Soulbot Features

Welcome to Soulbot, one of the largest Soul Music Information Databases on the web. This site is a labour of love – of Soul and the Blues and formative bands of the sixties including what become known as Northern Soul. Our inspiration comes from our personal experiences in the clubs and venues in Manchester UK in sixties, clubs such as The Bluenote and The Twisted Wheel where the story really began.

Manchester music for those who are not old enough to remember, started not in the seventies with the influence of clubs such as the Hacienda and Electric Circus but began much, much earlier. Before even the Twisted Wheel and the Blue Note soul and blues clubs, the influx of black music during the period that American servicemen were stationed in the North West of England mustn’t be forgotten. Jazz, blues and R and B was being played way back then. The Jamaican merchant seamen who settled in Manchester also exerted their influence in the form of bluebeat, ska and calypso.

Inevitably, Manchester home grown music in the sixties was eclipsed by the Liverpool beat phenomena but the number and effect of Manchester groups on music is nevertheless still felt today. We have tried to include all the types of music that we experienced then rather than just concentrating on the narrow area now known as ‘Northern Soul’.