The Night Owl
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The Night Owl
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Cybersoul Article Published in 28th. Edition of Manifesto (July 2000) Name of Website: Nightowl Northern Soul ClubURL: http://www.nightowlclub.com Web Author: Mick Fitzpatrick I doubt if there are many soul fans on the net who are not familiar with this site. There are links to it from just about every black music web in the country and it is referenced by most of the big search engines. What makes the Nightowl so impressive is the technical ability of its author Mick Fitzpatrick who has knowledge of HTML that most 'package' authors would die for. The title page has a picture of an owl sitting on a tree in front of an illuminated barn above a pool of water. Not only does the water ripple, but it also reflects the light as well. How this effect is achieved I can only begin to imagine. It also contains Mick's E-Mail Address and the Logo's of various magazines that have given the site 'Virtual Awards'. There are also quotes from some of the reviews that have been written about it. After such an atmospheric introduction the home page looks bland by comparison. On the left is a menu of options written in white text on a black background. On the right are details of the latest updates. It is only when the surfer points to one of the choices and some light-hearted animation appears that once again the author's technical ability and gentle humour become apparent. The menu itself contains the following options:- Audio, Clubs, Contacts, Database, E-Mail, Fun, Mailing List, Pictures, Reading, Shop & Auction, Tales, Tributes, What is? The first impression is that there is nothing on this site which cannot be found on countless others. What sets it apart however is the way that the choices are presented. Most sites would list their options as hyperlinks but Mick presents them as on-line databases from which the user searches for the data they require. Take for example the 'Club's' database. It can be searched by 'Club Name', 'Location', 'Year Open', 'Information', by name of the person who submitted the entry or 'all fields'. If the search criteria are left blank then every entry in the database is listed. This particular file contains 202 entries of clubs both past and present. The clever bit is that a feedback form is included from which the surfer can add his own entries to the list. For this reason the file is ever expanding and with relatively little intervention from the site owner. The reading section is also an on-line database and can be searched by title, author, ISBN, review, 'from' (Person who submitted the entry), or 'all fields'. When I visited this section several weeks ago people's comments were presented in a raw format and were not always necessarily meant for public consumption. Since then they have all been edited to give the comments a 'house style'. Similar methods of accessing information are also used for the 'Audio', 'Contacts' and 'Database' sections. "E-Mail Me" is self explanatory as is the 'Audio' section. This contains about 20 titles most of which will already be familiar to most of the Northern Soul fraternity. None-the-less it does provide the novice visitor with a chance to sample some of the music on-line and get a feel for what it is all about. The 'What Is' section contains six definitions of Northern Soul written by NS veterans whilst 'Pictures' are categorised into 'Badges', 'Soul Stars', 'People', 'Dancers' and 'Flyers and Clips'. Each is presented as an array of thumbnails which the surfer clicks on to generate an enlargement. Unfortunately the author has neglected to label them so I found myself looking at photographs of several 'Soul Stars' without always knowing who they were. The 'contacts' section is one of the most comprehensive I have seen and contains a database of soul fans around the world, links to other sites, a guestbook, a chat room and details of the KTF mailing list. Visitors can submit links to their own sites that are added to the list immediately. I would suspect that the most regularly accessed feature of the site is the Music Database. This file can be searched by title, artist or even price. Although the author is at pains to point out that it should only be used as a rough guide I'm sure that many use it to value their record collection or take a hint as to what they should be asking for any vinyl they are selling. They then have the option of selling their records in the 'Shop and Auction'. At the time of visiting the shop contained eight items for sale with the E-mail addresses of the sellers beneath. The auction does not seem to be up and running yet but it will work by potential buyers clicking on a hammer icon to make a bid. What really makes the site special is the fact it is interactive and this approach is best illustrated by the 'fun' section. It is basically an online survey to get people's views on the shape of the soul scene both past and present. It asks questions such as which clubs you attended? what your age is? what you consider to be the future of Northern Soul? The surfer simply clicks the boxes which best describe his opinions. After submitting the form he can view the results in the form of a graph. Mick has also cleverly put in an online validation check so that nobody can make two contributions from the same E-mail address. This is reasonable practise as he clearly doesn't want the results corrupting, but it is annoying in that you only seem to be able to view the results of the survey after you have contributed. I tried to view the results a few days after I had made my entry and was unable to access them. 'Tales' and 'Tributes' are similar offerings in that they are textual and not database related. Tales contains 45 personal stories from Northern Soul aficionados. The one I read was by 'Chez' a former night-club bouncer who described how peaceful the NS punters were when compared to other revellers. 'Tributes' are the work of Mick Fitzpatrick himself and include testimonies to 'Youth Clubs', 'Dusty', 'Wigan Casino', 'Fontella Bass', 'Junior Walker', 'Rare Motown' and for some bizarre reason also has a Timeline. Despite not fitting the category the timeline is a nice piece of web authoring. One cannot doubt that Mick Fitzpatrick is the most talented web author working on NS sites today. His knowledge of HTML leave all other sites light years behind him and it is difficult to see how they will ever begin to compete. In most sites the visitor is passive, taking in the views of the author but unable to contribute himself. With Mick's interactive approach the visitor is always involved. It also means that the site will grow at a phenomenal rate because it potentially has thousands of contributors. No site is perfect, and so it is with this one but all my criticisms are little more than nit picking. One of the questions Mick poses in his on-line survey is 'How essential is the internet to Northern Soul'. I have to say that on this evidence this site unquestionably is. Soulfully Yours John Ponomarenko ___________________________________________________ |
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Why Not visit the Authors other Website, 'The Alternative Blackpool Website' at http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/bpool This Site Last Updated 18/05/05
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