There are certain acts and certain songs that you feel you have always been aware of.
Songs that are so deeply carved into the psyche that you do not recall a time when you did not know them.
Songs like Dancing in the Street, Jimmy Mack, Heatwave and Nowhere to Run make Martha Reeves and The Vandellas one of those acts.
With Motown producing music that almost 50 years later still manages to sound vibrant, youthful and exuberant, it’s hard to imagine these singer ever growing old.
Unfortunately they will and, more to the point, they have.
Even the posters advertising tonight’s gig showed an iconic image of Martha Reeves and The Vandellas from around 1964 rather than an image of them as they are today.
Bearing all of this in mind, it was difficult to know what to expect tonight, although the knowledge that Martha was playing with an eight-piece band managed to ease my apprehensions slightly. If nothing else, at least the band would be good. Maybe not to the standard of Motown’s Funk Brothers, but good all the same.
Tickets for the show had sold-out and as a venue, Gorilla was the perfect setting for such a gig. Every generation was represented in the audience from old soul stylists to young soul rebels. There were the gig-going veterans and those who are just beginning to discover this magical music.
Martha received a big master-of-ceremonies style introduction from her manager Dundee Holt before she took to the stage.
“Alright Manchester!” she exclaimed before toying with both the band and the audience at the same time. She is an expert at this and even though the dance moves are gone and the voice is not what it was, her ability to connect is still hugely evident.
Whether or not she was definitely ‘toying’ with the band though is unclear. Twice she asked them to restart opening number One Way Out before she was satisfied they were playing it right.
Whether this was a rehearsed piece of kidology remains unclear, as throughout the gig it appeared that she had never met the band in her life!
The two ‘Vandellas’, Vanessa and Christine, were both around 25-years-old and in all honesty seemed more likely to be from Droylsden than Detroit.
In the style of Chuck Berry many years before, it looked as though she had only met the musicians on the day of the gig. That said, the band did a sterling job.
Straight from One Way Out she moved into Come and Get These Memories and then the first really big hit of the night, Nowhere To Run, which unfortunately was too long and a touch too cabaret.
The reverb-effect on Martha’s voice was outrageous. Some of it may have been to mask the cold she was nursing (handkerchief in hand on stage) but some of it may have been to mask the notes that sadly her 72-year-old vocal chords can no longer hit.
The audience were treat to a huge sing-along version of Jimmy Mack, which, if nothing else, turned the evening from being about a performance that people could easily pick holes in, to a simple celebration of great music.
The showbiz-cabaret feel crept back in later in the evening as she serenaded some poor soul in the audience with a version of Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday.
It is may well be something that the gentleman concerned will remember for the rest of his life, but he will probably remember it for all the wrong reasons.
Just as the heart sank though, she jumped into Third Finger Left Hand and we were back on track.
Heatwave, a roof raising Dancing In The Street and a Motown medley followed before she left the stage to a truly deafening round of applause.
Granted, the applause were more to do with who she is rather than the night’s performance, and a move towards more gospel-style songs may suit her voice more these days but right now who cares?
Even if all of the notes weren’t hit perfectly, the joyous spirit of Motown was, and that is the main thing.
Image courtesy of Bengt Nyman, with thanks.
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