 The voice is unique, unmistakable and timeless…Los Angeles
Times’ Robert Hilburn called her “arguably the most charismatic female
performer in rock”….
For Martha Davis, the most important thing has always been
the songs she writes. Martha began writing songs at the age of 15. Born and
raised in Berkeley, CA., she moved to Los Angeles in the early ‘70s, along with
the first incarnation of The Motels. The band reformed in 1978 and was
immediately signed to Capitol in 1979.
The Motels recorded six records for Capitol. Their self
titled debut was greeted with positive critical reviews in 1979, and exploded in
Australia on the strength of the #2 Pop single, ‘Total Control’ (which was later
covered by Tina Turner for the We Are The World album). In 1981 their
sophomore effort, Careful, went Top 50. Then, in 1982, the Motels
released All Four One…the smash single ‘Only The Lonely’ rocketed into
the Top 10, immediately propelled the album to gold status and truly broke The
Motels in the United States. The group dominated the music scene and was
voted Best Performance for ‘Only The Lonely’ at the 1982 American Music Awards.
1983’s Little Robbers album went gold on the Top 10
single ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ and the second Top 40 hit ‘Remember The Nights’.
In 1985 the Shock album yielded the Top 20 hit, ‘Shame’, and 1987 saw the
release of Martha’s first solo effort, Policy. In 1988, Martha took a
sabbatical from the music scene….prompting the question “Where have you been?”
“Looking for my sense of humor” she says “I seemed to have lost it somewhere
around 1984. It’s not a business that one should be in without a sense of
humor”. Though constantly writing, Martha left center stage to work on various
collaborations with artists including Ivan Neville, Arthur Barrow (Frank Zappa),
Jeff Daniel, Kiki Dee, Richard Feldman, written songs for a new musical for the
Civic Light Opera, and a new musical of her own entitled Rebecca, and is
now involved in producing a children’s music project. Additionally, Martha is
back on the scene with her newly formed band and plays regularly to packed
houses.
Capitol has just reissued an expanded and remastered edition
of the legendary All Four One album, which contains previously unreleased
bonus tracks. In the Fall of 2000, look for The Motels Anthology, a first ever
double disk of rarities, b-sides, soundtrack cuts as well as live performances.
Additionally, Martha Davis recently concluded a publishing deal with DreamWorks
SKG, and has just finished writing a children’s album.
Contact Grabow for more information or to book The Motels
featuring Martha Davis for your next corporate or private event.
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