Stephen Catterall is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences at the University of Wolverhampton. He has written widely on British labour, social and cultural history.Keith Gildart is Professor of Labour and Social History at the University of Wolverhampton and co-founder of the Subcultures Network. He is the author of Images of England through Popular Music: Class, Youth and Rock ‘n’ Roll 1955-1976 and an editor of the Dictionary of Labour Biography.

• Introduction 1 Mods, Motown and ‘rare soul’ in northern England 2 In the days before Wigan 3 The beating heart of soul: Wigan Casino 4 Soul explosion, fragmentation and decline 5 The chosen few: the experience and practice of northernsoul 6 Locating northern soul: place, class and identity 7 Race, gender, sexuality and the politics of northern soul 8 Going back and checking it out: myth, legacy, history andnostalgia Conclusion Index

'Keeping the Faith’s chronological examination of northern soul’s first phase is extensively researched. Stephen Catterall and Keith Gildart deliver a history that presents an untold story that is indispensable for the understanding of an overlooked youth culture and influential underground music scene. Overall, it is a thought-provoking study which will no doubt influence the direction of futureresearch and provides a template for study into other neglected areas of popularmusic.'History'Catterall and Gildart successfully present a nuanced picture of the heterogeneous everyday practices and rituals of northern soul in the 1970s. They indeed deliver on the aim of writing an unapologetically empathetic history from below, and persuasively using this case study to consider how to tell a story of working-class identity which focuses on leisure and pleasure rather than the traditional area of employment. It is an expansive contribution to the ongoing work by social historians of modern Britain and members of the Subcultures Network — including the authors — to take working-class leisure and identity seriously as categories of analysis for social change.'Freya Marshall Payne, Twentieth Century British History'With this pathbreaking contribution, they have shown the significance of Northern Soul, and will hopefully inspire a new generation of historians to explore the many aspects of this and other comparable scenes and subcultures.'Dr Marc Collinson, Bangor University