Last year, the BBC Proms paid homage to the ‘Northern Soul’ movement with a stunningly popular concert that has found new life touring the UK. While ‘Northern Soul’ was, at its height, only ever on the periphery of the mainstream, the same cannot be said for the music of disco – given focus at this season’s Proms to another rapturous reception.

Though rooted in the LGBTQ+, Black, Hispanic, and Latino communities of the American east coast, disco bulldozed into the mainstream and came to define the sound, fashion, and culture of the 1970s – propelled by the mystique, intrigue, and hedonism of Studio 54.

Disco had its detractors, of course: in 1979, crates of disco records were detonated in Chicago’s Comiskey Park to chants of ‘disco sucks’ in a stunt organised by anti-disco DJ Steve Dahl. While this infamous event, dripping in racism and homophobia, hastened the genre’s demise, the litany of disco evergreens embedded in popular memory speaks to the genre’s enduring impact. Disco has even seen a renaissance in recent years with artists like Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue, and Jessie Ware drawing upon its rich sonic and visual palette.

The audience at last night’s Proms, almost entirely on their feet by the second song (a mashup of Chic’s ‘Everybody Dance’ and ‘Le Freak’), needed little convincing. The production, helmed by charismatic conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser and the BBC Concert Orchestra, benefitted from audience nostalgia in spades as well as the sheer might of these singalong choruses. But that isn’t to deny the nuances and craft of Callum Au, Scarlet Halton, and Ben Woodgates’ arrangements, which brought heaps of orchestral maximalism without compromising the groove and edge of the catalogue. It was a shame, however, that the evening’s backing vocalists were occasionally buried under the orchestra, leaving the audience to do the heavy lifting on tracks like ‘Rasputin’ and ‘Daddy Cool’ (which they did, readily).

Like last year’s ‘Northern Soul’ proms, a roster of excellently-cast lead singers were deployed. Musical theatre star Cedric Neal turned ‘Disco Inferno’ and ‘Rock the Boat’ into unexpected vocal workouts, flexing his muscular tenor. Incognito veteran Vanessa Haynes tapped into the full powers of her elastic soprano on Donna Summer’s ‘Hot Stuff’, while an appropriately sequined Elisabeth Troy attacked the rapid syncopations of Vicki Sue Robinson’s ‘Turn the Beat Around’ with breathless fervour.

The highpoint of camp spectacle was the Vula Malinga (pictured) shedding her coat as she teased her way through the opening of Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’. It was the track the audience were most hungrily expecting, and Malinga had them in a frenzy.

You can listen to Everybody Dance! The Sound of Disco on BBC Sounds HERE.

(All photography credited to Andy Paradise, BBC)