INTERVIEW: Richard Searling

If ever there was an advert for the rejuvenating power of music, it has to be Richard Searling.  Looking much younger than his 63 years, in his time he’s been a DJ, broadcaster, label owner, record buyer and evangelist of Northern Soul.  Now back on the radio (on three different stations), it’s impossible not to catch a dose of his infectious love of the music.

I caught up with him on an afternoon of biblical deluge in Bolton.  It’s a Tuesday in the local Sainsbury’s.  The backdrop to our interview is the beeps and boops of the tills, rather than the horns and vibraphones of an ender at The Wigan Casino.

So, at a time when expressing a love of Northern Soul is as disingenuous as wearing a t-shirt, can he remember the first time he heard it?

I think it was at The Pendulum Club in Manchester, Hardman Street, Sunday night… I remember hearing a record by The Prophets called ‘I Got The Fever’. It was hearing that and the reaction it got from people, the way they started dancing… that was the first time I knew about the scene: people walking round the club with records, selling them or trading them, or just showing them. That would have been 1971, I thought.

Writer/record shop owner Dan Godin coined the phrase “Northern Soul”. If ‘T For Texas’ by Roy Acuff is the first country record, what does he feel is the first in his genre?

‘The In Crowd’ by Dobie Gray is probably the first Northern Soul record. The same guy had the song ‘Out On The Floor’. Which again if you listen to the words, It says absolutely everything what Northern Soul is about… a lot of people would say it’s clichéd, never want to hear it again. But actually, it’s irresistible. And its records like that, got people to love Northern Soul.

Northern Soul is social music, not political music.  It expresses nothing else but the desire to have a good time.  Yet, he sees fans splitting into two disparate, but friendly tribes – expressing their passion in different ways.

The scene is split, you’ve got the people who are progressive; who are following these rarity’s, then there is the social side of Northern Soul: “We’ll go to a weekend somewhere, have a jolly knees up, and we want to know every single record and the minute the DJ plays something we don’t know, we are gonna complain like crazy”.

So, at a time when it’s trendy to be into it; when it’s been used to sell everything from breakfast cereal to fried chicken, what are his feelings when he hears a tune on an advert?  Richard’s shackles are raised by other matters, the artists themselves being exploited:

I feel proud when I hear music like that on adverts.  Am I protective of Northern Soul? Only insomuch as there is a massive black market in bootlegging, which is copyright infringement and stealing from the artist. And it seems to go unchecked.  So much so that when people decide to release a compilation, the market has been infiltrated by the bootleggers to such a level that ultimately the legal version doesn’t sell as well.

So, as a man at the eye of the storm of talc/denim that was The Wigan Casino: what was it actually like?

What was it like? Amazing. Like going from playing non-league football, to being a European Championship winner and scoring a goal.  I loved it because I knew I could get a record that no-one had heard, and in weeks get it established and popularised by thousands of people. If they played it at Wigan, other people wanted it.  You had to have it. The people who came to The Wigan Casino, were, by and large 100% into the music. Once you’d done that as a DJ, doing other gigs ceased to become a nerve-racking experience. You’d know about it at The Casino, if you played something that didn’t work, it was an unforgiving dancefloor to empty.

As a side point, Richard played a small role in the genesis of Joy Division. As part owner of Manchester record label Grapevine with his friend John Anderson, he was tasked by its owner RCA with finding a punk band. The answer was Closer than he thought. He even gave up his holiday money to fund a demo.

Ian Curtis used to hang round the RCA office in Piccadilly, he was a big fan of Iggy Pop and Bowie, we used to furnish him with any new stuff that came out. They’d recorded an EP, done a thousand and got 999 of them left… they agreed to come in for a session, think we paid £1300, we booked it April ’78. The session started, I wasn’t that involved, spent most of the time playing pool upstairs!

We spent most the day trying to get Ian’s vocals, it just wasn’t working right. So much so, I remember the Wednesday John saying, we only had till Friday in the studio; saying “we might have to look for another vocal, can you get hold of Paul Young from Sad Café?” Whatever happened, that was never necessary. Ian’s vocals were fantastic, unbelievable.  

A couple of months went by, I got a phone call; think it was Steve (Morris).  He said “We’re getting a manager in, Rob Gretton. Only thing is, he doesn’t like the sessions…”

I think we were a catalyst for them, and they furthered their career quite quickly. Martin Hannett, Tony Wilson then became more aware of them. On a Monday night in Manchester, in The Portland bar with Ian, his wife Debbie and Steve, we met up with the master tapes and sold them back. I think it might have been a thousand quid, can’t remember.

But, it’s Northern Soul that runs through Richard’s veins.  Forty-four years on, he still loves the music, even as his friends and colleagues pass onto the dancefloor in the next dimension; the nature of that love changes and flows, like most forms of true love:

I think there is a legacy of people, and what they gave to the scene… individuals will always be cherished. Although we’ve always said it’s about music, as it’s developed, it’s now equally about achievements, memories and people’s lives intertwined with the music. Certainly venues come and go, people come and go. It will always be remembered, I think the scene stays true to its roots.

And so, we shake hands and walk through a damp car park. It’s has stopped raining, the sun has popped round a cloud. Such is his exuberance; Richard has made our days a little brighter. He told me his career was: like a guy going down a fast river, and there has always been another log to keep me afloat. Richard Searling: the man at the eye of a storm. Still jumping, keeping the faith.

Richard can be heard on BBC Radio Manchester, Friday’s: 22:00-00:00. His new show starts on BBC Radio Stoke, Saturday’s from Aug 7th, 18:00-20:00.  Both are available on BBC iPlayer. He can also be heard on Solar Radio, Sunday’s 16:00-18:00, Sky Channel 0129 and online.

Kev McCready