Dancing in the Street: Riots

[hannahfulwell]

Hi everyone,
Martha Reeves talks about how a member of the British press once thrust a microphone in her face and asked her if she was a militant leader, claiming Dancing in the Street was a call to riot.

Does anyone know which British press outlet this was? It would be amazing to track down the audio recording!

Thanks as always,
Hannah
[[hannahgreen@fulwell73.com)

[jsmith]

No idea, it would probably have been one of the UK national newspapers. Many of them still employ racist reporters and back in the day, they all did.
An old piece from the British music press .... this is a bit better . .. This is the first time Martha & the Vandellas have been to Britain, the only other date outside the US that they've played is Bermuda. It was there that they heard the news of their forthcoming British visit.
"We were knocked out" exclaimed Martha: "We didn't expect to be coming here. Of course we've always wanted to...
"One thing that depresses me are the old photos of the group that everyone seems to use. After all, our personnel changed some eight months ago.
"We've had Betty Kelly with us for quite a while now, and she must be pretty fed up with being left out.
"We've worked hard to get the image we have now. We don't think it's fair to use old photos of us..."
Martha's professional ambition is to improve her knowledge of music. She wants to study music so that she can read and write it better — it will also help her to write songs. Eventually she hopes to become an actress.
But Martha, unlike the two Vandellas is a shy, quiet person who doesn't always join in with them in their activities . . . . .

[marv2]

Although I was a kid at the time, I don't recall anyone in Detroit viewing the song "Dancing in the Streets" which was released in 1964 as having anything to do with the Great Riot of 1967.

[jsmith]

At the beginning of 1969, EMI started a big Motown promotional campaign. They introduced a competition, the prize being a mini [[car). They also re-released "Dancing In The Street" on 45 and it got a push & soon returned to the UK pop charts. I'd guess that to tie in with the 45 and their big Motown push, EMI would have fetched M&V across to the UK and lined up press interviews for them. If someone can confirm just when M&V came to the UK in 69 [[& they would almost certainly have landed an appearance on the BBC's TV show TOP OF THE POPS quite soon after the 45 hit our singles pop chart), then that would narrow down just when the offensive question was asked.
I'd again guess that the question would have been asked by a journo from the Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph or Express.
In addition, the Stones had released "Street Fighting Man" in the summer of 68 [[LP only in UK at the time, but a 45 track in many countries including the US). They attributed the inspiration for their song's lyrics to "Dancing In The Streets" and their song had the line .... cause summer's here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy ..... that too would have been fresh in the memories of UK reporters just months later in early 69.
As Jan 69 was less than 18 months after the riots occurred & even less time after the buildings in the affected areas were demolished or refurbed, I would say that the reporter involved could have thought it a legit question.