SoulBoy

The first port of call for any aspiring SoulBoy or SoulGirl is the music. The music is at the centre of this whole movement, inspired its creation and has kept its fans faithful and dancing for decades.

The SoulBoy soundtrack is a good place to start if you want to hear some classic Northern Soul tracks. There are also a number of compilations out there to choose from to get the feel of the Northern Soul sound, such as The Complete Introduction To Northern Soul, The Best Northern Soul All Nighter…Ever and the four part journey that is The Story of Northern Soul. Each Volume is named after an influential Northern Soul club.

But as any SoulBoy will tell you Northern Soul is all about the vinyl. Online record shops such as Chapman Records, John Manship Records and the Northern Soul Scene EBay shop offer a wide selection of Northern Soul vinyl and are a good place to start. Or try visiting your local record shop and browse their Soul section. Good reading on the favored Northern Soul records is Kev Robert’s book The Northern Soul Top 500, which collates the top 500 most collectable Northern Soul records.

There are also a number of soul forums – the largest being Soul Source where you can chat with Soul enthusiasts, many who have been involved in the Northern Soul scene since the 60s and 70s and read about tracks they recommend.

The best way to hear the music though is to get out to events and dance and socialise with other soul enthusiasts (there are also record bars at many soul all nighters where people buy and sell vinyl).

Dress Like a SoulBoy or SoulGirl

As you may have noticed in the film there are some key items to the SoulBoy (and SoulGirl) style.

A holdall. SoulBoys would carry these to all nighters holding things they would need such as a change of clothes, a change of shoes, drinks etc. Brands such as Addidas, Gola and Lonsdale among others still produce retro style holdalls. Various retro shops, including Pop Boutique stock retro style holdalls bearing the Northern Soul symbol.

Oxford Bags. Oxford bags are the style of trouser worn by many men at the Casino. They are characterized by their high waist and loose fitting baggy form with a particularly wide leg. On the soul scene they were often referred to as Spencers as many people purchased their trousers from Spencers trousers who are still making trousers today.

Circle Skirts were favoured by the girls at the Casino as they are great for doing those spins!

Other must have items are:
Bowling shirts, vests with the racer back, soul club patches to decorate you holdall and vest with and leather shoes for less friction.

For the production of SoulBoy, the costume department went direct to shoemaker Loake, whose Royal Brogues and Loafers were the chosen footwear of the northern soul crowd. Loake kindly provided the shoes for the Ace Movers in the film, and with the northern soul scene still going strong, they started reproducing these specially constructed Goodyear welted, leather-soled shoes t to allow dancers, in the words of Dexie, ‘glide like you’re on ice’.

For that 1970s SoulBoy look there are numerous vintage shops and not to mention charity shops scattered around the country for you to rummage in for those fashion gems of the past.

Vintage shops such as Beyond Retro, Best Vintage, Cow, and Pop Boutique have shops in different UK locations.

There is also an online clothing store dedicated to selling fashions of the Northern Soul scene. Take a look at Soul Clobber.

You can also find special SoulBoy holdalls, polo shirts, patches and various other items of clothing and accessories on the SoulBoy mercrhandise page.

Northern Soul Events

The northern soul scene is still thriving today. As the youth of the 60's and 70's continue to promote, collect and dance to the music they love, younger generations have found the scene and have also begun to promote and dj.

Soul Source has a calendar of events  which is a great source for keeping up to date with events, however below is a brief selection of regular notable events:

All nighters – in keeping with the Northern Soul tradition of all nighters at clubs like The Twisted Wheel and The Wigan Casino, notable current all nighters are the The 6T’s Rhythm and Soul Society which has been running all nighters since 1979 and the Kings Hall all nighter in Stoke on Trent, which resembles the legendary Wigan Casino to such an extent that the casino scenes for SoulBoy were shot here.

Weekenders – all nighters left soul enthusiasts wanting more so a number of Weekender events were formed such as the Prestatyn Soul Weekender and the 6T’s Weekender.