WHEN I was growing up Motown was just a few songs DJs played at family parties just to make my mom and aunties happy while they danced in small circles.

Despite my first experiences of this music phenomenon, which changed the face of the industry in the early 60s, I have grown up to love the unmistakable sound even though I was born more than 20 years after its first release.

Dancing in the Streets, directed by Keith Strachan, is simply a tribute to the great artists who helped turn the Detroit sound into legend.

There is no real story to the show and critics might argue it is no more than a jumped up version of Stars in Your Eyes.

The quality of performances by the small cast and band in bringing to life the classic songs blows any such opinion out of the water.

Johnny Amobi, who simply introduces and gives brief backgrounds on all the label's classic names, comperes the night's proceedings. From then on everything is left to the young cast and they do not disappoint in their roles, which read like a who's who in music history.

Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and many more are all fantastically portrayed in a blistering two-hour set.

It is a struggle to find a filler track among the endless conveyerbelt of timeless hits performed and, by the end of the night, virtually all of the Birmingham crowd were dancing in the aisles.

Stand out performances include Thomas Goodridge, as Stevie Wonder, and Hugh Maynard, who plays the part of Marvin Gaye.

Like other shows of its genre, if Motown is not your cup of tea then it will not go down very well but if it is as the curtain goes down a wide smile across your face is guaranteed. PW