I wish I had it with me to quote exactly but Martha Reeves is interviewed in this months Record Collector and the interviewer asks her about her appearance on a bill featuring other ladies of Motown including Brenda Holloway and Chris Clark (and maybe Carolyn Crawford) and Martha insinuates that these were no-hit artists who weren't fit to be on the same stage as her and people only went to the gig to see her!

I think there may well be a few people on this forum who strongly disagree with that statement. I'd pay good money to see Brenda Holloway. You'd have to pay me to go see Martha Reeves.

* FULL ACTUAL QUOTE FURTHER DOWN THE THREAD

Re: the comments she made, maybe she's still on THAT acid trip

Saw her at Liverpool Arena last summer and must admit wasn't impressed, but then got home & listened to "Love Guess Who" and forgave & forgot.

Edited September 6, 201014 yr by isis

Cant understand why all the animosity towards her, at the end of the day there's quite a few artists out there who's voices have gone, In there time I'm sure they all thought they were better than the next artist, but credit were its due,we all bought the records because they were brilliant tunes and had voices to die for The woman's 63/4 years old for goodness sake I'm sure my voice has changed over the years who would dare tell her she no longer can sing, not me that's for sure she and many others have given me years of pleasure through there music .Instead of patting her on the back after a show maybe you should tell her how you really feel but i doubt anyone would have the balls to do that.People are very good sat behind a screen moaning about this n that then they go and see an artist, get to meet them and go,Ooo that was great loved you you were brilliant, then slag them of on places like this. We should embrace the Artists we have left not slate them.and enjoy the music they gave us over the last 30 - 40 years or so without them we wouldn't have a soul scene.

We should embrace the Artists we have left not slate them.

...and perhaps YOU would care to point that out to the egomaniacal Ms. Reeves next time you bump into her....

I wish I had it with me to quote exactly but Martha Reeves is interviewed in this months Record Collector and the interviewer asks her about her appearance on a bill featuring other ladies of Motown including Brenda Holloway and Chris Clark (and maybe Carolyn Crawford) and Martha insinuates that these were no-hit artists who weren't fit to be on the same stage as her and people only went to the gig to see her!

I think there may well be a few people on this forum who strongly disagree with that statement. I'd pay good money to see Brenda Holloway. You'd have to pay me to go see Martha Reeves.

* FULL ACTUAL QUOTE FURTHER DOWN THE THREAD

It doesn't surprise me Pete. I remember being on nights at the back end of the 70s doing a 'watch-keeping' job and we'd got Luxembourg on in the background. They had a 'Ladies of Soul', or 'Motown Ladies' special on and Martha Reeves was a studio guest. In the middle of show, they asked her to play 5 of her favourite tracks and the first 3 were her (can't remember which ones). The DJ then picked her up - arguing that surely there must have been other 'decent' singers around, and then she went off on one, putting the same argument forward, that nobody at Motown was fit to shine her boots, let alone sing on the same stage. Personally, there's a few I'd have in front of her:yes:

Cant understand why all the animosity towards her, at the end of the day there's quite a few artists out there who's voices have gone, In there time I'm sure they all thought they were better than the next artist, but credit were its due,we all bought the records because they were brilliant tunes and had voices to die for The woman's 63/4 years old for goodness sake I'm sure my voice has changed over the years who would dare tell her she no longer can sing, not me that's for sure she and many others have given me years of pleasure through there music .Instead of patting her on the back after a show maybe you should tell her how you really feel but i doubt anyone would have the balls to do that.People are very good sat behind a screen moaning about this n that then they go and see an artist, get to meet them and go,Ooo that was great loved you you were brilliant, then slag them of on places like this. We should embrace the Artists we have left not slate them.and enjoy the music they gave us over the last 30 - 40 years or so without them we wouldn't have a soul scene.

The last thing I'd want to do after being musically tortured is hang around for an hour trying to meet the artist. In fact I'd never want to meet any artist, why would I want to do that?

I agree that her voice is gone and it would be better to step down now - but the twice I saw her before her voice went she was fantastic. And also she sat for about an hour around 77/78 signing autographs after a show at Newcastle Mayfair. I don't doubt that some people have found her unpleasant but my experience was the opposite - she was friendly and didn't give it the ego trip at all and signed an autograph " Forget me not" on my request. Maybe the fact that she has lost her voice has left her with the need to point out how good she was - who knows:

Manus

Edited September 7, 201014 yr by manus

Don't think she was ever a very good singer but she and (and let's not forget) The Vandellas made some brilliant records, can't remember where I seen it (think it was Martin Freemans take on Motown) but both the original Vandellas were less than complimentary about her.

I watched that Jools Holland show on the night and had to say it was the worst performance by ANY artist on that show, couldn't bring myself to watch it again

Lenny

A real shame she is being so big headed.