The Northern Soul of Peterborough
Why the Northern Soul of Peterborough?
It started with a conversation in a shopping centre - “I do like theatre, but what I really love is Northern Soul. Can you do a play about that?”
We soon discovered that the Northern Soul scene was very important to young people in Peterborough in the 1970’s, and was still bringing Soulies together, to share a love of music and dance. Peterborough College had also asked us to create a project with their performing arts students. The Northern Soul of Peterborough project, capturing and sharing the stories and young people exploring the youth culture of their parents and grandparents, was the result.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund funded the activity, and the PCVS Health Xchange programme supported our weekly dance classes. Students were recruited and trained, Soulies with stories to share were tracked down, and plans were afoot to create a living history installation for the 2020 Peterborough Heritage Festival.
Keeping The Faith
Like everything else in March 2020 - plans changed. But we kept on dancing every week in our online Body & Soul sessions, and interviews were recorded over iPhones. Then in the summer term of 2021 six talented young people from Peterborough College had their first professional creative experience recording a radio play. The result is a five-part series, Keeping The Faith by Nick Wood, inspired by the experiences and emotions captured in the interviews with the Soulies who were there in Peterborough in the 1970’s.
And we are keeping going, with the Body & Soul classes about to return to The Key in November 2021, plus all the interviews and radio series are available via links below.
This short documentary film, by One To One Development Trust, follows the story of the project. Thanks to everyone who took part - it’s been a brilliant project to work on.
The Northern soul of Peterborough Project film by one to one development trust
Body & Soul: Dance & Fitness Sessions
A chance to improve your fitness, and dance your worries away, in these fun and social sessions.
From March 2020 we ran a weekly dance class every Thursday morning. At first the sessions were in person at The Key Theatre, and then we went online. We created a community of dancers, aged 21 - 70+, from all over the country.
Every week we danced our worries away, burnt off calories, and improved our flexibility and fitness all whilst being inspired by the very best Northern Soul tunes. Thanks to the skill and enthusiasm of our brilliant dance tutor, Chloe Wilmot we had our participants stomping, sliding, spinning and shuffling along to some great tunes.
Keeping The Faith by Nick Wood
In July 2021, our radio series, Keeping The Faith by Nick Wood, premiered on Thordis Fridriksson evening show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.
The series is a fictionalised story of four friends and their formative years exploring the Northern Soul scene in Peterborough and beyond, and their thoughts now about getting back on the dance floor. It is inspired by our interviews with people who were there at the time, which can also be listened to in full via our audio gallery.
Each of five short episodes, 9 minutes each, reconnects us all to those perfect times when we can dance together to the music that defines our youth and lifelong friendships. Keeping The Faith has never been more important.
More information about the series, including the people who worked on it, can be found on the Keeping The Faith page HERE.
Audio Gallery
Documenting and celebrating the Northern Soul of Peterborough.
Some of the people who were part of the scene in Peterborough the 1970’s were interviewed about their time as promoters, dancers and DJ. Those interviews are available on our audio gallery, both as recordings and transcriptions. The interviews are full of happy memories of times of friendships, night-time adventures and dancing to great music.
Interviews include DJ and promoter, Paul Donnelly to photographer and dancer Petula “Spike” Collier, and Cllr Steve Allan, who built a successful business from his experience as a club DJ. The online archive also includes a recording from a Northern Soul night at The Fleet in 1979 – the sounds of the DJ’s patter, stamping feet, everyone clapping together and shouting over the music will take you right back.
