Glasgow Mods - R&B, British Beat Music, Motown, Northern Soul

“Think fast, faster and off the Richter scale,” Mr. Roberts said of the preferred beats. Neil Jones, who is a D.J. for Northern Soul events in London, joked that the frenetic dance style resembled “a combination of 19th-century Negro culture and martial arts.”

Competing to unearth new singles that would keep the kids hopping, the early D.J.’s sowed the seeds for a vintage record-collecting craze that makes a Northern Soul event as much a swap meet as a dance party. Displaying a British obsessiveness, fans avoid well-known artists and hits for obscure singers and rare B-sides. Groups whose names would ring few bells with soul fans in the United States — the Vel-Vets, the Tomangoes, Nosmo King, the Skull Snaps — dominate Mr. Roberts’s collectors’ guide, “Northern Soul Top 500,” published in 2000. He conceded that though the list includes many underappreciated gems, there is also “some real garbage” that deserves its obscurity. At record fairs and on eBay, rare singles have fetched up to $25,000.

In addition to the Fabulous Soul Shakers, live acts included Archie Bell and the Drells and three Philadelphia soul singers — Ronnie Walker, Charles Mintz and Bobby Cutchins — who are relative unknowns in the United States but have huge followings among Northern Soul fans. In their own way the Fabulous Soul Shakers can also be said to be keeping the faith. They have all become devotees through singing the old repertory. “The singers drive the music, not vice versa,”

“For the artist singing the song, it was all about passion. Not like music today that’s all about the beat and electronics.”

“Today’s music is just drums,” he said dismissively. “What’s hot about it?” As for rap, he said: “It’s just ignorant. And full of self-hatred.”

The full article can be found here British Pilgrims’ Grail