Shalamar can make you feel good in Sheffield this year

And the tour includes a stop at Sheffield Foundry on November 25.

Shalamar are best known for hits like The Second Time Around, Make That Move, I Can Make You Feel Good, There It Is, Friends and A Night To Remember, Jeffrey They started life as a ‘manufactured’ group when Dick Griffey, who was the talent co-ordinator for US hit show Soul Train , decided to set up his own record label – SOLAR.

He took session musicians and created a hit record – Uptown Festival - which was credited to a faceless artist Shalamar in 1977.

When the record became a hit he realised that there was a demand for an actual group so he set about creating one with soul train dancers Jeffrey Daniel and Jody Watley together with singer Gary Mumford.

Mumford soon left the group to pursue other interests and was replaced by Gerald Brown, who himself left in 1979 when the group was riding high on the US R&B chart with Take That To The Bank.

However, Jeffrey Daniel had met Howard Hewett in an LA nightclub a few years earlier and had already asked him to take up lead vocals after Mumford’s departure.

At that time, Hewett was committed to another contract to tour Europe with a covers band.

When Brown left, Daniel asked Hewett to come on board again and this time he agreed.

The rest is history.

Hewett’s first record, The Second Time Around, was a million seller and not only topped the US R&B charts, it also made number eight on the main Billboard chart, indicating Shalamar’s intention to cross over with an edgy sound incorporating funk, disco, R&B and pop.

The trio consisting of Howard Hewett as lead vocalist together with Jeffrey Daniel and Jody Watley became known as the ‘classic’ line up of the group.

From late 1979 to mid 1983, they racked up more than a dozen hits all over the world.

In the UK, Shalamar are also remembered for Jeffrey Daniel’s famous appearances on Top of the Pops where he introduced body popping and moonwalking to UK audiences.

Daniel is also an award-winning choreographer well known for teaching the moonwalk to Michael Jackson as well as co-choreographing some of Jackson’s videos and for being his dance mentor.

At the height of their fame in 1983, Watley and Daniel left Shalamar leaving Hewett to continue the group with new members and further hits wich earned him a Grammy Award.

In 1999, Hewett and Daniel reformed the group and began touring again.

For a number of years they left the third slot empty as they continued to invite Watley back into the group.

When they were happy that they had tried their best to encourage Watley to re-join, they felt that they should look for another female vocalist and the natural choice of replacement was Carolyn Griffey, daughter of founder Dick Griffey and the trio has remained in place since 2001.

Tickets for their Sheffield show are available now on 0844 8889991 or http://bit.ly/2pn43ff