Saturday, May 11 & Sunday, May 12, 1968, London

I’m still reeling with meeting Aretha Franklin in person on her arrival in London.  This, I remind myself, is the same young woman (having celebrated her 26th birthday in March) whose music been a constant in my journey into adulthood since 1965 when her recording of “Walk On By” stopped me in my tracks…and led to my mission to collect all of her Columbia albums and singles. Not content with spending all my hard-earned pocket money from working Saturdays at record shops on Aretha’s first six Columbia LPs (all rare imports at the time since none had been released in the UK), I got a catalogue from Randy’s Record Shop in Gallatin, Tennessee so I could send away my money orders and get then-rare Columbia 45s like “One Step Ahead” and “You’ve Got Her.”

By the time I start running Soul City record shop with Dave Godin and Robert Blackmore at the end of 1966, I am a confirmed Aretha-phile, playing singles like “Cry Like A Baby” and “Can’t You Just See Me” (both issued in Britain along with two albums, “Yeah!!!” and “Soul Sister”) to our growing band of R&B devotees who form our customer base.  I’ve tried – and failed (at that juncture) – to convince Godin, who has been known as Britain’s ‘Godfather Of R&B’ in light of his early advocacy for the music of Black America (as he termed it) and running the Tamla Motown Appreciation Society – of Aretha’s brilliance by playing what I think is one of her most incredibly emotional recordings of the standard ‘Skylark’ but to no avail.  He thinks it’s too ‘supper club’ and middle-of-the-road for his tastes at the time…

Saturday, May 11, the Finsbury Park Astoria is the scene of Aretha’s first London show.  In truth, I have only a vague memory of whether I went to that show – and if I did, it was likely with then-boyfriend William who had been giving me the blues with his errant ways, leaving me to continue dwelling in songs like “I Wonder,” “Prove It”  and “Night Life” which comprise “Aretha Arrives,” the LP released in the autumn of 1967.  It’s less the upbeat “Baby I Love You” and more “Going Down Slow,” a bluesy ode to world-weariness… By the start of 1968, with Aretha’s “Lady Soul” LP, my somewhat torrid relationship with William, a smiling-on-the-outside sexy man from Dominica, is more “Chain Of Fools” and “Good To Me As I Am To You”…

Whether I went to see Aretha with William or not on that Saturday night in London, I can never forget taking my mother Frances and my sister Sylvia to see Aretha at The Odeon Hammersmith, ironically the cinema that had been the scene for my first ‘date’ with William in the spring of 1967.  What a difference a year makes!   While it was primarily a cinema, the Odeon also hosted concerts and best of all, it was just a ten-minute bus ride from where I lived with my mother and sister – father by now living with his ‘other woman’ where they worked together at a fish-and-chip shop a ways away from us – in a council flat in Fulham…

What excitement as the three of us get to the venue for the first of two shows Aretha is doing.   While my mother has by this time been ‘subjected’ to a few years of hearing me sing along with Aretha’s music and doing the best I can to express my own feelings on complex recordings like “Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning” (from her Columbia tribute to Dinah Washington) and the soulful “(No, No) I’m Losing You,” she has no idea what to expect at the show which will be her first time going to a live concert as far as I know.  Sister Sylvia’s already immersed in soul music and is understandably excited…

There is an opening act, R&B singer Robert Knight whose infectious pop-flavoured ‘Everlasting Love’ is rising on the British charts…  And then…

Aretha, her band and the singers are simply and soulfully incredible.  The set list gives a clue…

The energy and excitement is palpable and I see my mother is enjoying what is certainly the first ‘pop’ concert she’s ever attended.  I turn to her and ask, ‘What do you think?’  Smiling, my mother turns to me and says, ‘She’s very good.  She reminds me of that gospel singer Mahalia Jackson….”  Now, for my very British mum who’s musical tastes are more Barbra Streisand and Joan Baez (whose angelic tones my mother loved) to make that reference is absolutely stunning to me.  “I can’t believe you said that,” I reply, shocked. “Mahalia Jackson actually was like Aretha’s second mother to her…”

After the show, my mum, my sister and I wait at the stage door.  I explain that Aretha will be coming to the door to say hello and sure enough, in a moment forever etched on my consciousness, Aretha and husband Ted come out of the stage door just for a few minutes, long enough for me to say hello to Aretha, tell her how much I love the show and introduce her to my mother Frances and my sister Sylvia who echo my sentiments…. I’m left with the title of the second song in Aretha’s dynamic performance that night as the three of us get the bus home… ‘Don’t let me lose this dream…‘

Note: video includes some backstage footage and misidentifies Aretha’s background singers as The Sweet Inspirations..