The Blackpool Mecca was a large entertainment venue on Central Drive in the seaside town of Blackpool in the North West of England. In the 70s it was particularly known for 'The Highland Room', which was a major Northern Soul music venue. Sadly the pulled down the Mecca a couple of years ago. Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. It mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Motown sound and lesser-known artists by small United States labels such as Ric-Tic and Golden World, Mirwood, Shout and Okeh. Northern soul is also associated with particular dance styles and fashions that grew out of the underground rhythm & soul scene of the late 1960s, at venues such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester. This scene and the associated dances and fashions quickly spread to other UK dancehalls and nightclubs like the Catacombs in Wolverhampton, the Highland Rooms at Blackpool Mecca, Golden Torch in Stoke-on-Trent and Wigan Casino.