Review: THE SOUND OF PHILADELPHIA, Royal Albert Hall

“Are you ready to dance tonight?”

The Sound of Philadelphia, a celebration of “50 years of Philly Soul,” took place at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday night. The show, hosted by Sir Lenny Henry, celebrated the Philly soul genre, which is “characterised by funk influences and lush string and horn arrangements,” so it only makes sense that the music of the night would be performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Sir Henry was joined by several special guests to celebrate the songs of writers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell including Beverley Knight, Andrew Roachford, Omar Lye-Fook, Tony Momrelle, Ashton Jones, Derek Green and Wayne Ellington.

We began with “T.S.O.P,” which is, as you might have already guessed, an acronym for “The Sound of Philadelphia” - the perfect start to the evening. From this moment, the audience could tell that they are in for something different at the Royal Albert Hall. The music director, Chris Cameron, who also arranged and produced the concert, was absolutely jamming out from his podium, grinning and nodding along to the beat.

We were introduced to our host, Sir Lenny, who started with some jokes about Prince Albert piercing and how different this concert was to the BBC Proms before becoming a narrator of the show, telling the audience the history of Philadelphia soul between songs like “Love is the Message” and“Backstabbers.” 

Some of the songs in the concert included “I’ll Be There” sung by Tony Momrelle and Ashton Jones singing “Ghetto Child.” Derek Green sang a range of songs including “La-La Means I Love,” “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” “Betcha By Golly, WOW” and “You Are Everything” with smooth vocals that easily charmed the audience.

Gina Foster gave a fantastic rendition of “People Make The World Go Round” and I would have loved to see some more from her and the other backing vocalists, as it appeared that only two of the four were given solo opportunities. Another fun performance was Andrew Roachford’s “Me and Mrs Jones” and the return of Tony Momrelle with “Are You Ready For Love.”

The star performance of the concert was that of Beverley Knight, who, after being introduced by Sheila Ferguson (in celebration of the 50th anniversary of “When Will I See You Again” going to no.1 in the UK charts), launched into several songs, including “Show You The Way To Go” and “Don’t Let It Go To Your Head.” She returned at the end of the concert, along with all of the vocalists, for a fantastic rendition of “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” which ran for much longer than its usual runtime (seven minutes!), much to the delight of the audience!

One of the unexpected highlights of the show? Watching the audience itself. I loved getting to see thousands of people dancing and singing along to the songs they grew up - a particular delight was hearing the audible reactions as audience members heard the beginnings of each of the songs, sometimes murmuring and other times immediately jumping out of their seats to dance.

During a slower song, I witnessed a couple up in the gallery slow dancing with one another as those around them had their phone torches lit, waving them back and forth like they would have done with lighters in the 1970s. All of this was encouraged by Sir Henry, who danced right along with the audience! 

If there is one critique to be made about the concert as a whole, it is that, at times, it is difficult to hear the singers above the orchestra, especially during the more energetic numbers with the horns blasting. While some, like Knight, were easily able to sing over the music and make themselves heard, others struggled, making me wish the microphones had been turned up just a little bit more. It is also a bit disappointing to see recording permitted at concerts like this one, as there were many times when audience members had the flash of their cameras on and it was a sea of phones instead of people connected with the music in the moment as it was intended to be. 

Ultimately, The Sound of Philadelphia was an absolutely delightful celebration of Philly soul that has audiences standing up and getting down to the beat. It was a wonder to behold such talented performers coming together to perform these incredible songs and it was a joy to watch the audience be so enthused. 

The Sound of Philadelphia ran on 19 October at Royal Albert Hall.

Photo Credit: Andy Paradise

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