It's not often you get to share a stage singing backing vocals for an inductee of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame but it's lucky for you Constant Reader that I can tell you it feels wonderful!

On Saturday Owen and I went to the Jazz Cafe to see the one and only Martha Reeves & The Vandellas. I must admit I was a bit worried, was her voice going to still be OK? Would the two glorified session singers drafted into Vandelladom be up to the full-bodied vocals that characterised their best songs? And would the band be worth their salt?

Well at 66 Martha's voice is a bit thin in the upper registers but she still has great belt and undeniable charisma. It was good too to see a fairly original Vandella - sister Lois was recruited in 1967 when Betty Kelly was sacked due to in-fighting with Martha and lateness (very "Dreamgirls"!) Their sister Delphine has been singing with them since 1980 so as Owen suggested, has actually been a Vandella longer than any of the originals! They looked great lined up together (see above).

Owen had booked a table for dinner before the show on the first floor which overlooked the centre of the stage so we had a great view of them ripping it up! The 9-strong band were excellent too - a great 4 piece horn section complementing a bassist, drummer, organ player, guitarist and piano player so the Jazz Cafe filled with fantastic sound.

And what a sound! We got (gasp): Come And Get These Memories, (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave, Dancing In The Street, Nowhere To Run, Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things), I'm Ready for Love, Third Finger Left Hand, Jimmy Mack, One Way Out, Forget Me Not - and then from Martha's solo years: Wild Night, Watch Your Back, Home To You and Gold Bless The Child and the evening rounded off with a 60s soul medley.

It was wonderful to hear so many of my favourite Martha songs - singing along with Lois and Delphine's vocal lines of course! - and seeing that Maxine Powell's etiquette drilling at Motown back in the 1960s is bred in the bone with Martha, Lois and Delphine always executing ladylike curtsies at the end of each song! It was also great for Martha to name check so many artists who had covered their material and of course the biggest cheer was for Dusty Springfield who did so much to champion the Motown sound and Martha & The Vandellas in particular in the Ready Steady Go Motown Special where she expressly asked to duet with Martha.

Afterwards a table was set up on the stage and the boxes of cds and photographs were being opened up quickly for an autograph session with the Diva. It was all a bit of a scrum with everyone swarming around the stage clutching albums, cds, cameras and tickets. I guess this is an important part of music veterans stage tours with a chance to make some cold hard cash, CDs £10, laser print photos £5.

A couple of people hopped up on stage so I nervously asked her assistant would it be ok if I had a picture taken expecting a hefty tag to be put on it but no, I was told to come on up! So Owen took our photograph and while signing my cds the DJ Andy Smith put on one of Martha's favourite recordings "My Baby Loves Me" - so she started singing it softly and I joined in the Vandella's "Oh yeahs" - I was in Motown Heaven!!

I'm off to work on those curtsies.....