Displaying items by tag: Motown

It wasn't just the record business that thrived in the sixties, the live music scene was lively, to say the least, and not just in Central London.

The Four Tops came from Detroit and started as a high school band called The Four Aims (1954). The lineup was lead singer and Jackie Wilson‘s cousin, Levi Stubbs (1936 -2008) , Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson (1936 – 2005), and Lawrence Payton (1938 – 1997) and signed to Chess Records in 1956.

The Temptations formed in 1961 and were made up of singers from several doo-wop groups. The Cavaliers (1955-57), The Primes (1957 -1960), The Siberians/The El Domingoes (1958 -1959), Otis Williams & The Distants (1959 -1960), and The Elgins (1959 - 1960). The Elgins re-christen themselves, The Temptations before signing with Miracle Records, a subsidiary of Motown Records in 1961.

Dusty Springfield was born in 1939 and christened Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien. She came from Scottish Irish descent and her brother Tom, and Tim Filed made up a folk trio called The Springfield’s.

Martha Rose Reeves was born in 1941. in Eufaula, Alabama. The oldest of 11 children to Elijah Reeves and Ruby Lee Reeves, the family moved to Detroit, Michigan,

There is one thing that shines through when you meet Stone Foundation’s lead singer and that is his undying love for the music that this band from the Midlands are producing at this point in their career.