Northern Soul, Northern, Northernsoulinoz, Twisted Wheel, Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca, Mecca, Va Va's, Manchester, Bardsley, Snowy, Lambretta, Scooter, Night Shift, Night Shift, Night Owl, Northern Soul DJ, Northern Soul Music, Motown, Okeh, Ric Tic, Wingate, Gordy. Northern Soul in Australia, Northern Soul.

I have loved Lambretta Scooters and Soul music as long as I can remember and first started buying soul records when 12 years old using the money earned from four paper rounds  (mornings, nights, Saturdays & Sundays) which together earned me the princely sum of 22s 6d per week. This meant that along with my spends I could buy four records a week, which then cost the extortionate sum of 6s 8d each. My first record purchase as a young soul lover was as may be expected on the black UK TamlaMotown label, it was Marvin Gaye's version of the Gladys Knight classic "I heard it through the grapevine". This was to be the introduction to a lifelong interest in Motown and Soul (It was not known as Northern Soul then). Then after reconditioning old Lambrettas for a couple of years It was time to take one out on the road, underage but adventurous riding to  pubs and clubs to listen to the music and watch live acts. I first attempted to enter the Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester at the age of barely fifteen. This was unfortunately the tail end of the Wheel's life cycle, so although the Wheel experience was destined for me to be only a brief period of just over a year, it will though always remain unforgettable.  

My second great passion after Soul music was two wheels, and at 12 years of age I bought my first moped, a 50cc Norman Nippy. I was soon converted to Lambretta's when in 1966 watching the first generation Scooter boys drive into our Street, I was totally mesmerised, for me it just had to be Lambretta from then on. My first Lambretta was an LD150 on which I burned around the "gully" in Droylsden when 13 years old, it had no brakes and I crashed it through the garage doors. My Dad said it had to go and so I reluctantly "swapped" it  for a crash helmet with "Mad George" Tickle (the younger Brother of my best mate Barry).  My first on road Scooter quickly followed, it was a Series II LI 150, then known as "a widey", which I first used on the road regularly at 14 years of age.  Just after my 16th birthday I was pulled over by "Sargey Babe" of the local Droylsden constabulary because I had just obtained my provisional licence and so had put "L" plates on my scooter. "Sherlock" had noted that on the many times he had seen me on the scooter before I had never displayed "L" plates and so asked to see my licence. He was amazed to see it was only two weeks old, and asked what's going on? saying he had seen me riding the scooter past him every day for at least two years! All scooters look the same I said with a grin, "I'll have you son" he replied handing back my licence. About six-months later with much satisfaction and a big smile he nicked me for speeding after following me in his Ford Anglia, after that we were quits, one might say it was a fair cop......  

As an apprentice electrician earning meagre wages a scooter was a cheap, affordable and so attractive mode of transport, but it had to be reliable and so I upgraded buying a red and black LI 150 Series III  from Horners in Manchester. Hankering for more power I soon traded this for a SX200, very fast but like most finely tuned thoroughbreds somewhat unreliable. Unfortunately the beloved SX 200  had to go and I purchased a brand new LI 150 Special from Hiltons for around £190, a lot of money when just an apprentice on £8.8s.6d per week. (Thank goodness for travelling time, overtime and out of town allowances).

I clocked up tens of thousands of miles on Lambretta's travelling to building sites, soul clubs and scooter rallies throughout the North  of England.  I was a member of the Manchester Lambretta Club (The Lyons), the Twisted Wheel, then the Pendulum and visited other soul related clubs in Manchester such as Sounds, Mr Smith's, Rafters, the Torch in Stoke on Trent and in 1973 it was off to Wigan Casino. I soon got tired of freezing to death and arriving in a soggy Parka and then riding home at around 8.00am on bitterly cold winters morning. In those days you could drive a Reliant 3 wheeler on a full motorcycle license (so long as you disabled reverse gear), which I did, honest I did Sherlock. A Reliant was therefore a convenient solution as there was a 6-month waiting list to sit for the car license, although I was known to "borrow" my Mam's Morris Minor on the odd occasion.

        With the Reliant    Wheel 1970

The Reliant Regal was a fibre-glass death trap,  the old bomb burned more oil than petrol and was very temperamental deciding not to start at the worst possible times (decide? Yes, that thing definitely had a mind of its own). It did however carry 4 (often more), keeping us all  warm and dry during the long trips to and from the Wigan Casino, along with the odd hitch hiker we somehow managed to squeeze in along the way. Yes, I will always be grateful for the Reliant, which was the first sports car I ever owned. "Sports Car"? you might ask, well yes, in the sense you had to be a sport to own it.

Nuff said, by now it must be fairly obvious this website is an unashamed tribute to the past, to Northern Soul and Lambretta's in Australia and around the world. Thank goodness I rescued those 45 RPM records from the dumpster  when moving house in 1980, where I put them because the Northern Soul memories seemed so-long ago and I didn't even have a deck to play them on. Waking up in  a cold sweat at around 3.ooam on a very dark morning I just had to rush outside and hope no-one had discovered them. Much to the disgust of my wife I desperately dug them out from underneath old paint cans and plastic bags of garbage, I hope none of the neighbours were watching !!   Fortunately the records were still there, the wooden boxes keeping them safe and sound, and so I still have them today, including the very first one ever bought, the Marvin Gaye and a few more I have picked up along the way, which as most soul lovers will know have cost just a bit more than the 6s.8d each they used to cost all those years ago. The records still provide lots of enjoyment for myself and others when I do a bit of Northern Soul, Motown and Scootering sounds hobby DJ'ing. The memories may have faded, but never died and today I own not only a couple of thousand records but also two Lambretta's, a 1963 LI 150 and a 1966 SX 200, both restored to their former glory and both exactly the same models I rode as a teenager. A classic example of a mid-life crisis you might say, well you may be right, but after all I have earned it, am entitled to it and so now remain free to enjoy it.  Hope I have not bored you too much, so that's enough for now, enjoy the rest of the website and remember don't just Keep the Faith, spread it around.....

Kind Regards
Steve "Snowy" Bardsley