Last night, I went to the Motown 50 Concert here in Sydney. I’ve always loved Motown given its significant contribution and continuing influence on contemporary artists and music. So when I heard that there was going to be a Motown concert here in Sydney, I did my research and bought my tickets as soon as they came out. That was back in November last year. After almost 3 months waiting, I took out the tickets from my drawer and went to the Sydney Entertainment Centre ready to get awed and move to the rhythm of the unique Motown sound.
The first thing that caught my eye as I got to the venue was the demographic of the attendees. As expected, most of them were older folk aged over 45. However, they were a couple here and there around my age, and I was hoping there would be more young people embracing this great music. Nevertheless, that was not going to deter me from enjoying the concert.
The concert started at about 8:10pm and the first act was Mary Wilson from the Supremes. Oh, how I wish that they could have brought Diana Ross! And I’m not saying that because Mary Wilson wasn’t great. She was awesome last night, still looking and sounding great. It’s just that the Diana Ross IS the Supremes. But then again, if she’d come, the ticket price would have at least doubled and the whole concert wouldn’t have been possible, at least commercially. So it was left to Mary Wilson to sing a couple of the Supremes greatest hits. If my memory serves me correct she sang “Love Child”, “Baby Love”, “Stop! In The Name of Love”, “Reflections”, “You Can’t Hurry Love” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On.” I was a bit disappointed that she didn’t end up singing “Where Did Our Love Go?.” It didn’t matter because she opened the concert with a bang.
The next act were The Miracles. I only recently ‘discovered’ this group and so my knowledge about their songs was and still is not great. Once again, I wish Smokey Robinson had come to perform because he IS the Miracles. Nevertheless, their performance was not too bad. The only songs I can recall that they sang was “Shop Around”, “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me”, “I Second That Emotion” and “The Tracks Of My Tears.” I think they sang another one but I can’t pinpoint it because I have no idea what it’s called. The biggest disappointment of the night was not hearing them sing “The Tears Of A Clown” which is one of the most favourite Motown songs.
The next act of the night was Joan Osborne, who belted out some Motown classics from other artists. She was later joined by famous Australian musicians Ian Moss and Jimmy Barnes to sing “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted.” It was also great to see Ian Moss sing the Stevie Wonder classic “Uptight.” I thought the performance was so good because he sounded a lot like Stevie Wonder.
The next act were The Four Tops. I’ve known this group for a long time now and I had a list of songs in mind that I hope they would sing. The good news is that they sang all of them! I was a bit surprised that they didn’t sing “I Can’t Help Myself” and “The Same Old Song” back to back because that would have been cool. I also think that’s the way the songs are meant to be sung. Just in case you’re not aware, both songs are very similar musically that one can sometimes find it hard to tell the difference. Apart from the aforementioned songs, they sang “Baby I Need Your Loving”, “Reach Out (I’ll Be There” “Standing In The Shadows Of Love”, “Walk Away Renee” and “Bernadette.”
After they finished singing, there was a 15 minute intermission, which I certainly needed after singing a bit too much.
Following the intermission, it was Martha Reeves and the Vandellas who took the stage at the Motown 50 Concert and I must admit that this was the worst performance of the night. The truth is that Martha Reeves’ voice has certainly past its used by date and you could easily tell that she was finding it hard to sing. But she put in her very best effort. Another reason why I thought this wasn’t a good performance was because I was and still am not a fan of the Martha and the Vandellas. However, despite the below average performance, Martha was the most hilarious performer between songs. At one point, she began thanking all the men in her life including Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Lionel Ritchie. Very hilarious! The songs they sang were “(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave”, “Nowhere To Run, “Jimmy Mack” and “Dancing In The Street.”
The final group to take the stage were The Temptations and there was really only 1 song I was looking forward to: “My Girl.” When they did sing it, I could not help but stand up and dance (much like the rest of the auditorium). For me, their performance of “My Girl” was the performance of the night. No other act had been able to get the crowd involved as much as they did. Apart from that song, they sang “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg”, “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” and some other songs, the names of which, I am not able to work out. I guess I still need to improve my knowledge of Motown!
At the end of the concert, all the performers got together on stage to sing 2 songs. One of them was a tribute to their “little brother”, the King of Pop Michael Jackson. It’s true that MJ wouldn’t have been something had it not been for the support of Motown for the Jackson 5. They performed “I’ll Be There” and it proved to be a spectacular ending to the concert.
Overall, the Motown 50 Concert was thoroughly enjoyable and it was a privilege to watch some of the legendary singers in the flesh in action in Sydney. I don’t know what my next concert will be, but I’ll be sure to tell you about it on this blog.
