Northern Soul Prom to tour the UK

The BBC Concert Orchestra, along with BBC Radio 6 Music broadcaster Stuart Maconie and composer and conductor Joe Duddell, are building on the success of last year’s Northern Soul Prom with a UK tour.

The programme, which was curated by Maconie as the second Prom of the 2023 season, was premiered in July 2023 to a very warm reception at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The BBC Concert Orchestra will bring the concert to audiences in Wolverhampton, London, Sheffield, Manchester and Newcastle throughout the upcoming tour.

BBC Concert Orchestra interim director Carolyn Hendry said: ‘What a joy it is for us to bring Northern Soul Orchestrated around the country this spring. The concert is borne out of the Northern Soul BBC Prom, which premiered at the BBC Proms last year, and had over a million plays on iPlayer and Sounds. As the UK’s most versatile orchestra, we take great pride in having the opportunity to share this special concert with audiences again.’

Alongside a host of guest vocalists, the orchestra will perform arrangements of Northern Soul songs created for the Prom by Fiona Brice and by conductor Joe Duddell. Originating in the industrial regions in the 1960s and 70s across the North and the Midlands, Northern Soul was a subculture and all-night dance movement centred around American soul music. Duddell’s own interest in combining popular and orchestral music stems from his performance with the band Elbow and the Hallé Orchestra at the 2009 Manchester International Festival.

He said: ‘After the tremendous response to the Northern Soul BBC Prom last July, it’s great to be taking this out around the country and reunite with the same performers.’