Northern

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I first became interested in what is known as 'northern soul' as a boy at my local youth club. the genre had its own musical style, fashion, language and a famous venue - the casino club in wigan, Lancashire, uk.

you could describe it as a kind of working-class Motown - short, rhythmic songs designed to be danced to in the acrobatic 'shuffle' style that became popular.

The content of the songs was darker than your average chart Motown fare - concerned with love, loss, betrayal - themes more common in blues music. The artists were almost all American and predictably very few of them found the levels of fame of their Motown counterparts.

but the spirit of the music, and its dedicated fanbase, has endured. in today's world it feels refreshingly simple and honest - the melodies so good it's amazing to think they were hardly ever picked up by bigger artists.

If you know my music you'll know how much I love the challenge of working in different styles. this one will require me to recreate the 'wall of sound' production style favored by Phil Spector.

I hope you feel the cover artwork is intriguing enough for you to follow the progress of the album.

Thanks for your time and support.

Paul