S18 E24 • Northern Soul (Keep the Faith)

Northern Soul marked the birth of late-night dance culture in Britain. Paul Mason, economics journalist and once a regular at the famous 'all-nighters' at Wigan Casino, discovers the origin of this underground music scene and why it continues to inspire such devotion. Many of the songs that eventually became Northern Soul classics were once rejected or unreleased. Recorded in the 1960s by African-American artists attempting to replicate the successful Motown sound, these discarded tracks would later be rediscovered and revered by white working-class dancers and music fans in the north of England. Paul Mason tells the extraordinary story of Northern Soul and the dance culture that sprang up around it, influencing musicians, choreographers and filmmakers and growing into a global phenomenon.