MARTHA REEVES ON SMASHING PLATES WITH DUSTY SPRINGFIELD & FLYING THE FLAG FOR MOTOWN

MARTHA REEVES ON SMASHING PLATES WITH DUSTY SPRINGFIELD & FLYING THE FLAG FOR MOTOWN

Martha Reeves is more than a Motown Memory, she is still a touring, performing, people-meeting, audience-pleasing Motown Maven.

Her story is one of dreams, the sort of dreams that made stars back in a day when lucky breaks, dedication and hard work combined to propel hit makers centre stage and to the forefront of millions of global fans’ attentions.

A time when vocal prowess reigned where today artificial voice manipulation, fashion gimmickry and social aloofness are passports to fame. Once real people sang real songs about real life and the world sang and danced along.

Since she began shimmering in Motown’s musical limelight and was presented to audiences and the entertainment industry in 1962 as Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, millions of music lovers have been dancing and singing along to dozens of their million selling hits. Their outrageously catchy songs raced up the dance charts  one after the other like Nowhere to Run, Dancing in The Streets, Heat Wave and Jimmy Mack…I catch Martha as she is about to sit for a CBS radio interview in her home town of Detroit. The solid gold soul diva chats with me and I ask her what she and the ladies asked of Jimmy, “....when are you coming back?”

PJ: You’ve only just flown back stateside after a multi date tour of the UK and you’re still on the go in Detroit. How do you keep up a pace that would leave younger performers flagging?

Martha: I keep my energy up simply by doing what I love, which is performing and singing for my audiences. As long as they want me and I can keep on doing that, I’ll have that energy.

PJ: This last tour had you bouncing around the UK through September; Selsey, New Brighton, Horsham, Porthcawl, Eastleigh,Cannock, Skegness, Chatham…and more. These are smaller venues dotted away from the big cities. Are there any favourites in this bunch?  

Martha: Fans are everywhere and I am happy to go to them. Smaller, more intimate gigs are as energising as any large arena or theatre stage. I have those too. I tour big cities in Germany, the USA and Canada too but my UK audiences are special to me and I’m happy to see them in their own hometowns. This last tour, like all my tours, was delightful. I can’t say I have a favourite city or town. No one city or country is more enjoyable than the other because it’s all about the audiences and each place I play has such receptive audiences. But the one gig that stood out this time for me was the Isle of Wight. We went over on the ferry and that was really exciting and I got a personal tour from the promoter. It was a really lovely way to see all of that territory and learn of all the beautiful places you could visit on the Isle of Wight.

PJ: You mentioned how fond you were of your UK audiences. Are there any differences in them as opposed to your US audiences? 

Martha: Differences? Maybe only in taste for different songs. I’m from the 60’s and what you consider an oldie but a goodie yet I also have more recent product like my last album Home to You (2002) which I produced on my own, but UK audiences have a love and desire for the old songs and they will request them and shout out to me while I’m performing. So I hear what they want and later I will I seek out arrangements for those requests for the next time I visit; arrangements for things like No One There. Danny Bristol wrote it and it was placed on the Black Magic album, my last album with Motown.

My time with Motown was ‘61 to ’71. So audiences know those songs. Here No One There is certainly one they know so well and they’d shout it out. Then I’d learn they would call the UK DJ’s, who I love, and the DJ’s will put it on a 45 record. So the next thing you know I’m singing it in my show! It’s included by popular demand.

We have a good time in the UK just remembering the good old songs like A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knocking) too. That was our third UK release.

It’s a good place, the UK, and a good feeling that people remember you and will come and join in with you signing and the afterward share their stories.

I have meet and greets after the shows and the fans’ stories will be how they first fell in love to the music, they’ll introduce their children to me and their grandchildren who grew up on the music. It’s amazing. The music is good family music and every member of the family can enjoy it. We only have good clean lyrics that represent the trials and tribulations of love.

PJ: What standout memories do you have of your years in the 1960’s as Martha and The Vandellas?

Martha: All are standout…I can’t really pick out one in particular but I had a tour after I spent nine months at Motown as a secretary. I had been spotted singing in the Twenty Grand Club in Detroit by a Motown A&R director, Mickey Stevenson, and I was asked to come in and audition. I found myself working at Motown’s offices but getting spots singing back-up or filling in for singers who didn’t show and eventually forming with the other girls to become Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

That first tour was three months on a bus travelling with maybe eight other acts and a twelve piece band. We got back to Detroit, after those three gruelling months with, I guess, only about 2 motel visits and the rest of the time living on that bus. We’d change clothes in bus station restrooms. It was arduous but after we got off that long, hard tour we managed to have every act that was on that bus get their songs into the record charts. That included The Supremes, “Little” Stevie Wonder, The Miracles and The Temptations who were singing back-up for Mary Wells at the time. We were a whole collection of artists and that was our first adventure.

That was an outstanding experience and something I’ll always remember and something I’ll always hold dear in my heart. We didn’t know where we were going or what we’d be faced with but we made it…and survived!

PJ: It wasn’t long before you were to meet and become good friends with Dusty Springfield who almost singlehandedly introduced Motown and Motown music to excited UK audiences. What do you recall of your times with Dusty? 

Martha: Yeah! Exactly! Dusty! We met at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre. The really popular DJ Murray Kaufman was great.  He would put artists together at the Brooklyn Fox, about four or five British Artists and the current American acts who were making the charts. I remember being on the show, the bill, with The Imperials, The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers…

[Martha sings me a few bars of Unchained Melody and then chuckles warmly]  

…Gerry and The Pacemakers, Millie..

[Martha sings aloud, “My Boy Lollipop!” and laughs long and heartily]

…and Dusty Springfield! I was asked to go and make friends with her. Dusty was in her dressing room, sort of upset, and she said the English way to express your anger was to throw china! Well they put me in the room with her while she was throwing china and I thought it was kind of fun so I picked up a plate and threw it at the wall too!

I found out she had been left there by her manager and there weren’t too many people she had made friends with so I became her first friend in the USA.

Our friendship allowed us to come and do a Ready Steady Go! TV special that she had. Several names on the Motown Appreciation Society got together and talked Berry Gordy into letting all his big acts fly over at one time. The Supremes weren’t really well known in the UK then, neither were the Miracles but at the end of that special we had all gained recognition. That was all down to Dusty and her love of our music. She introduced Motown to the UK. I don’t think any china was thrown that night.

PJ: You have peppered your career with politics. How did that come about?

Martha: Well I could see there were a lot of things needing fixing in Detroit and I served for four years on the Detroit City Council, 2005 to 2009 and that was good. Interesting and hard work but after four years I had enough and returned to doing what I do best, making music and touring. I am still involved with AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) which is a cause to secure payment to artists for airplay of their material. I have appeared as its representative testifying before the American Congress on behalf of musicians, session singers and recording artists for better wages and royalties

In the UK artists get paid royalties for airplay but not in the USA. This is a concern begun by Frank Sinatra.

I also campaigned and succeeded in having West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, given the official secondary name of Berry Gordy Jr. Blvd in honour of the original street address of Motown at No. 2649 West Grand Blvd. I’m very proud to have managed that as a tribute to Motown.   

PJ: So Miss Reeves, we have a very good mutual friend who tells me that you have it in mind to put together a multi-pronged entertainment package to mark your years with Motown and as a solo performer over the following decades. I’ve been appointed as a partner in this venture if it goes forward so I look forward to seeing you and getting started on this with you soon.

Martha: Yes! I know and I’m raring to go PJ because at my age you might begin to forget stuff! So I look forward to seeing you soon.

PJ: Splendid. Is there anything you’d like to add for UK readers?

Martha: Tell the UK readers I’m always coming home!  

     

Martha Reeves tours throughout the UK, Europe and North America. For information on upcoming dates visit:

www.missmarthareeves.com.

PETER JARRETTE IS AN ARTIST AND INTERNATIONALLY PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF SEVERAL FICTION, NON-FICTION AND MEMOIR ADULT TITLES AND CHILDREN'S BOOKS. HE IS A COLUMNIST AND CELEBRITY INTERVIEWER.