In the late 1960s when most of the British youth followed the Californian Hippy and Flower Power culture, many of the teenagers in northern towns across England, aligned themselves with Detroit rather than San-Francisco. The music of Motown could be heard in every pub and club from Radcliffe to Rivington.Times changed and so did the Music coming out of Detroit, The Temptations began to sing about "Psychedelic Shack" instead of "My Girl". Motown had gone to California (Literally) it moved its Hq from Detroit to Los Angeles, and in Areas across the north such as Bolton, Wigan, Preston, Barnsley and Wakefield, some of the DJs in these pubs and clubs sensed a change in the music, and searched for other sources of that foot tapping dance beat.They discovered that Detroit music was not just Motown albeit it was the largest record label, there was in fact a myriad of smaller independent labels that had produced records identical to that Motown sound, some of them featuring the same singers and journeyman musicians, who moved around the companies searching for work.Some of these records were so rare that if a Dj played it at his club it would bring the die-hard mods from miles away. and if someone had 2 copies " wow " collectors and Djs would bid extortionate amounts to own them.Bolton for some strange reason seems to have had more than its fair share of these Clubs, Record Collectors and Djs, as well as enthusiasts and GOOD Dancers.One of the first was The Cromwellian club on Bank St, which is quoted as being instrumental in history of rare soul music (later termed Northern Soul) which drew clientele from all over the North West.Later the @inplace to go was Bolton Palais (now Icon ) where the Dj was the legendary Wycliffe Alan Barratt JrIn about 1970 the local government built its admin. Headquarters of Elizabeth house on what was Great Moor St Bus Station and opened Trendy nightclub called VA VA. in order to generate business on Fridays they opened all night playing chart records. VA VAs was quite unique in that it had an all nighter on Fridays, this was to get around the Sunday rule that stated that in Bolton " Members only clubs " could obtain a Music licence to play records after 2 am on Sunday morning.
