Marvellous Motown has us dancing in the aisles

2:20pm Thursday 26th June 2008

Never in the wildest dreams of the most ambitious music promoter would the likes of Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Martha and the Vandellas, Jimmy Ruffin and the Miracles, Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops and Gladys Knight and the Pips, be assembled together on one stage.

For one thing I doubt if the egos would have borne it.

But this show brings the best of the Motown sound into a compact two-hour show, full of colour, vitality and superb voices.

Compered by a laid-back Courtney Buchanan, who also sings, another six men and four girls bring back to life the stars who found fame and fortune in Detroit, America's motor town - hence Motown - in the Sixties.

The beat is irresistible and no-one had gone to this show to sit still.

From the outset some of the audience were on their feet and dancing. Others took a little more persuasion, but few were still sitting by the final curtain.

The eight-piece band on stage was terrific and although the volume was loud, it didn't drown the singers.

The sharp suits and typically slick choreography of the backing singers were replicated impeccably.

The glamorous gowns - especially for the Supremes - and the wild flares brought back memories.

Courtney Buchanan told the story of Motown and its characters in economical style, enough to inform but not enough to disrupt the musical flow.

There was a good balance of mood, with a run of foot-tappers such as Please Mr Postman, Baby Love, I Heard It Through the Grapevine interspersed with the big romantic numbers like Help Me Make It Through the Night and Three Times a Lady.

The backdrop featured the General Motors factory and a little studio called Hitsville USA where Berry Gordy, a one-time assembly worker for Ford and would-be boxer, launched the Motown phenomenon.

It was a fun night which gave numerous grey-haired boppers probably the best exercise they'd had all week.

Jo Bayne

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