Sheffield blue plaque to the man who coined the term ‘Northern Spirit’

The man who coined the term “Northern Spirit” will be recognized with the unveiling of a blue plaque in Sheffield.

Dave Godin, who was born in London in 1936 but moved to Sheffield to study in the 1980s, is also credited with bringing Tamla Motown to the UK.

Chris Rogers, who has been campaigning in Sheffield for 15 years in memory of Godin, who died in 2004, said his cultural contribution “should be recognized and celebrated”.

The plaque will be unveiled on Sunday at the former site of The Anvil, an arthouse cinema that Mr. Godin campaigned for and operated for many years.

The Anvil was the first council-run art cinema outside London and was known for showing independent films in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Rogers, from Sheffield, explained that although Mr Godin owned the Soul City record store in Deptford, London, he had noticed people from the north of England, often football fans, following their teams to matches in the capital. They were coming to his store looking for high-energy Soul music by Black American artists.

As a result, Mr. Godin told his staff not to waste time recommending other types of Spirit records to these customers, but to show them the special items he had set aside.

“They were looking for a certain type of record, a certain type of rhythm,” Mr. Rogers said.

“Basically there was a box of these 45 records on vinyl, imported directly from America.

“He called this box ‘Northern Spirit’ because the people who bought it were predominantly northern people.”

What is commonly known as Northern Soul reached its peak in the 1970s, with DJs in famous clubs such as Wigan and Blackpool playing only this style of music.

Mr. Rogers said Mr. Godin was also “known as the man who brought Tamla Motown to England on the first tour outside America.”

“He became very good friends with many great artists, including Marvin Gaye, who regularly called Dave Godin at his home in Sheffield,” he explained.

Mr Godin, meanwhile, is also known to have played a role in the career of the musician then known as Reg Dwight, who was a customer of his shop and offered him the chance to play keyboards for a band as a session musician.

Dwight, better known as Elton John, became a global superstar, an event chronicled in the biopic Rocketman, starring actor Aston McAuley as Mr. Godin.

Mr Godin, who moved to South Yorkshire to study film as a mature student in the mid-1980s and then settled in Sheffield, also contributed greatly to the culture of his adopted city, Mr Rogers said.

Cinema was one of Mr Godin’s great passions, he said, and he lobbied for and later ran The Anvil Civic Cinema in Sheffield.

Mr Rogers said: “A long-time vegan, he has been a tireless campaigner against cruelty to animals in film production, demonstrating against film censorship and protesting alongside numerous anarchist and anti-capitalist organisations.”

Funded by Terry Lee, a Sheffield businessman and DJ, the blue plaque marking Mr Godin’s life and achievements will be unveiled at the former site of The Anvil on Charter Row at 3pm (GMT) on Sunday.

Mr. Rogers, who now lives in France, said the event will be the culmination of a long campaign to celebrate Mr. Godin’s achievements, which has even attracted big-name supporters such as Martha Reeves of the famed Motown group Martha and the Vandellas.

“His contribution to British and American culture should be recognized and celebrated,” Mr. Rogers said.

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