There are a lot of white blues musicians heavily influenced by black blues legends and yet ironically display racists views. Cough, Eric Clapton for example although he claims he was drunk at the time.
In the same vein, Wigan is one of the most racists town in Britain. I went there once with an Asian friend and it was eye popping the blatant racism on display and the people of Wigan seemed to be rather proud of this. Then again what do you expect when the town's rugby supporters would throw bananas on the pitch for one of their own highly paid black rugby players.
This kind of prejudice is always conveniently overlooked when programme makers examine the history of the Wigan Casino. Still the Wigan Casino has attained legendary status as the dance mecca for 1960s American soul music, daring dance moves and later on giving a new lease of life to the soul legends of yesteryear.
SoulBoy gives a slice of life in the 1970s when a young lad, Joe (Martin Compston) from Stoke discovers the joys of Soul music, dancing, Wigan Casino, getting girls and popping pills. He falls for a blonde but its a brunette who is his true soul mate. Along the way he crosses swords with a nasty ace dancer who is the boyfriend of the blonde one and Joe's fellow work mate has a thing for the wife from the local chip shop whose husband is the jealous and violent type.
There are several cast members who have ended up later in the BBC TV series Line of Duty, so you have here a few familiar faces if you watch Line of Duty.
SoulBoy is a low budget movie, filmed in Stoke. It has a slight storyline but there is a lot of heart in the acting. It does try to be a Staffordshire version of Saturday Night Fever although the final dance off does look a little weak.
The film did miss a nice humorous twist where it should have had a present day scene when all the now aged dancers from the Wigan Casino days are lining up at the local hospitals waiting for their hip and knee replacement surgery!
