This euphoric concert has the entire audience — mostly over-60s and white — standing up, screaming and dancing like crazy right the way through. Conducted by Edwin Outwater, the BBC Concert Orchestra make the most extraordinary sound: a full rhythm section, including that irresistible vibraphone, an unbelievable cast of vocalists (Vula Malinga; Frida Touray; Natalie Palmer; Brendan Reilly; Nick Shirm; Darrell Smith), massive string section, and horns at full pelt.

“Northern soul” is a British term for the clubs in Wigan and Bolton that played old, forgotten soul tracks from 1960s and 1970s America that weren’t good enough for Motown. Tracks like “Hold Back the Night” by The Trammps and “You’re Gonna Make Me Love You” by Sandi Sheldon are known to us now as major hits, but they’d be nothing without the northern soul movement.

New arrangements by Joe Duddell and Fiona Brice draw out the symphonic colour of the original tracks, where the orchestral instruments are hidden in the “wall of sound” created by cheap, mono studio equipment. Hearing these iconic tracks live in concert is the musical equivalent of being hit with a tractor beam of pure light. Even slower, softer songs, like “You’re Gonna Love My Baby” by Barbara McNair, offer no shade.

Proms purists may not see how this is relevant as part of the “world’s greatest classical music festival”. Does it matter? It’s hard to argue with five thousand people all clapping in unison on the stabs in “Tainted Love” by Gloria Jones. Yes, before being covered and reworked by British synthpop duo Soft Cell in 1981, it was northern soul.

Tickets for all 71 Proms are available from just £8 on the BBC Proms 2023 website.