DONNA SUMMER

A four act show always runs the risk of dragging, even when the organisation is as meticulous as it was last Saturday at New York’s Radio City Music Hall when Archie Bell & the Drells, Donna Summer, Bobby Womack and the Temptations all appeared in one of a series of concerts promoted by black WBLS disc jockey Frankie Crocker.

But the use of two stages, one at the rear and one at the front which rose as the curtains closed on the rear, kept the show moving with the kind of precision that every road crew must dream about. Apart from a ten-minute break before the Temptations, there was no delay at all, Summer following Bell and Womack following Summer so quickly that their respective songs almost segued into one another.

My most particular interest lay in Womack and Ms Summer, as did that of Mick Jagger who, I was reliably informed, was closeted up in the balcony of this massive ancient theatre chatting before he went on with Womack who wrote ‘It’s All Over Now’, one of the Stones’ biggest early hits.

Donna Summer has had a massive disco hit in the US with ‘Love To Love You Baby’, and her album of the same title, the first side of which contains a 16 minute and 30 second version of the same song, is also a hot seller. Her act is based entirely around this song, although she sang two other numbers besides, one of which was a dead ringer for ‘I’m A Man’, the Steve Winwood classic recorded by the Spencer Davis Group. 

Entering the sage rather as Cleopatra entered Rome, carried by a couple of hunky guys and wearing a gold hairpiece, Donna opened with a brief version of ‘Love To Love You’ accompanied by a couple of dancers and a biggish back-up unit called Smoke. There followed the two other songs and a five-minute spell of instrumental funk noodling before she reappeared for a final, lengthy reprise of ‘Love To Love You’, on which she was joined by six dancers, three amorous couples, and plenty of dry ice.

While Ms Summer warbled the lyrics and cooed in the orgasmic fashion of the record, the dancing couples, all dressed in skin tight, flesh-coloured garments that gave the impression of nakedness from where I was sat, simulated various sexual positions. It all seemed a bit Benny Hill meets Carry On Up The Khyber to me and the audience, bored rather than shocked at this massage parlour display, responded limply. 

        It took Bobby Womack and his excellent band to stop the giggling and bring back the music. Most of Womack’s material was new, up-tempo funk. He pushed it along with hoarse vocals, and was perpetually prodding at the band to get the most out of them, especially the three-piece brass section. Looking rather like a Cuban revolutionary in his beret and khaki clothes, he strapped on a Les Paul during his final two numbers and sounded remarkably like Hendrix.

He was good but rather anonymous. He didn’t play ‘It’s All Over Now’ – I was rather hoping Mick would join him for this as an encore – but he didn’t get one, even though I thought he deserved one. Both Bell and his Drells and, most especially in the light of their hit-strewn back catalogue, the Temptations delivered traditional black soul, complete with fancy steps, nice vocal harmonies and, in the case of the Drells, some Kung-Fu action.