Why is Motown so big in the UK?

[westgrandboulevard]

My original hometown from my youth is on the central southern coast of UK.

A ferry route to the Isle Of Wight, and a place which I would describe as a country town, found on the coast.

In the 1960s, there were few if any clubs in that area. I would have needed to have gone to a city or large town about 35 miles round trip in either direction, and still would not have heard any TM records. Had I lived in London, or one of the big cities like Liverpool and Manchester, the chances of doing so would have been increased.

My introduction to Tamla Motown music was initially through the music press each week, and via Radio Luxembourg, albeit with an infuriatingly bad reception at times, and some programmes of dubious entertainment value!

Pat Campbell [[?) would play the best selling American 45's of the week. I was aware of Motown acts, but I particularly remember hearing Doris Troy's 'Just One Look' in the Top 10, and being mesmerised by that piano led intro and moody vocal. Even the name conjured up a powerful image. It all just spoke to me.

The Hollies had a big hit here with their cover version, very narrowly missing the top spot. While I didn't like it anywhere near as much, I could well understand why people would go out and buy it.

I started making a mental note of all the UK cover versions of American records, either being played as new releases on Radio Luxembourg, and also on BBC radio, if they sold well enough to make the top end of the charts. I would match the titles with those listed on the American charts, which then gave me insight into the original versions, and want to know more about the artists.

The music papers then began drawing readers' attention to the original American versions which, by comparing the currently known versions to the originals, then created a curiosity, a demand. An excitement, in anticipation of the next records by these artists, which began to show on the American Top 50 [[I don't think we saw Top 100 charts here?).

In that respect, although the original Tamla Motown and other R&B/soul records did not sell as well in the UK [[at least, on first release), the fact of them being covered by white British artists did give indirect awareness of their existence, and so an exposure to the general, predominantly white UK record buying public.

Along came 'Ready, Steady, Go!' [[televised on Friday evening in the London area, I believe - but on Sunday afternoons in my southern region), and we then actually got to see these original artists, performing to their records. Miming, as we called it then!

Those 'name' acts which would read so well in the music magazines [[Supremes, Vandellas, Marvelettes, Velvelettes, Tops, Temptations, Miracles), and with records which sounded so good on radio, would then both look and sound good on our TV screens at home. A double knockout.

I only had to hear the intro of a Motown record on the transistor radio, or hear a record introduced, to have a shot of adrenaline race through me, and leap for the volume switch. To this day, if it doesn't have that Hitsville Snakepit sound, then to me it isn't quite 'Motown', despite what the label may say.

The same effect would happen to me when the acts would appear on the TV screen. They all seemed so impossibly glamorous, assured, polished and mature. The welcoming presence of these entertainers, with their wide smiles, expansive gestures and heartfelt songs, seemed to give young people, growing perhaps with some uncertainty from childhood into maturity, something to which they could relate, and in which they could believe. It's as if we all belonged together in spirit.

There was the strong element of gospel to the music [[far more 'get happy' than the more staid religious education which was my own experience), together with the publicised 'family' nature of the Motown acts, which increased the attraction.

The fact that these artists were in fact black, and therefore 'different', further enhanced their appeal, not simply because they were different, but different as in 'great', and not different as in 'bad', and so were to be completely and wholeheartedly admired.

The 'ghost tour' of the country in 1965, when the TM label was launched and nationally publicised the product, may not have been a commercial success, but I still think it was, in broader terms, about the right timing for it. Just a pity that it was not possible to have broadcast the 'RSG!' special with Dusty before the tour commenced.

Tamla Motown music was initially a very slow burn success in the UK, more in appreciation than in commercial terms, but the love of it continues, having endured now for nearly 60 years.