April 3red, Diana Ross & the Supremes in Orlando, FL

[randy_russi]

Apr. 3rd, 1969--Diana Ross & the Supremes at the Orlando Sports Stadium--opening act, the unadvertised Gladys Knight & the Pips. Willie Tyson and Lester also performed. By this
point it had already been announced Diana would leave and their latest single was The Composer,
which had just been released. They did not perform it, however. They wore the gold gowns that
Jean, Mary & Cindy later wore on the cover of their first lp, Right On.

[luke]

Is this the tour Gladys and Pips kicked off of because of crowd response to them?-as in crowd loved them.

[randy_russi]

I don't know, quite possibly as the crowd in Orlando really loved them.

[Glenpwood]

It had been announced she would leave already by April 3rd? All the books I've read said they waited until Someday started to smash before making the formal announcement. Anything before that was speculation.....

[randy_russi]

Well, then, it was highly speculated!

[BayouMotownMan]

It was rumored that Ross was leaving but the official announcement didn't happen until after the airing of GIT

[Jimi LaLumia]

so it seems that "The Composer" was thrown away;
they didn't perform it on TV, they didn't perform it on tour, it's a miracle that it made it to #27 on the Pop chart,seeing as how they acted like it didn't exist..I loved the single, I was actually upset when it basically failed after a week or three of airplay on NY top 40 powerhouse AM MusicRadio 77 WABC..now I understand,they obviously didn't care,they no longer treated the release of a single the way that The Beatles did up to their breakup

[luke]

Was it mentioned at all in their last shows before Jan 1970?

[robbert]

I wonder what Smokey was thinking about this all. The Composer didn't get any commercial or marketing back up from the company, like several years later Bad Weather didn't in 1973.
So BG's early 1970 remark "to wash his hands of the group" had already begun a few years earlier...?

[Jimi LaLumia]

one thing not discussed here is the potential impact of the imaging of the group with the fans..
with some exceptions, Diana Ross was always in the midst of The Supremes,visually vertical with them, before Flo left and the name change..the fans loved the group visual..

as she physically removed herself in proximity from the others[[I suppose in prep for the solo career) the excitement at the record stores seemed to diminish, wit the exception of Reflections, Love Child and Someday...[[and of course the duet with the Tempts on I'm Gonna Make You Love Me)..that comes down to almost one really big hit per year, a far cry from what had been happening just a year or two earlier..

[randy_russi]

Smokey did his own version of The Composer on one his lps with the Miracles.

[motony]

That was one of the few concerts at the old Orlando Sports Stadium that the sound was actually real good.I remember one show there that was the Impressions with the Stairsteps & Barbara Mason & after Barbara Masons 2nd or 3rdsong she just threw up her hands & walked off the stage as the sound was so bad with the mike goin on & off.