Post by Nick® on Nov 16, 2009 2:48:37 GMT
Venue: Hammersmith Apollo - London - England
Date: November 13th - 2009
Thousands of lucky people witnessed what was probably the biggest Motown event of our generation in the UK. This was the final celebration of Motown's 50th anniversary year.
The night began with the first ever appearance in this country and possibly the last time she will sing on stage anywhere the diminutive Mable John treated us to a spellbinding perfomance. It is hard to believe this little old lady of 80 years could command such a presence on stage, she captivated the audience with her classic Who Wouldn't Love A Man Like That with a cheeky performance involving the band and audience alike. Amongst other tracks she gave a great rendition of her signature track Able Mable.
Brenda Holloway paid tribute to the northern scene and admitted that it had resurrected her singing career bringing her back from a life surrounded by 17 grandchildren which is amazing as she looking so much younger than the rest and giving a very polished perfomance. Sadly not so many tracks from a huge list that we hold dear to us but concentrated on more mid tempo numbers which undoubtedly showed what a great talent she was.
What do you say about Chris Clark ? Wow a shock to anyone's system who had gone with a stereoptype in mind. She bounced out stick thin and a shock of white hair that is her trademark. (Hippie chick !! yes that's the term). Starting with the wonderful Loves Gone Bad and mid stream had the audience singing along with I Want To Go Back There Again. She ended with the one all expected Do I Love You (indeed I do) which was a rousing finale to the first session.
Jack Ashord was glorying in being the compere for the evening with a mish mash of artists calling themselves The Funk Brothers who were I suspect a shadow of what would have been but at the end of the day the group of all ages did a good enough job along with a trio of competent backing singers that tied the show together.
Not billed officially as The Supremes probably for legal reasons but at the end of the day all we have left and the 2 remaining members of Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne were joined by Joyce Wilson who I last saw perform in the 70's when she was a member of Dawn (yes of Tie A Yellow Ribbon fame) and have never forgotten how good they were but probably too embarrassed to admit it until now. They gave us all the classic's such as Baby Love and Come See About Me and with so many to choose from it was a good long set with well rehearsed routines from a stunning trio of ladies.
Final act and highlight of the show for me was Thelma Houston who strode on stage and belted out Baby Mine, if she had not I would have asked for my money back as it is synonymous with her and boy did she perfom it well. The audience were by this time getting very well into it and the security in our area kept trying to get people to sit down but eventually the crowd erupted and dancing in the aisles throughout the arena ensued with the security just shrugging their shoulders and giving up.
So good to see an audience of a certain age enjoying themselves even Christopher Biggins who was a couple of seats back from us was up on his feet in admiration, our intrepid reporter Kath Newman spent half the night dancing in the aisle I noticed. NICE ONE Mean Fiddler we thank you for bringing this show to our shores.
Those in the heartland of northern soul who did not take the opportunity to support the event planned for Doncaster Dome on the previous night, shame on you. It had to be cancelled due to lack of support and those planning to go missed the treat of their lifetime.
Date: November 13th - 2009
Thousands of lucky people witnessed what was probably the biggest Motown event of our generation in the UK. This was the final celebration of Motown's 50th anniversary year.
The night began with the first ever appearance in this country and possibly the last time she will sing on stage anywhere the diminutive Mable John treated us to a spellbinding perfomance. It is hard to believe this little old lady of 80 years could command such a presence on stage, she captivated the audience with her classic Who Wouldn't Love A Man Like That with a cheeky performance involving the band and audience alike. Amongst other tracks she gave a great rendition of her signature track Able Mable.
Brenda Holloway paid tribute to the northern scene and admitted that it had resurrected her singing career bringing her back from a life surrounded by 17 grandchildren which is amazing as she looking so much younger than the rest and giving a very polished perfomance. Sadly not so many tracks from a huge list that we hold dear to us but concentrated on more mid tempo numbers which undoubtedly showed what a great talent she was.
What do you say about Chris Clark ? Wow a shock to anyone's system who had gone with a stereoptype in mind. She bounced out stick thin and a shock of white hair that is her trademark. (Hippie chick !! yes that's the term). Starting with the wonderful Loves Gone Bad and mid stream had the audience singing along with I Want To Go Back There Again. She ended with the one all expected Do I Love You (indeed I do) which was a rousing finale to the first session.
Jack Ashord was glorying in being the compere for the evening with a mish mash of artists calling themselves The Funk Brothers who were I suspect a shadow of what would have been but at the end of the day the group of all ages did a good enough job along with a trio of competent backing singers that tied the show together.
Not billed officially as The Supremes probably for legal reasons but at the end of the day all we have left and the 2 remaining members of Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne were joined by Joyce Wilson who I last saw perform in the 70's when she was a member of Dawn (yes of Tie A Yellow Ribbon fame) and have never forgotten how good they were but probably too embarrassed to admit it until now. They gave us all the classic's such as Baby Love and Come See About Me and with so many to choose from it was a good long set with well rehearsed routines from a stunning trio of ladies.
Final act and highlight of the show for me was Thelma Houston who strode on stage and belted out Baby Mine, if she had not I would have asked for my money back as it is synonymous with her and boy did she perfom it well. The audience were by this time getting very well into it and the security in our area kept trying to get people to sit down but eventually the crowd erupted and dancing in the aisles throughout the arena ensued with the security just shrugging their shoulders and giving up.
So good to see an audience of a certain age enjoying themselves even Christopher Biggins who was a couple of seats back from us was up on his feet in admiration, our intrepid reporter Kath Newman spent half the night dancing in the aisle I noticed. NICE ONE Mean Fiddler we thank you for bringing this show to our shores.
Those in the heartland of northern soul who did not take the opportunity to support the event planned for Doncaster Dome on the previous night, shame on you. It had to be cancelled due to lack of support and those planning to go missed the treat of their lifetime.
;D