Marvin - Let's Get It On Era Images

As a young teenager I was seen as having odd taste by my school friends as Marv was my hero and not some glammed up pop star like Bowie, Slade or Marc Bolan. Still after all these years you can see I was right! Such a cool dude.

Marvin Gaye Live In London - 1976

Thanks to Nathalie - who on reading my posts on the MPG gig I attended in 1976 found this picture from the Royal Albert Hall appearance two days later.

Related Posts

The Live Album

The Gig on 27th September 1976

Marvin Gaye - Royal Albert Hall (27 September 1976)

In 1976, after a long absence, Marvin Gaye returned to the UK with a triumphant tour which sold out on announcement.  Additional dates would extend the schedule as the faithful turned out to see their hero.  I was one at the front of the queue, never thinking i'd ever get to see him I forked out for two £6 (!) tickets for prime seats at the Albert Hall for the first show.  My wife (then very new girlfriend) and I have been talking about it periodically ever since.

His arrival on stage after a short band "overture" stopped proceedings whilst he lapped up the five minute standing ovation.  Turned out in a black suit with open necked shirt topped wih customary red tam - the pictures above could have been from the show (they're not).  It's an image of him at this time that wasn't unfamiliar.  Looking good and in great voice he showed us why he had endured.

Most acts would be lucky to have one career by then Marvin had many.  From teen idol in the early 60's through a career of duets with Mary Wells, Kim Weston and of course Tammi Terrell; braking  away from the Motown machine with his masterpiece "What's Going On" and continued to demonstrate his maturity through "Let's Get It On" "Trouble Man" and "I Want You".  All of these periods were represented in a comprehensive set.

The newer songs from "I Want You" stood up against the classics and that much under-rated album deserved to be there. Tracks from "What's.." had the crowd initially on their feet then reverently sitting to take it all in.  There were many such stand up and rapturous moments.

The presence of the man, his stagecraft oozed the charismatic promise his press always talked about.  Forget odd Marvin; druggy Marvin and here was Marvin the artist - the crowd needed no convincing.

I still hold it as my top gig ever - and not because he's gone and he's revered in any way.  It was an event, repeated here only a few times more.  Large tours of the USA followed when he finally returned home but the UK would not see him again.  I'm thankful that I did.

The later gigs at the Palladium were released in 1977 as "Live at The London Palladium" and the set reflects what I saw. The album features three live sides for the show and one side with the new long version of "Got To Give It Up".

Berry Gordy Autograph

Whilst working at RCA in 1986 I sat alongside Jaqueline Buxton who coordinated european marketing campaigns on behalf of the national labels and their licensees.  One such licensee was Motown.

The project she was working on at that time was a box set of vinyl albums called "150 Hits Of Gold".  Motown International had the idea that they would promote the sale of this set by running a competition open to all.  The first prize was an expenses paid trip to LA for a few days, the highlight being a "star studded" party with the Motown stars.  Jacqueline knew I was a huge fan and offered to get me an autograph of any of the stars that would be there.  I said that it wasn't my sort of thing band joked that if the chance arose the only one I would want would be from Berry Gordy - The man who started it all.

The release went ahead and a few weeks later the winners (together with far too many RCA minders from around Europe) boarded the plane to LA.  On the trip JB was told by her more experienced Motown label managers that she wouldn't get to talk to the man and he certainly wouldn't sign an autograph.

As it happened she did and she asked if he would sign something for a huge Motown fan in her office who was working on the Motown CD releases.  He agreed and she ripped a page from her diary and he signed that.

One of my treasured possessions.

The second prize was a copy of the box set.

Many thanks for the members of the 45Cat forum who reminded me of this story
(see forum string)

For the story of the first CDs on Motown go to the page tab at the top of the page

Chuck Jackson - I Only Get This Feeling/Slowly But Surely (1973)

A great soul track from the veteran soul singer Chuck Jackson whose career still runs today and has travelled through Wand Records; duets with Maxine Brown; a stint at Motown.  I had this on a single and loved it together with the B side - unavailable on CD to my knowledge.

http://45cat.com/record/pro595

A Motown Story

In March 1983 I joined the newly formed european office at RCA Records based in London. It was my job to coordinate the production of CDs for the label and convert the existing catalogue to issue CD equivalents.

At that time Motown was being distributed in the US by MCA and licensed to EMI everywhere else in the world. The EMI licences were about to expire.........read on  -  The First Motown on CD

Harvey Fuqua (1929 - 2010)

Harvey Fuqua died on 6th July 2010 (born 1929).  Fuqua was a leading light in the three decades of music as a performer, writer, producer and arranger for many well known artists.  In the 1950's he was a member of the Moonglows which later included Marvin Gaye(from 1959).  With the group he hit with "Sincerely" in 1954 and "Ten Commandments of Love" in '58.  He married Berry Gordy's sister Gwen and together they owned and ran the Tri-Phi Label which first contracted with Junior Walker and the Allstars.  In '63 the label was acquired by Motown and Fuqua turned his talents to a raft of stars including Walker, Gladys Knight and Marvin Gaye (who he brought to the label).  He wrote and produced a number of hits for the label including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and many of Walkers hits including "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)".  Post Motown his biggest success was as a producer of disco, most notably "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" for Sylvester and also worked with another ex-staffer at Motown, Johnny Bristol.  He reunited with Marvin Gaye for the "Midnight Love" album in 1982.

Pick up any Motown compilation and it's likely he's featured there somewhere.  One of the unsung heroes.


see also: More on Junior Walker

Soul Messages

Posted my first mix on soundcloud,  This is so easy to do and i'd recommend the site to anyone.

http://soundcloud.com/boyred/tracks

The Persuasions - "Gonna Keep On Tryin 'til I Win Your Love"

No idea what album this is from. It's 70's was on A&M records. Was released as single in the UK on the brown and silver label. The Persuasions are an accapella group. This is a live version of an old motown favourite previously recorded by Marvin Gaye, Jimmy Ruffin and the other class version by the Temptations (whilst they still had Eddie Kendricks). The writer, Norman Whitfield - i'll get to him in a post at some point i'm sure - used to repeat songs on all his allocated artists at Motown looking for the right combination. I had this as part of my original collection ( see "The Lost and Found") and have been looking ever since - if anyone needs other Persuasions albums bought on spec by me looking for this tracks' equal - i'm your man.

Missing In Action.