The Velvelettes
Click Photo To Play : Lonely Lonely Girl Am I
The recent short tour by The Velvelettes
The legendary Motown group famous for hit singles such as ‘Needle In A Haystack’, ‘He Was Really Saying Something’, ‘These Things Will Keep Me Loving You’ and many more, recently played gigs in Bedford, Northampton, Peterborough & Kettering. These photo's (below) from the Cressett Centre in Peterborough on November 17th 2006.
In a word "Brilliant" - A few more words polished, professional, sparkling and stunning. They did all the hits and finished with a belting version of Dancing In The Street, that Martha Reeves would have enjoyed.
Add to that a five piece band with vocalist and sax player that could open with Shotgun and do it justice - it was a heck of a show!
Composite of photos from the night... For individual full size photos, click here
Click Records To Play Needle In A Haystack > Takes a few seconds to load
A Brief History
Bertha Barbee and Mildred Gill co-founded the Velvelettes in the early sixties on the campus of Western Michigan University. Mildred's younger sister Caldin 'Carolyn' Gill also joined the group along with her best friend Betty Kelley. Bertha also recommended her cousin Norma Barbee, and she became the fifth member of the group.
They won $25 for winning a talent show in 1962 and that was divided five ways. In the mid winter of the same year, the girls made the trip to Motown to audition at Hitsville USA on 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit.
In summer 1964, Betty Kelley left the Velvelettes to join Martha Reeves and The Vandellas who were all set to tour europe when one of their members Annette Sterling-Beard left the group. There was no time to train a replacement, so Berry Gordy and Martha Reeves agreed that Betty was a perfect fit and so she was pulled from The Velvelettes.
Needle In A Haystack, Lonely Lonely Girl Am I, He Was Really Sayin' Somethin' and These Things Will Keep Me Loving You, and over forty other tracks are to be found on The Velvelettes Anthology double album recently issued by Universal on Motown 980 937-2
Available from all good music shops, and