February 10, 2025
In this edition of Backstage at the Egyptian, we’re excited to spotlight a heartening conversation between our Marketing Intern, Lia Martinez, and Dave Revels, the founder and creator of the Shadow of the 60s tribute group. The Shadow of the 60s is dedicated to sharing and paying tribute to Motown’s super groups such as the Temptations, The Supremes and The Four Tops. They play lively music that will bring exuberance and captivate the Egyptian Theatre’s audience. In the interview, Dave portrays his passion for Motown and why he loves sharing that passion to create a more knitted community everywhere the Shadow of the 60s perform.
Lia: What’s the earliest memory you have when you realized you wanted to sing and become an entertainer?
Dave: High school glee club. As a freshman, I was shy, never had much to say but there was an open audition for a solo in the glee club. At home, I would wear out my mother’s stereo, a huge elaborately designed Magnavox cabinet piece with a turntable that was pretty much a furniture piece in our living room. I would sing along to the Four Tops over and over, listening to all the vocal harmonies and chiming along. I got the solo and the attention from it sort of got me thinking. So that’s when I attracted the attention of other folks he sang and formed my first group.
L: Is there a specific experience that motivated you to become founder of the Shadow of the 60s tribute group? If so, what happened and how did it inspire you?
D: As I mentioned, I loved the Four Tops and pretty much learned how to sing by vocalizing their songs for countless hours each day. I could hear my voice in their sound. That was actually my music album Education although, at the time I didn’t think of it that way. I was just enamored of the group. When Levi Stubbs, the lead singer of the group passed away, I formed a Four Tops Tribute to pay homage to my idol and it became popular with Motown fans. I started to realize though, after a while that audiences wanted to hear the music of The Temptations, Supremes and other Motown stars so, over the years I gradually added in those elements.
L: What goals have been accomplished throughout the time you’ve created this group? Are there other goals you hope to accomplish through this group and your performances?
D: It’s a community theater and I know we will meet the heart and soul of its residents here. It’s always about the people and community for us. We particularly enjoy meeting them after the show. To us, the most important people in the room are the audience. It’s not about us. We respect the fact that they didn’t have to come to our performance. In fact, we worry about them getting home safely after the concert and always tell them to be very careful. What we hope to gain are new and lasting friends of Shadows Of The 60s.
L: When looking at the groups website, I noticed many of the locations you’ll be performing at have rich histories, is this why you chose the Egyptian Theatre?
D: I love the architecture of the older historic theaters and sadly, many have been demolished, interior painted over or they are eventually forced to close their doors for lack of attendance. When I walk onto the stage and look at the grandeur of the rooms, I imagine all the performers over the decades that performed there. I love taking pictures of the room. For me, every room I play is my living room. It’s the people I come to be with.
Live music halls and theaters to me are magical places where people come to relive their memories. It’s a safe space to gather in a room filled with people who have the same feeling about your favorite artists. The lights dim, the group is announced and the surge of adrenaline that fills your spirit just raises you out of your seat and transports you back to that special and specific memory attached to the music.
L: What struck out to you about this particular theatre in Illinois that made you choose it? What do you hope to gain from this event?
D: It’s an honor to be able to take our audience back to their youthful days and memories of falling in love, those special and unique memories attached to the music of Motown. My goal was to recreate the music note for note, just the way they remember hearing it for the first time on the radio. We don’t change keys, alter the arrangements or stylize the songs. We perform the songs just like the record. The importance of that is simple, yet many groups overlook it. Without knowing it, fans know every melody, lyric, drum roll, guitar lick, piano run and sound and feel of the music. If a group isn’t doing those specific parts, they may not immediately identify what is missing, but they will sense that something was off. When a group changes things in these songs, I feel they rob people of their memories. I know because when I hear my favorite songs, if the singer or the band doesn’t hit that particular note, I feel a let down. I wanted Shadows Of The 60s to be an immersive experience, a happening, and that is what I am most proud of accomplishing. We have a group of personalities in our production who approach the music of Motown with a reverence you don’t always see. They channel the artist and approach the songs with great joy, respect and sheer enthusiasm.
I call it Broadway on steroids. Just like a Broadway show, you don’t see anyone drinking water onstage. The show begins and it’s a musical journey nonstop from beginning to end.
I grew up with the music of Motown and in the 1980s I was a member of The Drifters. We performed alongside the Four Tops, Temptations, Martha Reeves, The Spinners and many other iconic artists of rock and roll, like Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, Jerry Lee Lewis and soul artists like Gene Chandler and Jerry Butler. In 1985, we appeared together with The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Manhattans and The Cadillacs on the NBC special, “Motown Returns To The Apollo Theater in the opening production number called The Battle of The Bands. It’s in YouTube with Millions of views. Over the years, I got to watch these groups perform that magic night after night and grew to understand that they were not pretending to be anyone but themselves. The same person you were talking with backstage moments before they went onstage was the same character to the audience. They were just being themselves. I apply that same formula myself and the artists in our production. We are just being ourselves. An audience can feel that and that’s what makes them embrace you.
