When Motown Came to Britain 

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BBC Two - When Motown Came to Britain

How a group of dedicated music fans paved the way for the first Motown tour of Britain.

The story of how a small group of dedicated British music fans paved the way for the first Motown tour of Britain, changing the country’s popular culture forever.

In 1965, some of Motown’s brightest new stars, including The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, arrived in London for a tour that would change the face of British music history.

At that time, pop music fans in the UK were unlikely to hear black music on mainstream radio, and names like Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson still meant nothing to most British people.

But thousands of miles away from where these exciting new sounds were being recorded in Detroit, a small group of dedicated British music fans had stumbled across the songs and began championing its artists. 

This is the story of how, by doing so, they paved the way for the first Motown tour of Britain, changing the country’s popular culture forever and helping propel the Motown artists to international stardom.

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