Arena Season 1, Episode 264

The Apollo Story: part 2 · BBC Four · Tuesday, December 17

Harlem's Apollo Theater has been the ultimate testing ground for every black American performer from Duke Ellington to Michael Jackson. Tonight Arena continues its celebration of the Apollo's 50th anniversary. With uncharacteristic modesty, Little Richard describes his fear of the notoriously tough Apollo audience, while Mary Wilson of the Supremes and Gladys Knight recall life backstage. Amid the upheavals of Harlem in the 60s, Solomon Burke and 'Mr Apollo ' himself, James Brown , explain how they took themselves out of the church and on to the stage and renamed it soul. And finally Nile Rodgers. producer of David Bowie and Madonna, and veteran of the Apollo house band, presents the aspirations of the Apollo today.