The Northern Soul scene was huge in England in the early-’70s, with kids dressed to the nines, flooding clubs to dance to obscure Motown singles. Mark E Smith was a fan, and The Fall’s 1987 cover of R. Dean Taylor’s Northern Soul classic “There’s a Ghost in My House” was their biggest UK hit. But MES was less a fan of those who went to clubs — like the famed Wigan Casino — and pretended like it was still 1963. (Or the bands who did, for that matter, like Dexy’s Midnight Runners.) “Meanwhile in the sticks / Proles rich, dance in cardboard pants.”
