Tribes Of Europe & Barbara Stretch
Tribes of Europe & Barbara Stretch share video for latest single ‘Let The Big Beat Save Your Southern Soul’ released via Integrity Records and available as limited edition 7” vinyl.
An ode to the rare soul scene and those who created the music the single is accompanied with video featuring photographes from the 1970’s of various Soul Club nights around East Anglia which multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Martin Elsey explains “On paper the whole pretext of Northern Soul seems pretty far-fetched: halls up and down the country full of (mainly) white, working class kids coming together peacefully to dance to long-overlooked and forgotten records made by obscure (mainly) black American singers, often on small, regional record labels. I wanted to capture a little of that in a simple video. All the grainy photographs are from ’75-’79 and feature various “crews” from the East Anglian Soul Club at some of the popular all-nighters. The end section features just a fraction of the many, many artists, mainly obscure outside of the Northern Soul community, but rightly revered within the Rare Soul scene. You might not know their names but you will have heard many of their records, often recycled via sampling and the subsequent dance music of the last 25 years. I urge you to check the names out. Often their stories are just as rich and surprising as the whole phenomenon of Northern Soul itself.”
Describing the track as a over due “thank you” to the Northern Soul scene and those who made the music, Martin goes on to explain: “I was a young Pink Floyd fan when the Northern Soul scene hit East Anglia. Kids at school told me how their older brothers and sisters had been driving over to Peterborough, taking something called ‘Sulphate’ then staying up all night dancing. I was intrigued. Only several years later when I got along to a few all-nighters did I really start to understand …”.
