Young Soul Rebels: A Personal History of Northern Soul - Softcover

Stuart Cosgrove

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846973333 ISBN 13: 9781846973338

Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited, 2016

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PENDERYN MUSIC PRIZE 2017

'Nothing will ever compare to the amphetamine rush of my young life and the night I was nearly buggered by my girlfriend s uncle in the Potteries ...' The opening line of Stuart Cosgrove's Young Soul Rebels sets up a compelling and intimate story of northern soul, Britain's most fascinating musical underground scene, and takes the reader on a journey into the iconic clubs that made it famous The Twisted Wheel, The Torch, Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca and Cleethorpes Pier the bootleggers that made it infamous, the splits that threatened to divide the scene, the great unknown records that built its global reputation and the crate-digging collectors that travelled to America to unearth unknown sounds.

The book sweeps across fifty years of British life and places the northern soul scene in a social context: the rise of amphetamine culture, the policing of youth culture, the north-south divide, the decline of coastal Britain, the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry, the rise of Thatcherism, the miners strike, the rave scene and music in the era of the world wide web. Books have been written about northern soul before but never with the same erudition and passion. Young Soul Rebels nails a scene that is as popular today as it was in its heyday in the 1970s.

Review:

'Sheer poetry . . . it truly is a personal history, but it weaves its way through our own history as well. Buy the book, you won't regret it' --Dave Rimmer, soul-source.co.uk

'A thoughtful and impassioned memoire, complete with sociopolitical analysis' --Herald

'it simply scintillates' ***** - Record Collector

'an enjoyable account of the northern soul scene...It's not just first-hand memories here, we also get a detailed history from the scene's root to the present day...fascinating' ****

--Mojo

About the Author:

Stuart Cosgrove, originally from Perth, was a fanzine writer on the northern soul scene before joining the black music paper Echoes, as a staff writer. He became media editor with the NME and a feature writer for a range of newspapers and magazines. A graduate of Hull University, he completed a PhD in modern American theatre history. In 2005 he was named Broadcaster of the Year in the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards and in 2012 he won numerous awards including a BAFTA and Royal Television Society award for Channel 4's coverage of the London Paralympics 2012.

• Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1846973333
• ISBN 13: 9781846973338
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Illustrator: Cover Photograph Taken By Brian Cannon