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Suzi Quatro's Detroit

Suzi Quatro's Detroit: Episode 3: Al Abrams

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Episode 3

Episode 3: Al Abrams

Al Abrams

BBC Radio 2 - Suzi Quatro's Detroit, Al Abrams

Suzi Quatro meets unsung Detroit hero, Motown publicist Al Abrams.

Suzi Quatro meets unsung Detroit hero, Motown publicist Al Abrams, the company's first ever employee.

When he was a boy, Al Abrams used to smuggle a radio under his bedclothes so that he could listen to his beloved blues and R&B. The white son of a Jewish family - his father had one of the first integrated businesses in Michigan - Al would regularly make the unusual trip across town to buy blues records from the shop where John Lee Hooker worked and spent all his free time hanging around radio stations.

Which is how - as this unsung hero explains to Suzi tonight - Al came to be the very first employee of Motown Records, engaged by Berry Gordy as his PR man after an epic feat of radio plugging!

Al was right at the heart of Motown during its most creative period, and his natural guile produced some notable coups for the nascent soul legends.

How do you overcome the racism of one magazine editor to get Diana Ross and The Supremes on the front cover of a TV listings magazine? Let him believe you lost ownership of the company in a card game!

The full story & many others are uncovered by Suzi as she meets Al Abrams - one of the most influential people in music history that you've never heard of!

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

Suzi Quatro revisits her home town to explore its rich musical heritage

Suzi Quatro revisits her home town of Detroit, and explores its rich musical heritage by shining a light on some of its less celebrated stars

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Episode 3: Al Abrams

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