Sending Signals

Hailing, of course, from Detroit, Martha Reeves is best known for fronting Motown group Martha and the Vandellas. When we spoke, she was about to turn 85 years old. In 1957 she joined a group called the Del-Phis, and by the early 60s was singing jazz and blues standards in clubs around Detroit. She ended up working as a secretary at Motown and soon found herself in front of the microphone. “Heat Wave” was the first million seller for the Vandellas, and various hit singles followed, including the fantastic “Nowhere To Run”, and their most famous song, “Dancing In The Street”.

 

Of course, in the decades since, her career has taken all sorts of twists and turns. She is back with a new single “To Know You Is To Love You”, which has also had a dance remix version recently released. Martha joined me from Detroit alongside her manager and producer Chris Roe, to discuss songs old and new.

 

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100 episodes baby! This episode, I’m joined by Nick Heyward and Blair Cunningham of Haircut 100, very appropriately for my 100th episode. The band are back, with their first studio album since 1982’s masterpiece, “Pelican West”, that’s not counting a 1984 album they made without Nick. The new album is called “Boxing The Compass” and it is sensational. I caught them play a tour warm-up recently and they are on incredible form in that department too.

 

Nick Heyward is from Beckenham, and started playing in early incarnations of the band in 1977. They eventually became Haircut 100 and signed to Arista in 1981. The band were ill-prepared for the success that followed, Nick in particular not dealing well with the pressures of fame, and by early ‘83 he was out the band, later citing stress and depression among the reasons. He went on to have a solo career, and Haircut 100 have reunited several times in more recent years, but this is the first time they’re released a new record together.

 

Blair Cunningham is a world-class drummer, originally from Memphis, Tennessee. He’s one of 13 children, and remarkably, and very sadly, his brother Carl was the drummer for Stax band The Bar-Kays, and died in the same plane crash that killed Otis Redding. After the original dissolution of Haircut 100, he went on to drum for The Pretenders, Sade, Mick Jagger, and loads of others, and notably was a member of Paul McCartney’s band for a few years, so when he refers to “Paul” during our conversation, that’s who he means.

 

I had a great time with these guys. The conversation is all over the place, but it was loads of fun, and I hope that comes across.

 

Also, a particularly special thank you to everyone that listens regularly. I appreciate the selection of guests is idiosyncratic and diverse, so it means a lot that you’ve stuck around. The show continues to be a fully-independent podcast, with no advertising, and a one man operation. I book the guests, do the interviews, edit the show together, and run the socials. I love the control this gives me, but it brings its own challenges, especially as I want to make podcasts, not spend hours generating content on social media, and so the algorithm doesn’t help the show much. This means that anything you can do to help, telling your friends, following me on Instagram @sendingsignalspodcast, liking posts, leaving a star rating or review with your podcast provider; these things generally mean a lot to a show like mine.

 

Thank you all!

Geoff Downes has quite the musical CV. Shooting to fame with The Buggles, then joining Yes alongside Trevor Horn for their 1980 “Drama” album, he then had massive success alongside Yes member Steve Howe with the supergroup Asia. He rejoined Yes in 2011 where he remains to this day. Geoff joined me from his home in Wales for a career-spanning conversation discussing songs by The Buggles, Asia, and the epic Countermovement from the new Yes album “Aurora”.

 

Please forgive the sound quality on this interview. It’s perfectly listenable but not optimal.

 

Find me on Instagram @sendingsignalspodcast

The Four Tops formed in Detroit in 1953, originally named The Four Aims. They’re a cornerstone of American pop music and helped propel the Motown label to international recognition. Although ostensibly a soul vocal group, I find the band interesting in how broad they were stylistically and in the variety of material they adopted. The current incarnation of The Four Tops are touring this year with The Temptations. They’re hitting the UK this summer, with a run that includes a date at the Royal Albert Hall.

 

I’m joined this episode by Lawrence Payton Jr. from the current line-up, the son of founding member Lawrence Payton who passed away in 1997.

 

Lawrence had a lot to say about growing up around his dad’s band, and why the Tops should still be on the road in 2026. He was great company.

 

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You can find me on Instagram @sendingsignalspodcast

Charlie McCoy has an incredible musical CV to look back on. His relationship with Bob Dylan began when he was asked, at rather short notice, to join the session for “Desolation Row”. He went on to assemble the core band when Dylan decamped to Nashville to record his masterpiece “Blonde On Blonde”. He went on to play on “John Wesley Harding” and “Nashville Skyline” too.

 

Add to that, the many sessions he did for Elvis Presley, the work with Johnny Cash, and countless other sessions, you have a musical legacy few can match.

 

For 19 years he was music director for the Nashville TV show “Hee Haw”, and in 2022 he became a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

 

At age 85 he shows little sign of slowing down, and I was delighted he agreed to join me for the show.

 

Instagram: @sendingsignalspodcast