Tamla Motown - Live In Europe 1965

This is a Record Store Day 2018 item. It will be available to purchase from our stores from 8am 21st April. Remaining stock will be available to purchase from this page at 00.01 28th April.

Dusty Springfield hosted this impromptu TV special to promote the Tamla Motown artists that were taking part in their first ever European tour in 1965. Motown sent over their six premier acts to do promotional visits and play around 30 dates (no-one is sure of the exact number) in France, Germany, Holland and Britain. The Supremes, The Temptations, The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Martha and The Vandellas were all backed by the Motown house band, The Earl Van Dyke Sextet. Dusty was a huge Motown fan and was keen to play her part in bringing the acts to a wider audience. The Beatles and the Stones also went out of their way to give Motown a mention in their interviews. Remember, Motown had only just launched its label in Europe earlier that year and the artists were known only to a small number of soul aficionados, so ticket sales for the tour were very poor. Mary Wilson recalls that the acts referred to it as the ghost tour; sales were so slow that they had to draft in Georgie Fame (at number 1 in the charts with Yeh Yeh) to headline halfway through the tour.