Martha Reeves at the Hub, Plymouth, £19.50

OK the first thing to say here is that this woman is the same age as my Mum – yep, even crusty old Linda has a Mum (and a Nan for anyone who is interested) and I can tell you that I could never in a million years imagine my Mum on stage at this time of her life (no offence intended, Mum).

So is Martha Reeves good for you? Oh yes. She’s an amazing woman, a consummate performer and her music has been amongst the most influential in my life. She is good for the arthritis (a good, arms flailing, heartbeat increasing dance is DEFINITELY good for the bones and joints…not to mention the cardio-vascular system), she’s great for the soul – who can fail to be uplifted when they hear the first bars of “Dancin’ in the Street”, she’s a person who can make me and plenty of others happy with a few notes.

I considered myself a newbie when I first saw her play, even though I’d loved her music for many years before then. My first Martha and the Vandellas gig was at Dingwalls in Camden (my favourite music venue ever) on 24th November 1982. It cost £4 and my gig diary of the day reported “The Vandellas hits are impressive, even after 20 years”. Well, after another 30 years they are still impressive, let me tell you. Three days later, I saw them again at The Venue (my second favourite music venue ever), sadly the Venue was knocked down about 20 years ago but knocking it down could not erase my memories of some of the best times of my life. On that night, my gig diary reported another £4 ticket cost and “a great fun evening, lots of dancing and making jolly”.

Tonight - dancing and making jolly, tick, great fun, tick, a proper band with musical instruments, including a four-piece brass section, tick - the only things missing were a couple of Vandellas and a Hammond Organ - Martha told us that we were her Vandellas and that we were to sing our hearts out, so that's what we did!

Our hens are, as you know, always named after great soul divas and we have one (a maran) named after Martha Reeves at the moment. I’ve been to see her this morning and told her that her namesake was wonderful last night and I expect to hear her own beautiful voice today. Had we not been in a car park that had a midnight lock-in we’d have stayed to talk to Martha, she spends hours every evening chatting with fans at the end of her gigs and I’d have told her about her beautiful namesake but sadly we had to depart before the glass slippers turned to tatty old holey boots and the sunshine bus turned into a pumpkin.

In a coincidence of pure magic, Jools Holland was playing next door to the venue where we spent our evening but I’m sure that no-one at that gig had a better time than the few hundred souls getting down to some beautiful soul music in the Hub. What a lovely venue. Small but beautifully formed.

We went to the gig with one of my college buddies, Adam. I expected the three of us to have a low-key evening but we bumped into Jo and Duggy, a college buddy from five years back and her hubby, Jess and Dan – my bestest college buddy and her fiancée and Suki, my Maths tutor at Uni. How serendipitous. A “quiet” evening, turned into a wonderful joyous time catching up with old and new friends. Priceless. Martha Reeves is quite definitely good for you!