“The perfect northern soul record”: How did a lost Motown single make it to Wigan Casino?

Posted On May 17, 2025May 17, 2025

Every music scene has its defining track, which perfectly captures the inherent spirit and appeal of that particular movement. For the northern soul scene which emerged from the industrial towns and cities of northern England during the early 1970s, that song was Frank Wilson’s ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’, a track which had been canned by Motown Records, but has since gone on to soundtrack all-nighters across the land. Even still, the origin story of the single’s arrival on UK shores remains something of a legend.

Northern soul, as a movement, has always been pretty miraculous. Many of the records and artists that became big-hitters in the northern scene were never intended for mainstream consumption; they were flops, failures, or simply obscure tracks that were released independently and in small numbers. Moreover, these records were largely pressed in the United States, many thousands of miles away from the dancefloors of Wigan, Blackpool, or Manchester. Yet, where there is a will, there is a way.

Initially, northern soul emerged from the tail-end of the mod subculture, which had adopted the Motown sound during its early days. Although the movement soon expanded, searching for smaller, more obscure record labels and a wider range of soulful sounds, Motown and Motown-influenced recordings remained the bread and butter of England’s soul scene for many years. Berry Gordy’s record label produced a plethora of colossal mainstream hits throughout the 1960s, on both sides of the Atlantic, but the Detroit label also had its fair share of rarities.

One such record was Frank Wilson’s 1965 recording of a self-penned song entitled ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’. Awash with all the euphoria and feet-stomping rhythm that made the Motown sound so iconic, the track seemed poised to be a hit, but label boss Berry Gordy was unapproving of the singer’s efforts.

Reportedly, the boss found Wilson’s vocals lacklustre and wasn’t keen on the idea of Wilson, who typically worked as a producer for Motown, moving into a recording career. As such, the record was pulled from release, and all demo copies were ordered to be destroyed – although a few survived the cull, and now fetch eye-watering sums whenever put up for auction.

Nevertheless, a copy of the lost Motown masterpiece eventually found its way to the northern soul haven of Wigan Casino in or around 1977, where it almost immediately became the defining sound of that iconic all-nighter. However, the single’s journey from Detroit to Wigan remains shrouded in mystery, with multiple contradicting stories regarding which DJ was the first to introduce the track, and how they came to own this Motown holy grail.

A popular tale surrounding the origins of the song as a northern soul stomper comes from legendary DJ Richard Searling, who namedropped the enigmatic Simon Soussan as the person who introduced the northern soul scene to Frank Wilson. Soussan, a French-Moroccan man reportedly based in Leeds at the time, was said to have visited the US in search of rare vinyl when he made contact with some sources connected to Motown.

“The copies of the record that were in the Motown vaults were … borrowed,” Searling once shared, per The Guardian. From these original copies, Soussan was said to have cut some acetate discs of the track, altering the speed and changing Frank Wilson’s name to Eddie Foster, as a means of throwing other enterprising DJs off the scent. “Then Soussan sent one to the Casino in about 1975. He’d already put a new label on it, saying it was Eddie Foster. Nobody had any idea it was Frank Wilson until a long time later. It was Soussan who discovered the song.”

While it is true that Frank Wilson was first introduced to Wigan Casino under the cover-up name Eddie Foster, DJ Russ Winstanley claims he was the one to make the discovery, and to cover it up. “We used to get some of the big American artists over here to play in the north,” he recalled, “And I was talking to them about this record that had been deleted from the catalogue.”

He explained, “I was intrigued. A while later, it just arrived in the post.”

The exact truth behind these claims might never be known for sure, but either way, ‘Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)’, commands a northern soul dancefloor like no other track. “The reaction was incredible,” Winstanley said of its initial reception, adding: “Really, it’s the perfect northern soul record.”

It’s certainly difficult to dispute that claim; the beating rhythm of the track, coupled with Wilson’s lush, soulful vocals, are almost naturally suited to the sensibilities of northern soul, so it is no surprise that the song became the defining sound of Wigan Casino back in the 1970s.

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