It was just to say ‘if you’ve got customers from the north, don't waste time playing them records currently in the US black chart, just play them what they like – ‘Northern Soul’." In his career he also coined the term Deep Soul and he promoted the interests of a large number of American musicians whose work had fallen out of favour in their home country. His second career was in cinema exhibition. Having studied art, design and film course at Sheffield Polytechnic, he became a senior film officer for the British Film Institute and helped found and was the manager of the Anvil Cinema, Sheffield (1983–90), the only cinema in the UK to be funded by a local authority. In the mid 1990s he started to compile a series of CDs of rare (and some not so rare) recordings – Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures – for Ace Records, which featured such artists as Loretta Williams, Eddie and Ernie, Jaibi, Ruby Johnson and Jimmy and Louise Tig. The four albums were greeted with universal critical acclaim, and Godin described the series as the proudest achievement of his life. A fifth, posthumous, volume was ultimately released in 2019, based on lists of tracks he had considered for inclusion, including material intended for the four previous volumes, for which licensing rights could not be obtained at the time. Godin, a vegan, was an advocate of animal rights and Esperanto. He was also known for his involvement in anarchist and anti-capitalist organisations, including Freedom Newspaper and Class War. He was the only atheist in his local pro-life organisation. Towards the end of his life he developed an interest in Jainism. He died in Rotherham in 2004, aged 68. A biography, Dave Godin: a Northern Soul by Stephen Stevlor, was published in 2020 on the anniversary of Godin's death. References Further reading External links Guardian obituary by Richard Williams, October 20, 2004 Independent obituary by Phil Johnson, October 20, 2004 Sheffield Today obituary, October 21, 2004 The Times obituary October 26, 2004 The Dave Godin pages on the Soulful Kinda Music Website The Dave Godin page on the Soul Walking Website 1936 births 2004 deaths Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University English anarchists English atheists British conscientious objectors Motown People educated at Dartford Grammar School People from Peckham