Volumes 1-4 are a good place to start. Boy have you got some fantastic music to discover. For example

It can be a _very_ expensive area to collect in.

As far as I know, there are very few "albums" - it's a singles genre. Look on Amazon for the compilations, and check 'em on Spotify before you start buying "The Snake" for £45.

EDIT : looks like Paul Beard will help you Keep The Faith!

Used to go to Wigan Casino and Stafford's Top Of The world alldayers in 1979/80 and growing up in Stoke, Northern was everywhere. still go to nights here in Barcelona.
Doesn't get any better than this

Funny but I was considering asking the Massive about Northern Soul as well.

Prompted by seeing a new compilation that looked like such good value I was suspicious. It's part of that series '101...' (not sure which record company puts them out).

So - '101 Northern Soul Hits' - 15 quid or so - have any of the experts seen it and is it a good place to start?

with compilations.

As the majority of northern records were basically none hits - the artists basically made nothing.

Subsequently some Northern players/dj's got the original singers to re-record their tracks, which are pale imitations of the original singles.

Check out some of the Kent compliations, the Talculm soul comps and Goldmine comps - all good starters. I'd recomend The Wiagn Casino Story & The Wigan Casino Story continues, both on Goldmine and well worth a tenner each or so. They'll give you a good start to the more popular stuff - then start digging !!

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1;-1&sku=5...
This is a pretty good 2CD comp to start with, although it's not the Volume 2 it's advertised as (there only has been one volume of this). It's quite mainstream, with some chart hits thrown in, but fine for the novice to begin with.

Might sound like it's going to be cheesy but it's a cracking introduction to the music. Some absolute classics in it's tracklisting.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Northern-Soul-All-Nighter-Ever/dp/B00005CBW...

...wow...what are the odds?

Yes, yes, I know all about Wigan all-nighters and all that, but what was the criterion to become labelled as such, or was it just anything that the DJs there played at that time, the more obscure the better? I don't mean to belittle the genre, if inded it is, but would any "soul/r'n'b" song become Northern by being played there and then? Mrs Path, mancunian by adoption and of the right age* says it is all in the specific drum pattern. Is that right?
*I ain't saying!

Just listened to the Don Ray track on Spotify and it is a great track. If you have Spotify check out The Golden Age Of Northern Soul at http://open.spotify.com/album/2SOdKMWJPZu3iJi5eMSGL2Spot5i

Exus Trek - Luther Inghram
The Magic Touch - The Bobby Fuller Four
Turning That Heartbeat Up - The MVPS
Blowing Up My Mind - The Exciters
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Thelma Houston
Gimme Shelter - Merrie Clayton
Let The Good Times Roll - Tony Newman
So Called Loving - David Essex
Stop Breaking My Heart - Tom Jones

You can grab almost all here..
http://planetmondo.blogspot.com/search/label/northern%20soul

Or the tune often claimed to be the textbook template for Northern Soul is The Supremes 'Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart' and I wouldn't argue against it..

You can check the instrumental here..

Northern Soul is almost exclusively a singles medium, with the possible exception of R. Dean Taylor’s There’s A Ghost In My House which, although a sought-after 45 when it first broke on the scene, lost its collector’s cachet virtually overnight when someone discovered that it was on a Music For Pleasure Motown compilation that was available in every branch of Woolies for 50p…

There have been lots of good recommendations thus far, and it has to be said that you can quite easily scoop up thousands of pounds’ worth of ultra-rare Northern gems for the price of a couple of CD comps these days. The Talcum Soul series in particular is very reliable, but I’m going to give a shout for Ian Levine’s excellent compilation, ‘Reaching For The Best: The Northern Soul Of Blackpool Mecca’, which does a first rate job of chronicling the period in the development of Northern Soul where the more traditional 60s-oriented Wigan sound gave way to the smoother, Philly-era proto-disco favoured by the Blackpool dancers and DJs. Diane Jenkins’ ‘Towaway Zone’, The Mob’s glorious ‘I Dig Everything About You’ and, of course, the definitive Mecca classic, ‘It Really Hurts Me Girl’ by The Carstairs are all present and correct, and it shouldn’t be hard to pick up.

suggest a working definition of Northern Soul as stuff that sounds like Motown but isn't?

As a guide to "Soul" - period - I've always found Dave Godin's collections excellent companions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Godin

Also check out Barney Hoskyns "Say it One Time for the Broken Hearted" as an introduction.

In one slim volume tells you all you need to know and all the stuff you need to listen to.

And whatever this is - I think it's wonderful:

For such an uplifting form of music, Northern Soul has always seemed most impenetrable of all pop genres to get a grip on: the culture that is, not the music (we are not talking The Wire here, the mag, not the TV series).

What is it , for a start ? The first few compilations I bought were all very obscure. For any other music you hear a track you like and want to hear another. But often these are not to be had, either for reasons of scarcity or because the artist was one of the many, many one-miss wonders. However lately the collections have the likes of Al Green, Lee Dorsey and even Paul Anka. Who's in? Who's out ?

As said elsewhere though, it is a singles medium. Compilations are available, but can be VERY variable, and even the best attract the derision of the die-hards (Northern Soul is the last bastion of the Snooty Record Guy. I don't mean this in a bad way ! Long may He continue...) , for whom it seems the only possible format is that ultra-rare seven-inch single to be found in a backstreet in Manchester, if you're lucky. Me, I have always found the fetish of ultra-rarity, as if it stands for quality, baffling.

Having said all of these frustrations, sometimes only Northern Soul will do !

Thanks to the Massive for the tips. Though I do have the late Dave Godin's fab collections and he described these are Deep Soul rather than Northern Soul. For similar, I recommend the Lost Soul compilation. If you can find it. And for Northern Soul the collection The In Crowd from a year or so back is a good start.

A Wigan Classic. "When we get there" is OK too