Dave Brown writes:

My love for the music started in the late ‘60s  when I was fourteen, thanks to a couple of friends of mine with big Mod brothers.

They used to travel from Newton Aycliffe to the legendary Twisted Wheel Club in Manchester which was famous for playing obscure danceable American soul tracks - long before the term Northern Soul was coined. So, instead of hearing The Scaffold, The Move or Tommy Roe being played on their bedroom Dansettes, they collected  American import singles by the likes of the Dells, Major Lance, Marv Johnson, The Contours, Dobie Gray and Earl Van Dyke. There were others that rarely got played on UK radio but were popular at soul clubs like Yarm's Kirklevington Country Club and at youth disco nights at my local Methodist youth club when the Mod lads would bring their own collections.    

I was brought up on Soul music due to my peers. It was not ‘cool’ to like Slade or T Rex - but very cool to like The Vibrations, The Temptations or The Marvelettes.

My love for the music never went away and when I hit sixteen, I could start getting into little nightclubs such as Spennymoor's Top Hat in The North East to see The Drifters, Jackie Wilson, Jimmy Ruffin, The Flirtations  and many legendary soul acts that crossed the Pond to get work here when the gigs dried up.

My baptism into Northern Soul came when I was 16. My best mate Derek ‘Decca’ Fuller  and I heard a whisper of a legendary soul club in Wolverhampton called the Catacombs that played rare soul that hardly any other DJs played.  We told our parents we were going fishing – but actually hitch-hiked from Newton Ayclife to Wolverhampton to attend  one of those infamous nights before dashing back to school on Monday. Our parents would not have been pleased.

Once the spark had been lit, there was no stopping us. Fired up, we ventured to the all-nighters springing up around the Midlands and the North at exotic locations such as The Torch at Tunstall and the legendary Wigan Casino and Leeds Central Club.

The Motown and Northern scene was my world – until I hit my early twenties, got married and started to concern myself more with thoughts of mortgages and fitted kitchens.

But my love for Motown never waned - and when I finally broke into radio 44 Years ago, I was thrilled to be asked to host the soul show on which there was always a healthy proportion of Motown. Then in later years, on the original Smooth fm in London, I hosted a dedicated Motown show which was a great thrill – not least when I was honoured to meet and interview soul stars such as Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, and Philly legends such as The Three Degrees, Billy Paul and Russell Thompkins of The Stylistics.

On a whim, one morning  in 2016 realising some healthy time off had accrued, I was suddenly on a flight to Detroit to fulfil my lifelong dream.

As the taxi pulled into the car park of the legendary Motown Studios, I cried.

I was  brought into the legendary ‘snakepit’, the nickname for the legendary tiny studio where all the Motown legends recorded some of the greatest music of all time. I stood at the microphone that Marvin Gaye recorded What’s Going On and  David Ruffin sang My Girl.

How incredible to sit in the control room where legendary producers such as Norman Whitfield and Lamont Dozier made the most amazing timeless music – armed with just a basic 4 track tape recording facility.

Sadly, photos inside were not allowed – but I have grabbed this one from my album, taken on the lawn of Hitsville USA .

My love for Motown lives on at Boom. On my Saturday evening Jukebox show, I hand-pick at least three Motown Moments.  And – if you’re asking - my favourite ever Motown track is Kim Weston's Take Me In Your Arms Rock Me A little While. Quintessential Motown.       

The Boom Jukebox with Dave Brown - Saturday at 4pm on Boom Radio