Saturday night saw more Xmas eventing with our debut appearance at the rather odd Bloomsbury Ballroom in... um.. Bloomsbury. Descending the staircase was like going into a government building until you enter a large deep ballroom with a pre-war feel. It's a very peculiar experience to be only one of 15 there! But there was method in our madness... we were there to see the one and only Martha Reeves and The Vandellas!

We had seen the ladies last year at the Jazz Cafe where they put on a great show so when I saw this appearance mentioned on a Yahoo Motown site, tickets were nabbed ASAP - very ASAP as our ticket numbers were 18 & 19!

The ballroom was worryingly slow to fill - not surprising as there seems to have been scarce publicity but by the time the band trooped on around 9pm it was busyish - the good thing about that was there was room to get close to the stage and still have a bit of sway-space too! Now I know I'm biased here... but they were great! They rattled through some of their greatest hits - NOWHERE TO RUN, THIRD FINGER LEFT HAND, MY BABY LOVES ME and A LOVE LIKE YOURS (DON'T COME KNOCKING EVERYDAY) during the introduction of which Martha mentioned "my good friend" Dusty Springfield who covered it in the late '70s. They also sang a few covers: Van Morrison's WILD NIGHT, a soulful version of WHAT'S GOING ON? served to highlight the good musicians, and Kim Weston's GO AHEAD AND LAUGH.
The three best though were the ones I guess we all came to hear - JIMMY MACK, (LOVE IS LIKE A) HEAT WAVE and DANCING IN THE STREET - all of which featured Martha, Lois and Delphine - and a hundred-odd amateur Vandellas who clapped and sang along word perfect. It was great to be part of a whole room singing and dancing along and so paying testimony to the enduring magic of Motown and one of it's greatest stars.

After they finished their set it was time to do the meet and greet. I had printed a 6"x4" copy of the photo Owen took of Martha and I at the Jazz Cafe so it was nice to get that signed, the added treat was this time Lois and Delphine were with her so I got a group photo signed too. Owen also pursuaded me to pose with them for a new photo - no, Constant Reader... that is a special one that I won't be blogging.As Owen said, they must do hundreds of these after-show signings, but they still were very friendly and genuinely welcoming. They were happy to chat away and Lois and Delphine both said that since they arrived a few days earlier they had been busy filming the "Later" Hootenanny show so that will have to be watched! We told them we had booked tickets to see them as part of a big Motown tribute night next year at Wembley Arena but that they must come back soon and play their own show too which they say they would love to do soon. With big handshakes and Christmas wishes exchanged I floated off homewards, happier than the happiest thing.