DOC A Jacobean Company and its Playhouse by Eva Griffith in Arts-Photography

Description

The story of Northern Soul is one of practically total immersion; dedication and devotion; where the plain concept of the lsquo;night outrsquo; was elevated to sacramental dimensions. Where devotees pushed their bodies; their finances and sometimes their minds to brutal and unforgiving extremes. For those who went through that involvement every test of faith or endurance was worth bearing.- From Northern Soul: An Illustrated History.lsquo;It was a drugs scene; it was a clothes scene. It was about dancing. It came out of this thing. It was about pills that made you go fast. To go fast to make the scene happen.rsquo; - Chris BrickIn the late 1960s; a form of dance music took a feverish hold on the UK; finding its heart in the north of England. The music of 1960s-70s black American soul singers combined with distinctive dance styles and plenty of amphetamines to create what became known as Northern Soul ndash; a scene based around all night; alcohol-free club nights; arranged by the fans themselves ndash; setting the blueprint for future club culture. Northern Soul tapped into a yearning for individual expression in northern teenagers; and exploded into a cultural phenomenon that influenced a generation of DJs; songwriters and designers for decades to come. Acclaimed photographer and director Elaine Constantine has brought the movement to life in her film Northern Soul ndash; and that film was the starting point for this book; Northern Soul: An Illustrated History.However; what started out as a project largely comprising of Constantinersquo;s stunning on-set photography; featuring her young; talented cast and highly authentic production; has turned into a unique illustrated history of Northern Soul. In its final form; the beautiful new photography holds the book together thematically; but its real depth lies in the material from the 1960s; 1970s and 1980s that Elaine and Gareth have researched and pulled together. Of course; no book can claim to represent everything about a culture. But Northern Soul: An Illustrated History concentrates on individualsrsquo; personal stories from that heady era; as well as being crammed full of truly atmospheric contemporaneous photography ndash; not from press photographers; but from the kids themselves. Be it snaps of soul fans in car parks; hitching a lift or mucking around in photo booths; the combination of real people plus real (and often very dramatic) stories ndash; not to mention the complete absence of label scans and DJrsquo;s top tens ndash; means that the book stands out as a very different proposition from anything yet published on Northern Soul. We would like to think that above all; this book attempts to give you a feel for what it was really like to be there at the time.