Once in a Lifetime: Legends Live 2009
Jan Stephenson, Evening Chronicle
Junior Walker and the Allstars kicked off the night to celebrate 50 years of Motown. One of their biggest hits, What Does it Take, certainly went down well. The saxophone playing was superb as expected but the vocals weren’t as crisp and clear as they could have been.
Next to take the stage were The Miracles – minus Smokey who left the band in 1972. They opened their set with the much-loved Tears of a Clown, which got a fair few of the audience into dancing mode. They certainly gave a moving performance with Tracks of My Tears. These guys, who must all be in their 60s, proved they could still do nifty dance moves while singing the classic Love Machine.
Motown memories came flooding back when Martha Reeves and the Vandellas hit the stage with timeless hits such as Heatwave, Jimmy Mack, Nowhere to Run and one of the most covered songs of all time Dancing in the Street. Martha could still reach those ear splitting high notes with ease but again the backing band often drowned out the vocals.
Mary Wilson, who was once one third of the hugely successful Supremes, belted out the old favourites of the era including Can’t Hurry Love, Baby Love, Stop in the Name of Love. By this time I was beginning to wonder whether it was my hearing at fault, but once again I struggled at times to hear what was being sung so I was so glad that I could remember the words to some of the songs!
The stage setting so far had been very drab with nothing to comment on so it was a welcome change to see a touch of pyrotechnics and alternative lighting when the final act, The Commodores came on the stage after a short interval. They entertained the three-quarters full arena with their hits of yesteryear including love songs Easy and Truly. Once again, the performers were occasionally dogged with sound problems but the vast majority of the audience didn’t seem to mind.
The gaps between the performances often left me wondering whether we were going into a break and I felt that the show could have been more polished and tightly pulled together .For me, the night somewhat lacked in atmosphere and I came away slightly disappointed though there was no getting away from the fact that all the artists are extremely gifted and fifty years in the trade is some achievement.
