Russ Winstanley

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Russ Winstanley was born in 1952 in Beech Hill, a district of Wigan in Lancashire. He is an English DJ, best known as a champion of northern soul at the Wigan Casino. He attended Wigan Grammar School.

Music and breakthrough

On 23 September 1973 he came up with the Soul Allnighters at the Wigan Casino, where he also played records himself. They were nights that lasted until the morning and ran four evenings a week until the closure on 6 December 1981. More than four million people came through the doors. Both the Wigan Casino and Winstanley won many awards as best club and best DJ. Northern soul is the name for the fast, rhythmic soul records from America that found a second life in the dance clubs of northern England.

Influence

Even after the closure Winstanley remained active on the northern soul circuit and on the radio. He had his own programmes on BBC GMR and XFM in Manchester and has a regular northern soul programme on BBC Radio Lancashire. In 1997 he compiled the album Soul Survivors for Telstar Records. In 1998 his book Wigan Casino Story entered the bestseller list. He was also musical adviser for the production Once Upon A Time in Wigan at the Octagon in Bolton.

Listening