the Bower Club. And those Northern Soul Knights
there, they were electric. Baby, don't leave me.
If you do, you break my heart into nothing.
You is my life. If you leave, you'll take my
life with you. My baby, don't leave me.
You were satisfied. Baby, don't leave me.
Baby, tell me why. Baby don't leave me.
After all we've been through and I'll die.
But now you're saying we are through.
And baby, if you leave me be like a child without his toy,
baby don't leave me. You take away the life that I am
gone. And really, you've got to
realise that that particular time the Twisted Wheel was still
going in Manchester, Wigan Casino hadn't yet become what it
would be and the torch was still on the horizon.
But inside the Bower Club, we had everything we needed.
There was a dance floor, a sound system and records that really
meant something. We'd dance, we'd talked, we
swapped stories about imports, who'd found what, where it came
and how rare it was, and everyone claimed they'd got a
bargain. Northern Soul really wasn't
about charts. It was about discovery.
Ownership of a sound, your sound.
And somewhere in all of that, a thought took hold.
One day maybe I want to be up there behind the decks.
Then came 1974 you. Are my sunshine, you are my you
are my happiness, you are my faith.
Don't ever need. If you believe me, it would all
obey. I'd go inside it for you.
All my everything. Everything, everything,
sweetheart. You, You are everything.
You are everything. Your eyes are my eyes.
Without you, how could I see? Without your shoulder to lean on
long, what would I be? Don't deceive me.
Please don't deceive me. My heart would be a day.
I'd never be the stable man for you.
All my everything. Hey you all my heart.
You're my daughter, you're my mother, you're my mother, you're
my sister, you're my brother. And I've never, never, ever done
you. You are my everything.
The Showman and your Everything Now 1974 was a huge year for the
northern scene and a life changing one for me because this
was the year it all became real. I started D Jing at the Power
Club, I was working at the Cavern and also the famous soul
seller. I was doing cabaret clubs and
working with artists like Jimmy James, Edwin Starr and JJ
Barnes. From watching it to living it
from the edge of the dance floor to right in the centre of it
all. And also 1974 saw the launch of
Piccadilly Radio, Manchester's first commercial radio station.
And through connections, I found myself invited onto the Late
Show talking about soul music. I was sitting in a studio,
microphone live, going out across the city.
The show was hosted by a guy called James Stanage.
He was very controversial, but he had more listeners than
anyone else. And there I was talking about
music that has started in a basement.
Sadly, I heard he passed away just a couple of weeks ago.
And it makes you stop and think because people like that were
part of the story. Hey girl, I want you to know I'm
going to miss you so much if you go.
And hey girl, I tell you no lie. Something deep inside of me is
going to die if you say so. If this is goodbye, Oh hey girl,
this can't be too. How am I supposed to exist
without you? Hey girl, now don't put me on.
What's going to happen to me when you're gone?
How will I live? How can I go?
Hey girl, now sit yourself down.
I'm I'm not the same to get down on the ground and beg you to
stay. Don't go.
And also in 1974, we also opened our family record shop, and
really that just changed everything.
Instead of chasing records, they were coming to us.
Boxes of imports arriving, unknown labels on her tracks,
people coming in asking what's new, what works.
And there you are behind the counter, giving recommendations
with confidence because belief mattered.
The record shop quickly became its own world.
And it wasn't just a business, it was a meeting point.
People just didn't come in to buy records.
They came in to talk about them, argue about them and discover
them. Sometimes they'd stop mid step
when something came on and just say what's that.
And that question never got old. That was the whole point.
And I want to be honest, I never heard Do I love you?
Indeed I do. By Frank Wilson in any of the
clubs on any nights I ever went out.
It was so rare. It just wasn't around on the
floor to the places that I went to.
But now when you watch TV documentaries, it's always
there, almost as though it was played every night.
And the truth is, it wasn't like that in real time.
That's the difference between living the scene and looking
back at it. Back then.
It was about what worked in the room in that moment, and really
that's what made it real. The feeling is real.
I can't conceive. The pain in my heart keeps
telling me to quit. But why are you trying to keep
us apart? You breaking my heart, Breaking
my heart. You don't love me, but what can
I do? The love in my heart keeps
crying hard for you. But why are you trying to keep
us apart? You're breaking my heart,
breaking my heart. Ever seen in life that you
cannot miss something? Or sometimes looking back at the
things that you miss and the feel feeling is just as bad in
their sympathy. And I'm so pity and deep in your
heart. I pray there's some for me.
So please stop trying to keep us apart.
You're breaking my heart, breaking my heart.
You're breaking my heart, baby. Don't break my heart.
You're breaking my heart, darling.
Don't break my heart. You're breaking my.
Heart. And that's where we leave it
tonight on the Secret Soul Saturday.
From stompers to sleepers, from rare custard dance floor
killers. That's the sound and that's the
feeling and that's what it's always been about.
No headlines needed, no myths or rewrites of history.
Just records, clubs, people and that moment when the beat takes
over. If you've been there, you know
exactly what I mean. And if you haven't, well, maybe
tonight you have a taste. Until the next time, bye bye.
Gotta try to forget her fire cool hard on me some get a new
faces gonna take them, step them up and they said got to get that
way, get away. Cool, I'm the old man.
To a strange neighbourhood. Never thought I would be
misunderstood. Wanna leave those memories
behind me? Wanna go somewhere they'll never
find me? Got to get away.
Get away. Good, I'm the old neighbour who
oh she you are true life and within my heart my life and
someone. Now I look, I've got to be going
before I'm not looking on the edition.
We've got to live away and the only move?