JAMES Brown fans will be able to pay their respects to the great man in style tomorrow (Friday, 30 March) night when some of the performers who worked with him arrive at the Junction for a special tribute show.
The night will feature the singer James Brown dubbed the 'Soul Sister Number One', Marva Whitney, and JBs legend 'Sweet' Charles Sherrell.
Marva first performed with James Brown in 1967 after he picked her out at an audition near her home in Kansas City.
She then sung with his band during the most exciting period of his career, as he took the 60s soul sound and created funk music.
The new musical style he developed helped inspire disco, hip hop and modern pop and both Brown and Whitney have been heavily sampled by producers ever since.
"I really wasn't a James Brown fan to start off with," recalls Marva, now in her 60s.
"I was more into Etta James, Martha and the Vandellas and Dionne Warwick. But I began to pay attention to him when he did It's A Man's World.
"Then when I worked with him, I could see that he was a master of precision.
He came up with beats inside of other beats that you could never imagine.
"When he performed it was almost like he was in a trance, he would be spinning around and moving them little feet of his and he always looked good."
But while going on the road with Brown could make the career of an up-and-coming soul singer in the late 60s, it was no walk in the park.
Tales of his tough regime and sometimes erratic conduct have become legendary in the music industry.
"He was strict alright, he was very strict," says Marva.
"He was like a father and a grandfather but he had a mean side.
"It didn't matter how tired you were, he always said the show must go on and you are going to do your best. If you didn't then he would take it out of your pay cheque.
"I was just a naive little girl from Kansas City and I thought that if I had something to say I would just say it.
My mother and father never hit us when we were little, they sat down and talked to us.
"But he wasn't raised that way. There was a dark side to Mr Brown - he did things that he shouldn't have done.
There were mutinies in the band and me and Bootsy (Collins, the legendary funk bassist) had to save the day."
But despite his wild lifestyle and often difficult personality, Brown had singular vision and helped create a musical legacy so important that his death on Christmas Day last year was met with tributes from musicians and music lovers the world over.
"He led the way and he worked almost until his dying day," says Marva.
"Sometimes, he was hard but as he got older and, especially during the last four or five years, he began to change and people could really see he was a different man."
A Tribute to the Late Great James Brownfeaturing Marva Whitney and 'Sweet' Charles Sherrell is at the Junction tomorrow (Friday, 30 March). Tickets are £15.
To book yours, call (01223) 511511.
News RSS