A Time To Love - Press Release
Sunday Mail
Wonder Why I Want My Suit Back- Legend Stevie says Scot nicked his togs
Billy Sloan And Mickey McMonagle
Sunday 11 Nov. 2005
SUPERSTAR Stevie Wonder is heading back to Glasgow... to collar the thief who nicked his favourite suit.
The US soul legend has revealed a cheeky punter offered to have his stage costume cleaned free of charge - but didn't bring it back.
Stevie visited the city as part of the Motown Review show in 1965 when he was paid just $2.50 (£1.50) a week.
The tour featured many of the Detroit record label's hit acts including Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and The Supremes.
They played two shows at the Odeon in Renfield Street - and the suit thief struck during the interval.
When I interviewed Stevie, 55, for my Clyde 1 radio show, he told me: "This guy called at my dressing room and said he was from a dry cleaners in Glasgow.
"He said, 'Give me your outfits and I'll get them cleaned before the second show'.
"He sounded sincere but he didn't bring the suit back. I hope to come to Glasgow in 2006 to find out who's got it Stevie was in the UK to launch his brilliant new album, A Time To Love - his first CD for a decade after he took time out from the music business following the shock deaths of his first wife, Syreeta Wright, and his brother Larry.
The album features guest appearances by superstar pals Sir Paul McCartney and Prince.
Stevie is joined by eldest daughter Aisha Morris, 28, on new single Positivity.
She made her recording debut - as a gurgling newborn - on his classic 1976 hit Isn't She Lovely?
Stevie said: "It's been wonderful working with Aisha. I knew at a very young age - when she was seven or eight - that she had a desire to sing.
"When I did Positivity I thought, 'Why not use Aisha?' Her voice is very warm and sincere. I needed her youthful spirit."
During our chat Stevie also revealed another of his classic hits - the 1969 single My Cherie Amour - was the result of a happy accident.
He said: "I wrote it in the back of the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Originally, I called it Oh My Marsha - about a girl I used to go out with. But we fell out and I had to change the title. It was put on the B-side of I Don't Know Why I Love You but a DJ in Chicago turned it over and started playing the B-side. That's how it became a hit."
Stevie signed to Motown at the tender age of 11. He was groomed for stardom by the label's founder Berry Gordy and scored his first UK hit - Uptight (Everything's Alright) - in 1966He said: "It was a tough life. When I travelled on the bus everybody over 14 - all the Marvelletes and all the Miracles - were like my parents" I had to ask them permission to buy candy. I was being chaperoned so I wouldn't do anything silly.
"Looking back, I now understand having the value of that discipline."
The superstar will tour the UK next year and he wants to play his first gig in Glasgow since 1989.
"I definitely want to come back to Scotland as part a major tour," said Stevie. "You and I will find the guy who took my suit." #YOU can hear my interview with Stevie in The Wonder Years on Clyde 1 and Clyde 2 tonight at 7pm