Tamla Motown European revue March/April 1965 - a question

[blue_whippet]

I wonder if anyone can help with this question and satisfy my curiosity. What dates did the review appear in Rotterdam and Hamburg [[Supremes only perhaps?) The UK dates of the review are well publicised and it is known that the review ended in Paris on April 13th. Even though a photo of the review on stage in Rotterdam has appeared on this forum and several photos of the Supremes in Hamburg can be found on the internet, it is difficult to determine at what stage of the visit they appeared in Holland and Germany. Could these appearances have occurred before they started the UK leg or could they have happened during the UK tour on days off? It seems strange that these parts of the tour are hardly ever referred to in any literature on the subject. Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks.

[bobkayli]

The link below should provide some help with regard to Rotterdam. I would say it is early in the tour since the Temptations are shown in the photos. I wonder if it was a tv date since no concert is mentioned in any archive I can find. Would love to hear any more you can find out about it.

http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread...upremes-Photos

as regards Hamburg, I can't help too much. I do have a German Tamla Motown promotional compilation LP from the time of the label launch in 1965. It is called Detroit Sound, is on the Tamla Motown label in stereo numbered TMLF 100-HC. The CBS logo is also shown on the sleeve. The liner notes talk about the history of the label up to that point. The blue vinyl label and numbering is identical to that used for the French promotional release made at the same time although 'made in Germany' is stamped onto the run-out groove of the vinyl.

[blue_whippet]

Thanks Bobkayli for your reply and interest in this question. It is something that I have found curious for some time and there are several references made to the revue in Motown literature but they all appear contradictory in parts. Here are some quotes from a selection of publications which should shine some light of the subject:

In Mary Wilson’s Dreamgirl the itinerary section states ‘March 12-mid-April – Motown Revue in Europe. March 18 The Sound of Motown taped.’

Sharon Davis – A Motown History: p38 ….Revue to Britain [[Stevie Wonder arrived 3 days before the others on the 12th). The tour began on 20th March and finished on 12th April.

Mark Ribowsky – The Supremes. P197-198 – ‘took off in a private plane bound for London’. On the ground at Heathrow, the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society had assembled another welcoming mob’. [[No dates mentioned).

Kingsley Abbott – A Motown Reader, p227. the first European tour was set [[no dates mentioned).

Terry Wilson – tamla motown, the story behind the UK single. This has more detail compared with other references. pp61-62 – launch date for Tamla Motown UK label – Friday March 19th. Motown had sent 6 acts to Europe for a revue tour, arriving in the UK on March 18th. The entourage was greeted at Heathrow by a crowd…..before being whisked off to tv studios to tape The Sound of Motown. …24 day UK tour including 21 live dates. P68, footnote 30, listed the UK tour dates followed by the statement ‘the revue proceeded to also visit France, Holland and Germany.’

Billboard Magazine, Feb. 20th 1965 – article titled ‘ Tamla-Motown Expands Abroad’, includes the sentence…will include a tour of England, a TV special and a visit to France, Germany and Holland by the Supremes’.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m...201965&f=false


Billboard Magazine, March 20th 1965 – revue is publicised including UK tour dates but no mention of other dates, but states England, Scotland, Paris, France

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=a...%201965&f=true

Sunday Post-Crescent, July 11, 1965. Article titled ‘Motown sound puts Detroit on musical map’ includes the following statements:

In April they and other Motown artists made a 3-week tour of England, France and Germany.

‘In Hamburg, Germany where the Supremes appeared on tv….’

Al Abrams Hype & Soul – I had hoped this would include the definitive dates but although there are press releases which include reference to the revue, there is no mention of shows in Germany or Holland.

That’s about as much as I can find on the matter. I think the Terry Wilson statement is of most interest but we can rule out the fact that any shows in Germany and Holland followed the UK tour. Also if the tour arrived in London on 18th March, then it suggests that they arrived and appeared in Europe sometime between 12th and 18th March. This could also suggest that for the TMAS welcome and the well photographed arrival at Heathrow airport, the flight arrived from either Germany or Holland and not directly from the US. Hopefully someone from Germany or Holland who were there at the time could help solve this mystery.

[bobkayli]

There is some good detail on the European tour also in Berry Gordy To Be Loved and Martha Reeves Dancing In The Street although they don't add any detail regarding Rotterdam and Hamburg.
My research on this has mainly been from the French angle. On 13th/14th/15th April besides the concert there were a number of promotional events around Paris besides the Motortown Revue show at Olympia including a press launch of the French Tamla Motown label, Supremes photo sessions on the Champs Elysees, Trocadero and Bois de Boulogne as well as a Vandellas photo shoot at the Louvre as well as the Supremes almost being arrested for blocking the traffic on the Champs Elysees.
It is a detail that may give some light but I remember that the Temptations arrived in UK before the rest of the Revue. I can't find it anywhere for the moment but I am sure that I have something from Otis Williams confirming that. Could be that the whole Revue except for the Temps went to Rotterdam/Hamburg to begin with and the Temps coming to London first and were joined by the rest in London later. I need to dig out my old music magazines from the era to see if they add anything [[for example concert dates for the Temps). The Temps were certainly only present for the first part of the UK Tour as Otis Williams mentions in his book The Temptations. The UK tour dates didn't leave a lot of time to travel to Rotterdam and Hamburg. The Rotterdam date could not have followed on from Paris. Berry Gordy mentions in his book that the entourage split after Paris when he and Diana stayed on in Paris to cement their relationship so to speak.
The German LP I mentioned earlier is identical to that used in the Paris press launch of the label which suggests that something was done in Germany although I can find nothing so far.
Maybe a search of German and Dutch language internet sites will yield something.
Sorry if it's a bit of a rambling post but digging out these details does require some detective work and maybe there are some useful bits that come out for you.

[blue_whippet]

Thanks again for this information. The promotional activities on 14/15 April are new to me - for example I've never seen any promo photos of the Vandellas at the Louvre. I assumed [[incorrectly) that the Olympia concert was the final activity before returning to the States and I've read that the Supremes traffic incident happened on the afternoon before the Olympia performance. There are a couple of photos of the Supremes arriving at Le Bourget airport [[presumably from England following the final show on 12th April) and Mary is wearing the outfit with the distinctive hat she is wearning [[in parts) in the Champs Elysee footage. The photos of the Supremes in Hamburg suggests to me this is earlier in the tour from the outfits they are wearing. It makes sense there would be a lauch event of the label in Germany as there were equivalent activities in London and Paris, and the promo LP's you mentioned. So it looks like the revue did start in Rotterdam and Hamburg before it travelled to London. Would be great if we could get the appearance dates confirmed.

[Hotspurman]

Here are the British dates for that revue:

20 March – Astoria, Finsbury Park [[6.40 & 9.10)
21 March – Odeon, Hammersmith [[6.00 & 8.00)
22 March – Day off
23 March – Colston Hall, Bristol [[6.30 & 8.45)
24 March – Capital, Cardiff [[6.00 & 8.30)
25 March – Odeon, Birmingham [[6.45 & 9.00)
26 March – ABC, Kingston [[6.45 & 9.00)
27 March – Winter Gardens, Bournemouth [[6.00 & 8.30)
28 March – Odeon, Leicester [[5.40 & 8.00)
29 March – Day off
30 March – Odeon, Manchester [[6.15 & 8.45)
31 March – Odeon, Leeds [[6.20 & 8.40)
1 April – Odeon, Glasgow [[6.40 & 9.00)
2 April – ABC, Stockton [[6.15 & 8.30)
3 April – City Hall, Newcastle [[6.30 & 8.45)
4 April – Empire, Liverpool [[5.40 & 8.00)
5 April – Day off
6 April – ABC, Luton [[6.30 & 8.45)
7 April – ABC, Chester [[6.15 & 8.30)
8 April – City Hall, Sheffield [[6.20 & 8.50)
9 April – ABC, Wigan [[6.20 & 8.35)
10 April – Gaumont, Wolverhampton [[6.30 & 8.40)
11 April – Gaumont, Ipswich [[5.30 & 8.00)
12 April – Guildhall, Portsmouth [[6.30 & 8.30)

[phil]

[QUOTE=Hotspurman;155957]Here are the British dates for that revue:

There's a great BBC documentary on this tour, where Mary Wilson says that the attendance was so poor they called it "The Ghost Tour" !