Temptations & Four Tops with Odyssey on tour!

 ******Tour News ****** Tour News ****** Tour News******

The Temptations and The Four Tops

Plus Special Guests Odyssey

Rescheduled UK Tour Dates for 2022

plus additional show in Southend

26th September 2022:  The Four Tops and The Temptations with special Guests Odyssey bring their re-scheduled UK tour to our shores from 30th September/October 2022.    Tickets remain valid for the new dates.

The Temptations and The Four Tops will be performing some of their most popular and award-winning songs that continue to inspire musicians around the globe. The Tamla Motown label broke down cultural and social barriers and The Four Tops and The Temptations were at the very forefront of that transformative period.  Original members, Duke Fakir and Otis Williams, of the Four Tops and Temptations respectively, hold a special place in the hearts of British fans, and they are both delighted to be returning to the UK for the 9-date concert tour in September/October 2022.

“We are thrilled to be coming back to the UK,” says Duke Fakir. “We always have such a great reception from our fans here, it always feels like home. It makes it so special to perform for the folks in Britain.”

Otis Williams, founding member of The Temptations, adds, “We want to thank our fans in the UK for supporting and inspiring us over a half century. We look forward to celebrating our 60th Anniversary and sharing news about our new album, Temptations 60 with all of you. We’ve had such memorable trips to the UK, dating back to the 60’s, and we can’t wait to see everyone this fall.”

I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch), Reach Out I’ll Be There, Standing In The Shadows Of Love, Bernadette, and Walk Away Renee are all timeless Four Tops’ classics that need little, or no, introduction and they enjoyed a revival of fortunes when Loco In Acapulco, from the film Buster, was a UK hit in 1988.  Four Tops founder member Duke Fakir is joined by Ronnie McNeir, Lawrence Payton Jr and Joseph Alex Morris a truly fine vocalist with a commanding delivery in the current line-up.

The Temptations are marking their 60th Anniversary with an international tour this fall, and they just released a much-anticipated new album, Temptations 60. The new album consists of nearly all original songs that are both modern and classic in feel and sound, and it brings the group together again with some of its beloved producers, including Smokey Robinson and Narada Michael Walden. The Temptations rank No.1 in Billboard magazine’s most recent list of Greatest R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of All Time and are included in the magazine’s 125 Greatest of All Time Artists. The group’s blockbuster No.1 hits “Just My Imagination,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” and “My Girl” are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.” 

Hitting the road with original Temptations’ member, Otis Williams, will be longtime lead vocalists, Ron Tyson, and Terry Weeks, and recently new to the group, Grammy nominated vocalist Anthony “Tony” Grant, and new member, Jawan M. Jackson, from the original cast of the Tony Award-Winning Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations. Jackson played in the starring role as beloved, original Temptation, Melvin Franklin.

Following their initial 1977 UK success with Native New Yorker, Odyssey returned to the UK charts with Use It Up And Wear It Out which spent two weeks at Number 1 in 1980. If You’re Looking For A Way Out, Going Back To My Roots and Inside Out were all Top 10 smashes on this side of the Atlantic. Steven Collazo joined his mother Lillian Lopez in the band, and they continued performing across the UK, Europe, and the Middle East. Steven continues to lead Odyssey keeping the memory of his late mother very much alive.  He says “We are so honoured and pleased to be joining the legendary Four Tops and Temptations in the UK as their special guest and support. These islands have always been, and continue to be, so very welcoming to us and appreciative of our music, even after 40 years. I can’t begin to convey how excited we are to be appearing with such great entertainers in front of such great people.”

The Full Rescheduled 2022 tour dates are as follows:

Fri Sept 30th Manchester AO Arena

Sat Oct 1st Leeds First Direct Arena

Sun Oct 2nd Liverpool M & S Bank Arena

Wed Oct 5th Southend Cliffs Pavillion (NEW SHOW)

Thur Oct 6th Nottingham Motorpoint Arena

Fri Oct 7th Bournemouth International Centre

Sun Oct 9th Birmingham Utilita Arena

Mon Oct 10th Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

Tue Oct 11th London The O2 Arena

Tickets are valid for the new dates.  Tickets available from: www.ticketline.co.uk 24-hour ticket line 0844 888 9991, or from the venues direct.

About The Four Tops

The Four Tops were among the first wave of Tamla Motown artists to make an impact in the UK with their infectious R&B and soul influenced brand of pop. The line-up of Levi Stubbs, Duke Fakir, Obie Benson and Lawrence Payton teamed up with the Holland-Dozier-Holland writing and production team to score a constant string of hits for over a decade.

Baby I Need Your Loving gave them a US hit with their first Motown release in 1964 and they scored their first US Number 1 the following year with I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch). This also gave them their first UK top ten hit. In 1966, they topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with Reach Out I’ll Be There. The Four Tops trademark sound of baritone lead vocals and lush harmonies was complemented, on stage, with slick and well-rehearsed dance routines, also giving them a strong visual identity.

The Four Tops were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and continue to tour regularly led by Duke Fakir, sole surviving member of the classic line-up.

In a Rolling Stone magazine article in 2004 Smokey Robinson remembered: “They were the best in my neighbourhood in Detroit when I was growing up (and) the Four Tops will always be one of the biggest and the best groups ever. Their music is forever.” 

Duke Fakir recently released his autobiography – I’ll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops.

About The Temptations

World-renowned superstars of entertainment and revered for their phenomenal catalogue of music, the Temptations are recipients of numerous awards and honours. The group has received five GRAMMY® Awards, including the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and Motown’s first-ever statuette, awarded to The Tempts for “Cloud Nine.” They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll, Vocal Group, and Rhythm and Blues Music Halls of Fame and have been honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California and on the Apollo Theater’s Walk of Fame in Harlem, New York. They are also included in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

The Temptations, throughout the group’s evolution, have produced 53 Billboard Hot 100 Hit singles, including four that became No.1 Pop singles. Additionally, they released 44 Top 10 R&B chart hits, 14 of which were No.1 R&B chart hits, including timeless classics such as “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “Beauty is Only Skin Deep,” and “I Wish It Would Rain.” They released their much-anticipated new album, TEMPTATIONS 60  in January. 

The smash hit Broadway musical, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations, that was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Choreography, based on Otis Williams’ personal journey has launched its national touring production of the musical in the U.S. and it is currently touring to more than 50 cities nationwide during the next two years. Negotiations are ongoing for the musical to come to London.

The Temptations’ presence across multi-media platforms has never been more vivid, and their popularity is ever-increasing. The Temptations continue to tour, led by Otis Williams, the sole surviving member of the classic line-up. Their Emmy® Award-Winning Television mini-series, The Temptations, which first aired to rave reviews in 1998, is still on air or streaming every day somewhere in the world. Williams’ critically acclaimed autobiography, Temptations, was released as an audiobook edition for the first time in 2020, with a new introduction by Williams.