Ahead of the wildly successful and cult-favourite Northern Soul Orchestrated UK tour returning to the likes of Manchester, Liverpool and more, we were lucky enough to get some time with the man curating the latest run of sensational shows.
Following the success of its debut at the Royal Albert Hall as part of last year’s BBC Proms, what was intended to be a one-off night of music is now a fully-fledged live production coming to the O2 Apollo this winter alongside a small handful of select and equally special venues.
Similarly, the classic Northern Soul tracks being pulled out of the archives are just as carefully hand-picked by radio legend and the event’s much-loved host, Stuart Maconie, a revered veteran broadcaster for the best part of three decades.
Set to take his baby and the brilliant BBC Orchestra on the road once again for four nights only, we sat down with Stu to break down why people are once again going mad for the music and dance movement.
Northern Soul Orchestrated returns this November, how are you feeling ahead of the tour?
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Oh, really excited. I mean, the shows so far have been incredible. People always talk up things obviously, but I couldn’t have predicted the level of excitement we’ve got from the crowd.
I mean, it all comes out of that one performance, as you know, that Northern Soul prom at Albert Hall last year, which was just a triumph and almost immediately we all thought, “We can’t only do this once.”
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And so we did we did a string of dates in April, including at Factory International in Manchester, and the audiences have been incredible. I mean, this music is music that it’s hard not to love, you know what I mean? It’s passionate, it’s dramatic, it’s brilliant, and people don’t just quite like Northern Soul, you know what I mean? They love it.
There are some real devotees who know every song, and you can see that they know every word of these songs even though they were never hit records.
Yeah, it’s always had a real cult-like following, right?
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For sure. These songs mean so much to them because they’ve been the soundtrack of their life since they were teenagers so they’ve grown up to them: they got their first job to them, they got their first partner to them; they got married, they got divorced, they’ve lost loved ones, they’ve lost jobs etc.
I also think they speak about the things that really concern people in their lives. Heartbreak, work, family, and you can see it in their eyes just how much this music means to them.
Having said that, if you’ve never heard a note of Northern Soul, if it’s a baffling mystery to you – less these days than it used to be because back in the day, in the 1970s, it was very much an underground thing; little clubs, people exchanging records almost in secret. That was part of its allure, I think.
You went to these clubs and heard this music that nobody else knew about. You met like-minded people from all around the country so, yeah, it was a real cultish scene. But now, thanks to the internet – although the internet’s got many things to answer for – it’s been great for putting people together like Northern Soul fans.
You can now buy compilation CDs of records that would’ve been as rare as hen’s teeth back in the 70s, so it’s helped ‘keep the faith’ as the phrase goes and spread the word and I’m really excited about it.
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Absolutely, and you kind of have the ideal role as curator, don’t you?
Oh yes, I mean, the shows like the April were astonishing, emotional and thrilling, and I’ve got such a great day ahead of me, it’s fantastic.
I’ve got the best job there because yeah, most of the work’s already done; I just sit back and enjoy it basically, yeah. I come on five or six times, I wave and people go mad, you know. The crowd’s having a great time and loving it – I just get a chance to be part of this fantastic party.
It is good and useful to have me there though [he laughs] because you need to set the music in some kind of context and it’s good to go to places and talk a little about their time and their experience of Northern Soul.
All the places we’ve been so far have got their own rich bit of Northern Soul heritage. Manchester, obviously, with the Twisted Wheel [nightclub] – arguably the birthplace of the movement – and I guess there might be one or two people that actually went there then and are now reliving it.
Yeah, I think it’s also having a real renaissance at the minute too – like Northern Soul Nights are a thing once again all over Greater Manchester and beyond, be it in Stockport or under the arches at Thirsty Scholar as it has for years...
—You know it and, more importantly, new generations are hearing it now. It’s a bit like folk music or the Beatles or whatever: new generations hear it and there’s something just so brilliant about the music, it transcends genre, it transcends generation.
Anybody who likes music hears ‘Do I Love You’ by Frank Wilson or these records, and goes “God, this is good”, and it transcends those usual boundaries. I think it’s just quintessentially brilliant pop music.
What is it you think about the genre and maybe the era as well that you think makes it so special? Because like you say it’s not just the music, it’s the aesthetic, the style of movement, the fashion…
Yeah, everything. I think that a lot of it has to do with that cultishness we mentioned. You’re not just getting into a style of music, you’re getting into a way of life in a way, of like-minded people. There’s a lot about friendship and a lot about class, I think, in the best sense of the word.
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One of the things I love about the music, and I say this a lot, is this was music primarily made by working-class Black people in Detroit and New York and American industrial cities in the late 1960s, mid-60s, then embraced by working-class white people in the north and the middles in the early 1970s.
I really love that sense of kinship between those two communities. I think that they have a lot in common and I think it’s important to showcase that. They were people who worked hard, often in demanding jobs that were not well paid, and I think they sang about the things that were true to them, like their lives, their jobs; their heartbreaks, their love lives and their families. I think that’s why people relate to it.
It just looks good too; the dancing’s great and it has a whole associated aesthetic, as you say – a real built-in subculture and you can buy into different bits of it as well. Like, I know some of the big Northern Soul DJs never dance. Yeah. I mean, they’re into the collecting and the curation, but they don’t dance.
In fact, I’ve only very rarely seen some of the top DJs dance. Some people are into it for the dancing, some people are into it for the clothes, some people are into it for just the music.
There are even people who actively track down everything on the Revilot or Ric-Tic label and stuff like that. There’s so much to enjoy and it has a real sense of joy and community at its heart I think.
Yeah, it’s a very upbeat and uplifting scene. Will we be seeing you pulling out any moves at all?
You know what, I think I might do. I’m not sure if I’ve done that yet. The trouble is, it’s a bit difficult for me because, with the best will in the world, if I go out into the crowd while it’s happening, people then want to stop and talk. I’d love to but I’d be there forever, you know, but it is a lovely atmosphere.
At the prom, I snuck out into the bit where the promenade is for a bit during ‘The Night’ by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, brilliantly sung by Darrell Smith. It was an amazing moment, I’ll never forget it. The whole other hour that I was on their feet.
I love that. I mean, obviously, you mentioned the debut at the Proms – what’s changed in the production since then?
We’re still talking about what to do for the event dates and it’s a nice dilemma to have. It works so well and you’re taking it to new audiences, so we have been debating do we freshen it up or ‘if ain’t broke don’t fix it’?
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We dropped and added a few songs between the Prom and the live show but we’re still in discussion about what to do because these are new audiences and also a lot of people saw that performance because it was the most watched televised Prom after the annual Last Night of, I believe.
So a lot of people watched it and recorded it; you also don’t want it to disappoint and people do want to have that experience recreated in a live setting, so you don’t want to disappoint them. Last year it was very important to me and Joe [Duddell] that we had the same singers and BBC Concert Hall Orchestra,
I think if people had come along and seen, frankly, an inferior orchestra or an inferior set of singers, maybe they’d have felt shortchanged, so it was important that we replicated as much as we could and that’s what we’re doing. To those who come along and help, we can guarantee you a brilliant night out.
Stu at the helm on stage for the Northern Soul Orchestrated debut in 2023 (Credit: Andy Paradise via supplied)
Yeah, obviously the classics are gonna be a mainstay and you just touched on Joe there, a very talented Manchester local – how special is it to have him on board?
Yeah, so it’s weird now thinking that when we go out and we go on stage and there are waves of love and passion from the audience. I remember in our early Zoom calls where we were just with a big spreadsheet going, “What should we do? What about this Should we put that there?”
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I remember us having those discussions and very quickly realising these songs are really short and that we were going to be doing about 34 songs, so a lot of it was thinking how do we pace it? Because obviously, you could just have banger after banger and have people exhausted after an hour and a half.
Sometimes, you know, you need a little bit of texture – a little bit of tempo change – but by the end, it’s just one big party. It’s amazing to think that we started swapping emails and sending Spotify links to see if this would work and specifics like whether we’d need bassoons, and now we’ve brought it to life.
A lot of it was me saying, “Well, you know Joe mate, I’ll leave that up to you!”
Fair enough haha – but yes, there has to be a lot more hard work that goes into building the set on both ends, surely?
One of our great decisions early on, I think, was we have a band, we have the orchestra, we’re fantastic, but at the centre of the stage we have another little band, so we have a bass a drummer and electric guitars, and that’s really neat because the record themselves had those elements.
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The difference is that when people put orchestras on pop music nowadays, this is how the people who made these records would have wanted them to sound if they had the money back then. The people who made these records back in Detroit in 1966 would have loved to have them sound like this if they could have afforded the BBC Concert Orchestra, so really we’re giving this music the treatment it deserves.
I love that. And yeah, there are obviously some stunning venues to play like the Apollo at the Philarmonic Hall in Liverpool and the beautifully refurbished Stockton Globe – how magical is it for you guys to be playing these venues like so many before you?
Yep, The Beatles and The Stones, Paul Robeson and many others have tread those boards and they’ve all got a really rich and storied history. It’s going to be great and I hope there’ll be many more to come after this as well.
Fingers crossed. Lastly, if you could sum up Northern Soul Orchestrated in three words, what would those three words be?
Featured Images — Charles Patch/Andy Paradise/Press Images (supplied)
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The impressive plan to transform Manchester’s landmark Pall Mall building
Daisy Jackson
Work is now well underway to completely revamp one of Manchester’s most recognisable buildings, Pall Mall.
The Grade II-listed building on the beautiful King Street will be totally transformed into a new city centre innovation hub by Bruntwood SciTech.
You’ve probably walked past it hundreds of times, but soon there’ll be a chance for freelancers, start-ups, and established businesses to step inside and call it home.
For those self-employed of you out there, there are no scary commitments to worry about when Pall Mall reopens – you can just walk in and book a pay-as-you-go-desk, work at the cafe, sign up for a coworking membership, or go all the way to serviced offices or sign up for the sort of office space you can put your own stamp on – all with flexible payment options.
Once completed, there’ll be 12 floors of work spaces for between one and 70 people across three interconnected towers.
If you spend your 9-5 in one of the office spaces at Pall Mall, you’ll have access to a free state-of-the-art gym, a contemplation room, a lounge and library space, and a roof terrace with panoramic views across Manchester city centre.
There’ll also be secure EV charging points and a large cycle hub, plus plenty of greenery added through an outdoor piazza and revitalised entrance space. And every communal space will operate at net zero carbon. Snazzy.
Pall Mall is a 90,000 sq ft giant in the heart of Manchester, with a rich cultural and historical significance and is an example of a high-quality post-war site.
CGIs released as part of the plans show bright and open work spaces with lots of fully fitted offices ready to move straight into, plus a totally overhauled outdoor space to make use of an often-overlooked external space in the city centre.
Pall Mall will have a revitalised piazza outside. Credit: Bruntwood SciTechThere’ll be a cafe on site at Pall Mall. Credit: Bruntwood SciTech
The ambitious £30m project comes from Bruntwood SciTech, the UK’s largest dedicated property platform dedicated to growing the science, tech and innovation sectors, which is a joint venture between Bruntwood, Legal & General and Greater Manchester Pension Fund, who last October announced that they would be investing a further £500m into building or refurbing work-class spaces for these types of businesses, and Pall Mall was one of these first commitments.
Principal contractor Dragonfly has been appointed to build the Sheppard Robson-designed development and local teams also working on the development include Ramboll as sustainability consultants, Deloitte as planning consultants, heritage consultant Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture and structural engineers DWLLP.
Businesses will be able to move into adaptable and flexible workspaces, with different lease lengths available to cater for businesses as they grow.
Those moving into Pall Mall will be part of a culture that prioritises sustainable growth, from the net-zero communal spaces to the net-zero construction, with the building’s original structure being maintained to save 7,900 tonnes of additional carbon (the equivalent of one passenger making 26,000 flights from London to New York).
There’ll be an all-electric heating and cooling system, a smart building management system, and new mechanical ventilation heat recovery units to maximise energy efficiency and provide fresh air control to businesses.
Pall Mall will have a gym. Credit: Bruntwood SciTechCGIs show how Pall Mall will look when the work is complete. Credit: Bruntwood SciTech
Once complete, Pall Mall is targeting a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating and EPC A rating – a significant achievement for a Grade II listed, 1960s building.
Their green credentials have been noticed – Pall Mall is a finalist in the 2024 edie Awards for Green Building Project of the Year, and also won Best Commercial Unbuilt Project at the 2024 Manchester Society of Architects Awards.
Start-ups, scale-ups and global businesses alike will gain access to a UK-wide network of 1100 like-minded businesses across Bruntwood SciTech’s community, which spans 31 city centre hubs and nine science and technology campuses in six cities, and in Manchester includes the likes of Circle Square, Manchester Science Park, Bond, Bloc, 111 Piccadilly and Blackfriars in Manchester.
There are big names who already operate from Bruntwood Scitech’s Manchester innovation hubs including – to name but a few – Roku, Deliveroo, AO, Social Chain, Mills & Reeve, and tonnes of freelancers.
They can access Bruntwood SciTech’s growth support, including direct access to funding and investors, highly skilled talent, new markets, and an extensive clinical, academic and public partner network.
Ciara Keeling, Chief Operating Officer for Bruntwood SciTech said: “Bruntwood SciTech has a strong blueprint for creating innovation ecosystems, having undertaken significant projects across many of the UK’s cities and regions.
CGIs show how Pall Mall will look when the work is complete. Credit: Bruntwood SciTech
“We believe that these hubs are not only essential to the development, growth and success of many exciting innovation-focused businesses, but can play a significant role in transforming our regional economies and putting the UK on a path to achieving its ambitions of being an innovation powerhouse.
“Work commencing on our redevelopment of Pall Mall marks an important step in our mission to power economies through innovation, supporting Manchester to continue growing its support for the knowledge economy, and becoming a more environmentally sustainable city.
“Core to our vision for the building is to develop a workspace that caters specifically to the needs of disruptors and innovators, whilst also remaining acutely conscious of our responsibility to champion the building’s heritage and inherent character.”
Pall Mall’s redevelopment is targeted to complete in 2025, and is supported by Savills and CBRE.
Want to call Pall Mall home for your business? Enquire today.
A Manc’s guide to Piccadilly East – Manchester’s up-and-coming new neighbourhood
Daisy Jackson
Manchester is an ever-evolving beast.
Just when you think the city centre has reached its peak, entire new neighbourhoods with exciting new openings spring up out of the blue.
Take, for example, Ancoats – just a few short years ago it was more run-down mill than run clubs and martinis, and now it’s a buzzing neighbourhood with a Michelin star and some of the UK’s most respected restaurants and bars.
The newest contender for the coolest neighbourhood in Manchester is Piccadilly East, a previously overlooked tangle of roads, warehouses and canals just behind Piccadilly train station.
It’s all change round here though, with loads to see and do to keep you entertained.
And it’s not all about the food and the drink and the culture and the nightlife (though there is a lot of that) – it’s also about the new homes that have been built here, like The Castings.
The design-led development has 352 homes, ranging from well-thought-out studios to spacious three-bedroom apartments, some of the best views in the city, and unreal amenities. More on that later.
For now, this is your essential guide to Piccadilly East.
Burgerism and Sureshot Brewery / Credit: The Manc Group
Food and drink
Diecast* – The big name in this new neighbourhood is Diecast, a sprawling food, drink and music spot with masses of outside space, 64 combinations of frozen daiquiri, New York-style pizzas, and even retro caravans you can sit in.
Ramona and The Firehouse* – It started as a teepee serving Detroit-style pizzas slices, and has now expanded into the neighbouring MOT garage, which has been transformed into a glittering party palace serving fire-cooked meats, flatbreads, and pure disco.
Tariff and Dale* – A long-time favourite in the Northern Quarter, with the sort of natural industrial charm that so many have tried and failed to replicate, Tariff and Dale is known best for its classic cocktails, British beers, and wood-fired pizzas.
Freight Island – Want to be spoilt for choice for your dinner? Piccadilly East rubs shoulders with Freight Island, a massive food hall and entertainment space that plays host to loads of great traders from across the North West, including the award-winning Burgerism.
Diecast and Cloudwater Brewery / Credit: The Manc Group
Cloudwater* – Arguably the most well-known craft brewery in Manchester, if not the UK, Cloudwater has its own taproom here in Piccadilly East, where you can sip on delicious beers directly above the brewery itself.
Track – Another spot where you can drink your beer as close to the source as possible is Track (happily, directly across the road from Cloudwater), which has built a beautiful taproom inside its huge brewery where you can crack open a can while you watch beers being canned in front of you.
Sureshot – Part of the unofficial Piccadilly Beer Mile (there are a lot of brewers working around here) is Sureshot, a brewery with some of the funniest beer names in Manchester and an excellent taproom too.
Shopping
Northern Flower* – Want a new little leafy mate for your new pad, or a bunch of flowers to treat a special someone (that special someone could be yourself)? Then Northern Flower is the spot for you. It’s a long-standing florist in the Northern Quarter, a short walk from Piccadilly East.
The Norah Store – Okay this is technically in Ancoats, not Piccadilly East, but the beauty of the new neighbourhood is that it’s very central. The Norah Store sells vintage-inspired womenswear, all designed by female designers and other small independent business owners.
Literally the entire Northern Quarter – Actually, if you end up living in Piccadilly East you’re incredibly well-placed for some of the best independent shopping in the North West. In the Northern Quarter alone you’ll find vintage shops, boutiques, comic book shops, florists, bakeries, record shops, lifestyle stores, and more.
Northern Flower and The Norah Store / Credit: The Manc Group
Nightlife and hotels
The Warehouse Project – When it comes to nightlife, Piccadilly East is at the heart of quite possibly the most famous clubbing series in Europe – The Warehouse Project. Taking over Depot Mayfield every autumn and winter, it attracts the biggest names in dance, electronic, house and more for several weeks of pure fun.
Leonardo – Time to rest your weary head? The new Leonardo Hotel has plenty of spacious bedrooms, and is a familiar sight now thanks to its striking Jenga block-style exterior with plants spilling out from every level.
Dakota – Another hotel in this neck of the woods is Dakota, a luxury spot with phenomenal rooms that’s played host to more than a few celebrities since it opened in 2019 (cough cough, Hugh Jackman…)
Culture
Mayfield Park – One of the best things for locals to do around Piccadilly East is to check out the new Mayfield Park, Manchester’s first new city centre park in 100 years. It was recently awarded a prestigious Green Flag award, with judges saying they had ‘never seen such an outstanding urban park’.
Ancoats Marina – There’s more valuable outside space to be found near Piccadilly East, with Ancoats Marina and all its charms right across the road. You can grab a coffee, a pastry, a wine or a pint, and soak in the waterside views.
Co-op Live and Mayfield Park / Credit: The Manc Group
Co-op Live – Piccadilly East is walking distance for most people to the brand-new Co-op Live arena, a staggering new music venue that’s already hosted some of the biggest music names in the world, with plenty more to come.
Events – There are always things happening at all of the places we’ve mentioned already, whether you’re wanting to browse a Maker’s Market, dance into the early hours, or even go to a Batman exhibition (this one has sadly departed but something similar will surely follow).
Property
The Castings – When it comes to where to live in Piccadilly East, The Castings is a clear favourite. Its apartments have been finished to the highest standards with huge bedrooms with massive built-in wardrobes, well-equipped kitchens complete with top-of-the-range appliances, and stunning living spaces that are flooded with natural light.
The building also has its own gym, kitted out with Technogym equipment that includes a free weights zone, squat rack, and cardio equipment, or taking on a class in the studio where virtual instructors are available seven days a week.
Then there’s an on-site home working hub with 12 desk spaces, three private booths, and a bookable meeting room, plus a media room with a huge sofa and 86” TV.
And just off the working hub is one of several roof terraces which looks out over a small but green square below.
The Castings / Credit: The Manc Group
Transport
The easiest commute in the world awaits you from Piccadilly East, which is (as the name suggests) right beside Manchester Piccadilly and all the many trains that pass through it every day.
You’re also very close to key stops on the Metrolink tram stop, bus routes, and are walking distance from all of Manchester city centre.