How Tenderness Pervades Club Culture at Deptford Northern Soul Club
Lewis Henderson - at Moth Club
On a chilly night, Hackney’s MOTH Club is a hot, sticky, euphoric emblem of bliss and community. Alight with sweaty bodies, a kinetic blur of joy radiates out onto the street, with trendy Londoners exchanging stories and spare Rizla papers with strangers.
There’s laughing, there’s community, and most importantly, there’s dancing. Phones are tucked neatly away in pockets, with the small, humid room a Renaissance-like painting of uninterrupted, disconnected, powerful dancing, and overall was a tender portrayal of building friendships and community through club scenes. Tonight at MOTH is Deptford Northern Soul Club’s residency night, and as people queue up at the unassuming bar for tickets and lukewarm pints, you feel privy to something uniquely special. The love and tenderness on the dance floor is palpable. Strangers become friends, and barriers melt away in pursuit of pure, authentic fun.
The Deptford Northern Soul Club, a dynamic collective founded by friends Will and Lewis, stands as a beacon for reviving the essence of Northern Soul. They infuse it with love, tenderness, and an unwavering commitment to community and dancefloor connections. Their journey began with a shared love of records, tracing back to Lewis's father's vinyl collection. "Lewis and I have known each other a long time. We wanted to do something musically together... We'd both been into Northern Soul for a long time," Will recounts. Along with residencies at YES in Manchester and London's MOTH Club, their musical odyssey has taken them from an inaugural DJ performance at Deptford's Bunker Club to prestigious events like Green Man and Glastonbury. Pilot actually first interviewed the founders at Glasto where they had sets at both The Meat Rack + The Rabbit’s Hole.
Lewis + Will, Dagny Tepper - at Glastonbury
Northern Soul's enduring allure lies in its authenticity, timelessness, and transformative power. The genre speaks to the depths of the soul while transcending generational boundaries.
"What we want to do is break new ground with old music," Lewis remarks. "If people want to come dressed up like the 70s, they can; that's the joy of it. If people want to come looking like Northern Soul enthusiasts from the past, they're very welcome... There's no in-between; you are completely rule-free," elaborates Will.
Deptford Northern Soul Club understands that music is a form of dialogue, and their impassioned collective explores the pure euphoria of music and sound—a shared experience that unites us all on the dance floor. By recontextualising Northern Soul in a modern context, they empower the genre to continuously evolve, imparting new meaning to younger, perhaps previously unaware audiences.
Alfred Golding - at Peckham Audio
The story of Northern Soul is essential to share. It serves as a place where individuals find common ground on the dance floor and a space to navigate the complexities of modern life through a resounding spirit of hope. It’s a story of cultural resilience, the lovechild of American soul and Motown music marked by distinctive dancing style. Northern England's youth discovered a sense of community beneath the synchronised beats and chillingly complex vocal runs, rebelling against chart-topping hits and forging new cultural horizons together. It embodied a spirit that paved the way for independent labels, punk, new wave, and more, while preserving a uniquely British penchant for rebellion and reinvention.
Northern Soul can help us contextualise music as a cultural dialogue in itself, one that underpins our sociopolitical landscapes. Through methods of escapism, the act of dancing as one has always felt empowering and revolutionary. These were creative spaces that give a voice to those on the fringes of society - one that allows them to be loud, proud, and beloved. Northern soul as a subculture and as a movement revolutionised music as a verb and as a cultural dialogue, creating a space to rebel against societal ills and to put dancing at the forefront. Dancefloors can be a reflection of the time they exist in, but they also hold a mirror up to society. A testament to the enduring power of subcultures, we can see through a modern light how these cultural dialogues drive us forward.
Northern Soul DJs and enthusiasts played a pivotal role in resurrecting and preserving obscure and overlooked American soul and R&B records. Many of these records had been forgotten or overlooked by mainstream audiences. This revivalist aspect of Northern Soul helped to safeguard a cultural heritage that might have otherwise faded into obscurity. In an era marked by racial tensions and inequality, these were some of the first places in the UK where people of different races and ethnicities could come together and dance. These songs served as a form of protest and commentary on the socio-political landscape of their era. Northern Soul is politically and societally important because it provided a sense of belonging and empowerment to marginalised communities, promoted inclusivity and integration, preserved forgotten music, challenged mainstream culture, and served as a platform for political awareness and expression, all through the power of community and music.
Greta Kaur-Taylor - at New Century
Perhaps Deptford Northern Soul Club’s profound allure reflects our own times of sociopolitical, racial, and economic inequality. Moreso, perhaps they reflect a growing allure for dancing and community, especially during a time that feels so isolating. Capping off a summer performing at Glastonbury and sold-out club night, it’s clear that the “new youth’s” penchant for dancing and rebellion hasn’t stopped. A growing love for Deptford Northern Soul Club sheds light on a desire from young people to come together, physically, and to express themselves. Will and Lewis speak about how consumption of the genre has changed, “Genres of music have always been defined by the medium that it’s listened to or played on… It was originally played on 7” Vinyls and that specified the length of the song, and each song was trying to be a hit, but now music is not the same thing… long form things are the predominant media of our time,”
Lewis tells us, “people are so fast paced. They're going to be like, not for me, next. And the fact that they come and choose to see Northern Soul is amazing. That's what we want them to be.”
The tenderness at the core of Northern Soul is embedded in a more modern context, and it’s beautiful to watch.
When speaking about authenticity, as Deptford Northern Soul are staunchly “anti-gimmick,” there’s a thin line to tread between admiration and appropriation. We talk about the rise of historic subcultures back into the modern mainstream, and how when done poorly, the results feel astronomically disrespectful, and completely go against the grain of its existence in the first place. That is not a problem with Deptford Northern Soul, whose inclusivity and undeniable, enduring love and appreciation for the genre bleeds into everything they do.
Emily Richardson - at YES Manchester
"Make sure there's no rules... We don't want people dancing or being told how to dance in this space," they explain, always paying homage to the subcultures they’ve been inspired by.
Ultimately, Will & Lewis’s brainchild is a testament to how subcultures can continue to build upon themselves and reinvent to match our society. It’s also a representation of the ever-enduring tenderness embedded into our dancefloors, a palace for community and love.