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The History of Wigan Casino and Northern Soul

Final

One night outside the casino I noticed a tv crew from ITV (Granada), cameras filming the line up of soulies along staion rd waiting for the doors to open for the casino, a lot of us where shouting piss off to the crew and shove your cameras up your arse. That moment suddenly dawned on me that our wonderful underground scene excluding the local drug squad of course had exposed the northern soul scene this night to the rest of the UK and eventually the world. The cameras finally entered inside the club and paraded around filming the dancers on the floor and we all know what became of the documentary once ITV had finished with it, its not hard to find on youtube and anyone can view it with a flick of the mouse. Never too sure what if it did any harm but the product became a marketing tool for too bit so called soul singers mainly white, re-released records played on radio 1 etc and finally top of the pops with some of our very own Wigans chosen few. My opinion is the Casino began to die after this and most of the original members moved on to lessor well known venues with djs still playing the music of the early days plus some recent modern stuff which to me was refreshing. Occasionally I would still go to the casino say once a month and it still had a great atmosphere, I would still meet people from all over the UK who had become freinds over the years. In 1981 the year it finally closed its doors for the last time I finally made the move to Sydney Australia, not because the casino shut but Thatcher did a good job of putting everyone out of work and I thought a change as good as a rest. 12,000 miles away from Wigan its now 2011 and the northern soul in Australia is massive. Ex Brits, some in their late 40s, I call them the young uns, my lot in their 50s and would you beleive many in their 60,s dancing like it was yesterday. My good mate here said to me one night, you can take everything I own and I would not give a fuck but take my Northern soul away and my life will end. Life is magic with northern soul may it continue for ever. KTF