You Spin Me Right Round.

Northern Soul.Motown.Wigan Casino.Twisted Wheel.Talc powder. All this imagery that comes up when you mention the word and genre of music Northern Soul.

1960's England.  A scene that came around after the mod scene was born and would come to the world to be known as Northern Soul.
There are a few famous night clubs that have gone down in local and music folklore - Wigan Casino, The Twisted Wheel in Manchester and Blackpool Mecca.
The Twisted Wheel club is associated with the start of this music scene. During the time, all nighters where promoted, The club soon became known as the place to here the latest music in Soul,Jazz and Rythem and Blues. The music toned down a bit and because more associated with the fast paced soul music.
Twisted Wheel closed in 1971.

The music that was played in this club and what would come to define the scene is mid-tempo heavy beat soul.

The club which is famous in my home town, The Wigan Casino was open in 1973 and closed in 1981.
People came from hundreds of miles to strut there stuff on the dance floor and listen to the up beat heavy music that was played.
The club closed in 1981 however by that time it had left a legacy, Not just in the north but within the music industry itself.

Where this mecca of Northern Soul once stood, Is a shopping centre called the Grand Arcade.

I have drifted myself into Soul Music and have started to listen to it a lot more, Mainly play lists etc..However I find the music up beating and makes me smile.

What Are You Wearing Today?

Folk Rain Mac
Casialco tee
Uniqlo Selvedge
Vans Yacht Pump

Last Thing Purchased....

Folk rain mac with occasional hood, In a fetching Yellow, Comes with a navy "occasional" hood.
Managed to pick this up of a forum I am on for a decent price and the jacket is fantastic quality, Comes with a small "ticket" pocked and two nice deep cut pockets, On the inside its got a the occasional hood pocket, One of the nice little details of this is the fact that Folk is written in Brail on the buttons and the zip. Also comes with a peaked hood.

Nice functional jacket, Suits me fine.

Occasional hood

Chambray Shirt

essence of cool

A classic, Timeless and of course worn by quite possibly the coolest cat ever, Steve Mcqueen.

The chambray shirt is a staple in any wardrobe, and if you can pick up a quality piece of shirting, the look can be bang on.
I personally have a light grey shirt by the company tuktuk, And had it modified to the way I wanted, 1.5" collar and a top left breast pocket, everything to do with this shirt is pure quality, the fabric, the buttons and the locker loop on the shirt, Easily the best shirt in my wardrobe and one of my favourite labels in recent times, Anyway to continue with what this article is about, The Chambray Shirt.

The material that is used in Chambray, was used as early as the 1400's and was first used in cambric in France, and possibly named after the Baptiste of Chambrai the material itself is closely woven.

The shirt itself was what conned the term " blue collar" worker in the united states, the shirt itself when teamed with a pair of dark indigo jeans is known as "prison blues" in the United States.

another fact, is that the Chambray shirt is mentioned by the infamous artist, David Bowie - "You shall own a cambric shirt, You shall work your father's land, But now you shall play in the market square, Till you'll be a man".

Tuktuk Chambray Shirt 

Arsenal vs Wigan Athletic

15 years in charge at Arsenal...

15:00 At the Emirates stadium, London.

I wont be in attendance at this game since I can not afford to go and also we will more than likely get stuffed 4-0 however as we all know when following this team, there is always that glimmer of hope that we can come out and out play a "top" team.

We will need to put out the best team we can, And I know owd bob wont do it however play 4-4-2 and just give it all we can and maybe come away with a draw or even get a goal if luck is on our side? dont bow out and think we will lose 3 points - However all depends on how we turn up on the day.

Di-Santo is back and hopefully will make a return to the team.

Wigan League Form	Most Recent
Home	D	W	D	D	L	D
Away	L	L	L	D	W	D
Collated	D	W	D	L	D	D

Based on our form it doesnt look that good, However lets go out with some fight and show that we can still put two fingers up to the big teams and go all out for it.


Enjoy the game and cheer on the lads to 3 points.

Song: Will this mon be on fire after scoring 2 goals against Leeds?

La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes

I came about this information a book called " Gentlemen of Bacongo" and various websites that went into description of this culture of some sorts, so here at red bricks and coal we thought we would share this information with you and our own opinion.

 from Le SAPE (  La Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes ) is a culture that has come out of The Congo Republic.

It, came around after the country was ruled by France, and the local's decided to have a bit of European Flair.
The people involved in this ( Known as sapeurs)  dress themselves up in tailor made suits, shoes and the occasional cigar.


The Sapeurs believe in motivated and cultivating the body & the mind, Here is a quote from the book which goes into in depth detail and has some stunning photographs - “We respect other people, we don’t like war, we like peace, and we have a moral code that is very Christian,” 


This cult, and the people that surround it have become cult icons in there home land and there towns.
What stands out for me in these pictures is how they clearly cut a striking image of upper class among the Poverty that surrounds them in there country and there continent, turning up in there best clothes amongst scenes of children starving and people living on the streets.

Twitter...

Posted this a while back - Redbricksandcoal is on the "micro-blogging" site Twitter, @redandcoal is the twitter page/feed for this website which includes tweets about new posts,genreal musings from the writer of this website, and of course the ongoings at Wigan Athletic Football Club.

Tunes of the Day

The Smiths - Headmasters Ritual 



Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster 




The Ramones - Blitzkreg Bop



New Order - Blue Monday 



Danny Mahon - This and That



Catfish & The Bottlemen - Collide



The Rilfes - Science In Violence  

Wigan Athletic vs Fulham

BIG game at the DW Stadium tomorrow, A win could give us a massive boost a lose, Dont want to speak about.

Mark Hughes brings his London team up North probably expecting 3 points, I hope that bob plays a strong a team as he can and comes out all guns blazing for this game, With N'Zogbia due his return from his 3 match ban this could be the game to kick start and get some points on the board.

• The last four meetings between the sides in Wigan have ended in draws
• Clint Dempsey has netted five goals in seven appearances against Wigan, including a brace in this season's reverse fixture

We are going into this game on an unbeaten run and hopefully that will give the team a boost, However the statistics are not in our favour in this game - We have not beaten them since 2006.

Attendance - 19,000

Score: 1-0 (N'Zogbia)

N'Zogbia back after a 3 match ban.

Top Three Jackets.....

Folk Cycling Jacket - More for the spring this however does just fine on the grey days with a jumper.

6876 Sonora

Vintage LL Bean Smock

Levis 501 : A Rebel without a cause.

Add caption

The Levis 501 Denim Jean's design was developed in the USA around 1872  it was first concived by the Miners in California and since then has become a wardrobe staple for millions of people.

Levis Strauss is credited for creating the modern "Jean", However in Europe " Genoese" was worn by Italian sailors, A blue fustian fabric.

It was imported into England in the 16th century and fustian is mentioned by Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens.

Back to the brand and make in question, Levis was a native German and was already a successful trader,  He and a tailor named Jacob Davis patented a method of the weak point of work pants - Pocket corners and base of the fly could be reinforced by metal rivets.

Levis Strauss & Co where selling these innovative  new work pants to all types of Workmen, assigning the product number "501".


The patent went into public domain in 1891and other garments began imitating this method of reinforcing the weak points of the jeans.

Having got a pair of these for Christmas, They are one of the best quality and fitting jeans I have bought and will be looking at getting another pair in the future. Maybe a selvedge pair on oipolloi if I can afford it.

Levis 501.

Wigan Athletic 0 Newcastle United 1

Thousands of Bar codes turned up at the DW Stadium to witness there team get a scrappy goal and go on to win the game 1-0.


Guess you could class that as a sort of synopsis of what the match was...However for the purpose of this Blog I will go into further detail.


We did not get off to the best start for 2011 however with all the doom and gloom after the result, There are places where we can still pick points up and we are not down yet ( Throughout Wigan and the Martinez haters, You would have thought we where already)


Ameobie's goal came from a shot deflected by Al Habsi, I thought it was safe, It wasn't obviously and Ameboie scored an early goal which we couldn't recover from.


The closest we came was a Header from that man Rodallega. 


It also did'nt go un-noticed that on Match of The Day, They decided to show a nothing booking by Watson but did not show a shocking tackle by that bastard Joey Barton.


Wigan Athletic have a lot of work to do ahead of Bolton on Wednesday, I am praying and crossing all my fingers and toes that we find a win and 3 points at there place.


Teams: 


Wigan: Al Habsi, Gohouri, Alcaraz, Caldwell (Capt), Thomas, Watson, Gomez, Cleverley, Rodallega, Diame, Stam.
Subs: Pollitt, Boselli, S. Caldwell, McArthur, Lopez, Figueroa, McManaman.

Newcastle: Harper, Coloccini, Enrique, Nolan (Capt), Barton, Lovenkrands, Simpson, Gutierrez, Ameobi, Tiote, Taylor.
Subs: Krul, Williamson, Routledge, Perch, Smith, Best, Ranger.

Att: 15,277

Haigh Hall

Decided to go over to Haigh Hall on New Years Day ( Unlike most of Wigan, I had no hang over, Brought the new year in with a cup of tea)

Nice walk was had, Decent views of  my home town and also ran the legs off the dog, Quite like that moody looking up almost dark like shot of me.

What Are You Wearing Today

LL Bean Vintage Smock
Casual Connoisseur " Connoisseur" Tee
Levis 501 Straight Cut Jeans
Adidas Zurich

Band of Brothers

One of the better Christmas presents this year, Band of Brothers box set with loads of special features which I will go on about later,

Band of Brothers was a 2001 10 part series which is based on the book ( same title) which depicts the experience of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion 506th parachute infantry regiment which where assigned to the 101th airborne division.

I am still working through the series and only got to the 4th part however it has impressed me so much that I thought I would blog about it, And will do a final review when I have gotten through this mini-series epic.