The Gems - I'll Be There

This song, "I'll Be There" was a huge record at Blackpool Mecca. Contrary to what Kev Roberts said in his book, Northern Soul's Top 500", the Gems on Chess records, led by Minnie Ripperton, were a totally separate group, and these girls never recorded outside of New York. The Gems were a girl group in the 1960s, led by original lead singer Louise Bethune. She did a fabulous job getting the group back together with two originals and one replacement girl for my DVD Documentary. I filmed and interviewed over three hundred people and 131 artists performing their Northern Soul classic songs, for a six disc DVD box set extravaganza, called "The Strange World Of Northern Soul", with twenty four hours of footage, including some rare footage of the Motorcity reunion. The project started in 1997, was released on VHS tape and premiered to 1300 people at the King George's Hall in Blackburn in July 1999, then took four more years to refine and re-edit into its DVD release in 2003. A life's labour of love