The Four Tops + The Temptations, Windsor Hall, BIC (From Dorset Echo)

The Four Tops + The Temptations, Windsor Hall, BIC

2:47pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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WHILE almost every jobbing band claims an ability to “rock the place”, it has taken a performance of Motown legends to deliver my first experience of the phenomenon.

As the Four Tops launch into Reach Out I’ll Be There, the tiered seating which is my vantage point for tonight’s concert sways alarmingly beneath me.

In a spontaneous display of affection, the audience has risen to its feet as one to show its appreciation for the pink-shirted legends on the stage.

By the time they close with I Can’t Help Myself, I’m starting to fear for my safety as the seating tiers absorb the energy of row upon row of foot stamping, hand clapping fans.

Original member Duke Fakir introduces the songs, while ex-Temptation Theo Peoples takes lead vocals on almost every number, his voice an instrument of astonishing power, and his flawless phrasing a template for the standard required of any singer aspiring to the status of legend.

The pace drops for a mid-set tribute to deceased former members Levi Stubbs, Obie Benson and Lawrence Payton, but lifts again with Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got) and the thunderous finale, in which Reach Out segues seamlessly into its musical twin, Standing in the Shadows of Love.

The Temptations follow the Four Tops, and while their delivery of one classic hit after another generates rapturous applause, the spontaneous displays of devotion inspired by the Four Tops are not repeated.

Bruce Williamson’s constant exhortations to “party” sound like instructions, and it’s only the sublime Just My Imagination that transports me from cynical journalist to wildly clapping fan.

A seemingly light-hearted take on the once mighty Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone, passes at a gallop, and My Girl – introduced by Otis Williams as “The Temptations’ national anthem” – is marred by Williamson’s James Brown-style adlibs.