THE TEMPESTS - LONG LIVE OUR LOVE

The southern coastal "Beach Music" scene is closest thing that the United States has had to the English Northern Soul movement was actually coinciding with the era, and not a revivalist movement (although it has lived on to the present day, just like Northern Soul).

From a historical perspective, the beach scene not only celebrated great music (in a nutshell, the sound centers around breezy, happy sounding soul/r&b that sets the mood for dances with the Atlantic ocean as backdrop) but was also significant in its racial integration. Not only was it normal for people of different skin tones to party together, but many groups were integrated as well, just as The Tempests were.

Singer Hazel Martin was backed by a ten-piece showband, and their output on Smash Records (which included the great LP Would You Believe, which itself contains the Northern Soul anthem 'Someday") is the epitome of the beach sound.

"Long Live Our Love" has the type of easy shuffling groove that easily brings to mind the vision of a warm evening dancing on the pier on an endless summer night. It's truly glorious stuff, and the honey-like voice of Hazel Martin is a thing of wonder.

from 1968...

THE TEMPESTS - LONG LIVE OUR LOVE