Soulboy

Soulboys (sometimes spelled soul boys) were a working class English youth subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and fans of American soul and funk music. The subculture emerged in North-West England as northern soul event attendees began to take more interest in the modern funk and jazz funk sounds of artists such as Lonnie Liston Smith and Roy Ayers, instead of the obscure 1960s soul records that characterized the northern soul scene.

There was simultaneous development of the subculture at nightclubs in South East England, such as The Goldmine in Canvey Island and The Royalty in Southgate. DJs involved with the soulboy scene included Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent, Froggy, Greg Edwards, Pete Tong and Chris Bangs. Caister Soul Weekenders became one of the main features of the scene, and still exist today. The casual subculture that emerged in the 1980s was heavily influenced by the soulboys, including the sideways fringed wedge hairstyle. Although the soulboy scene was huge by the early 1980s, it was centred on American funk acts and was largely working class; therefore it received far less media coverage than more middle class youth cultures of the same period, notably the new romantics.

Soulboy (film)

Soulboy (previously given the working title Souled Out) is a 2010 British film directed by Shimmy Marcus about 17-year-old Joe McCain (Martin Compston) coming of age in 1974 amidst the northern soul scene. The film was shot in Stoke on Trent.

Plot

The film is set in Stoke-on-Trent in 1974. Joe McCain, 17 and restless, is bored with the flatline tedium of a life that seems like it's going nowhere, spending his Saturday nights in a dead pub called The Purple Onion and trying to rob the local fish and chip shop. However he then sees a beautiful woman in the street, and acting on impulse follows her into a record shop called Dee Dees Discs, where he finds out that one of her main interests is soul music and dancing at weekends at the Wigan Casino - the home of Northern Soul. He decides to go with his friend Russ on the coach that Saturday night, and starts to devote himself to learning how to fit in with the soul scene and become a Soul Boy - but there are complications on the way...