Diana Ross is one of the star names visiting Newcastle this month. Viv Hardwick reports.

DIANA Ross's appearance on Tyneside on March 13 is a welcome distraction from the Motown music legend's current year of hell in the US.

The singer, who will be 60 on March 26, arrives in Britain to appear at Newcastle's Metro Radio Arena next Friday after serving a two-day jail sentence for drink driving in her home town of Greenwich, Connecticut.

Mother-of-five Ross was given the sentence in February, plus a £450 fine, a year's probation and 36 hours of alcohol abuse treatment, for a 2002 incident after pleading 'no contest'.

"I think she is very pleased to have this behind her," says her lawyer Stephen Paul Bernard. "She was willing to accept a plea along these lines a long time ago."

The superstar who achieved international fame with The Supremes in the 1960s has had to endure public protests, led by Tucson's Mothers Against Drunk Driving group, that she was treated too leniently.

Tests showed Ross was twice over the legal alcohol limit and the court allowed footage to be shown on TV of the performer failing to write the letters of the alphabet, one of US police ways of deciding if a person is fit to drive.

Her sadness at the latest twist in 40 years of music success and personal problems hasn't been helped by the death in January of her ex-husband Arne Naess, the Norwegian shipping magnet. He was reported to have fallen to his death in a climbing accident in South Africa. The couple's split in 1999 marked one of the darkest periods of Ross's life.

Her last visit to Britain hit the headlines became she allegedly assaulted a female flight attendant at London's Heathrow airport who was attempted to carry out a body search. She was cautioned by police and described her experience as "a day of total humiliation".

In 2000, a Supremes tour - with Ross as the only original member following her disputes with former co-stars - was cancelled. In 2002 she booked into a drug and alchohol addiction clinic in California before being reported to police as a motorist who was in a swerving vehicle in December that year.

Now she plans to tell her side of the story, and what went wrong with The Supremes, in a book called Upside Down, Right Turns and the Road Ahead, which is due out later this year.

In the meantime, UK fans are likely to have nothing but fond memories of the woman who signed with Motown in 1961 and, as lead singer of the world's most successful female band, reached the No 1 spot in the US and Britain with 1964 hit Where Did Your Love Go.

As a solo artist from 1969, Ross has achieved a total of 28 UK Top Ten hits - altogether spending a total of 1,466 weeks on the UK singles and albums charts, equal to over 28 years of chart action. She is the most prolific American female singer in UK chart history, singing lead vocals on at least one hit per year for an incredible 33 consecutive years (1964-1996). She has also had more albums on the UK chart than any other American female artist.

In 2003, the US public voted her the Legendary Female Artist award from radio station Capital Gold, beating Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Madonna and Annie Lennox.

Ross grew up in the Detroit projects, one of five children. By her late teens, she was singing in a quintet, The Primettes. In 1961, the group was down to a trio: Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard. They were renamed The Supremes and signed by Motown's star-maker, Berry Gordy Jr. Drilled in harmony and sleekly groomed, The Supremes were marketed for mass popularity.

Ross had found her niche. From the start, she seemed intent on being the supreme Supreme, and a romance with Gordy certainly didn't hinder her rise. In 1967, original lead singer Ballard was replaced and the group became known as Diana Ross and the Supremes.

The singer's solo career seemed to really lifting off in 1972 with the lead role of Billie Holliday in Oscar-nominated Lady Sings The Blues. But a fashion diva role in Mahogany (1975) was followed by the part of Dorothy in musical The Wiz in 1978 - widely regarded as a monumental mistake. Unfavourable comparisons with Judy Garland meant it was not until 1994 that she tried again as a screen actress in the TV movie Out Of Darkness, which earned an Emmy nomination.

The singer will be using the Newcastle arena's "in the round" setting which proved a real hit for Shania Twain fans last month.

Endless Love, Chain Reaction and Ain't No Mountain High Enough are just three of the hits likely to feature in next week's performance from a singer who will be anxious to concentrate the audience's minds on diva rather than demon drink.

* Tickets for the Sunday, March 13, performance at the Telewest are £40 golden circle, £35, and £30. Ticket hotline: 0870 707 8000.

Published: 04/03/2004