Dave Godin

The naming of 'Northern Soul' .. Roger Eagle .. Dave Godin

Dave Godin - Soul Fan and record company owner
Dave Godin – Soul Fan and record company owner

Dave Godin became an enthusiast of soul, opening his own record shop and record label – Soul City (re-releasing Go Now by Bessie Banks – originally on Red Bird USA).

According to his own story, he introduced Mick Jagger to black music but there is no real evidence of this, apart from the fact that he had had some connection with The Rolling Stones.

Dave Godin was an early soul fan, who started the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society.  Impressed by his enthusiasm, Berry Gordy invited him to the USA to meet Motown artists. As a result, the Motown headline acts including Little Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and The Supremes came to the UK on a major tour in 1964. However, he may well have over sold Motown’s popularity to Gordy as most of the venues the tour went to were half empty. There is no recorded information on Gordy’s subsequent reaction to this or whether the tour lost money.

Dave-Godin-Deep-Soul-3
Dave Godin Deep Soul Treasures – No 3

Dave Godin is credited with coining the term Northern Soul in an article following a visit in 1971 to the Twisted Wheel in Manchester. However, the term was in use before this time – Edwin Starr used it in 1968, for example.

in the early 2000’s a set of CD’s were released:

Dave Godin’s DEEP SOUL TREASURES, Soul Collections

They are all brilliant collections of soul music, my personal favourite is number 4 in the series.

SOUL CITY RECORDS

Dave Died:   15th October 2004 – Rotherham, South Yorkshire, UK

Dave Godin – Wikipedia

Dave Godin – Guardian Obituary