My first Fad Gadget compilation since a C90 cassette in 1990, which I posted on this blog in October 2021.
The trigger for this wasn't the usual random airing of a song or coming across a video or live performance online. No, it was far more innocuous than that. Surfing the crap TV the other day, I spotted an advert for a Channel 5 show called Your Kitchen: 60 Years Of Fads & Gadgets. I mean, what more sign does one need?
As the original selection was a 20-track 'best of', this is arguably the 'best of the rest', but there's absolutely no barrel scrapng here. There are three singles - For Whom The Bells Toll, Fireside Favourite and I Discover Love - alongside the debut B-side from 1979, The Box.
Wheels Of Fortune has featured on another various artists cassette that I've compiled and posted here previously. Taken from 1982 Falklands War commentary Under The Flag, it's one of several tracks to feature label mate Alison Moyet on the saxophone.
Sleep appeared on the 1984 album Gag, an earlier version circa 1982 appearing as the B-side to One Man's Meat, the final single by Fad Gadget. Frank Tovey went on to record several albums under his own name and with The Pyros.
In 2001, Mute Records released The Best Of Fad Gadget, which compiled 30 A-sides, B-sides and 12" versions. Amongst them were a couple of new remixes. I Monster tackled Fireside Favourite whilst Frank himself 'regurgitated' Swallow It from 1981 album Incontinent.
On the back of the compilation, Frank revived Fad Gadget for a support slot on Depeche Mode's Exciter tour in late 2001 and then headed out on a headline tour of Europe in January 2002, culminating in the SAMA festival in Gothenburg, Sweden on 30th March 2002. At home in London, on 3rd April 2002, Frank died of a heart attack at age 45. A tragic, shocking loss.
To these ears, Frank Tovey's music as Fad Gadget sounds just as fresh, incisive and relevant as it did when I first heard it in the 1980s.
1) Incontinent (1981)
2) Swallow It (Regurgitated) (2001)
3) Stand Up (1984)
4) For Whom The Bells Toll II (Single Version) (1982)
5) Salt Lake City Sunday (1980)
6) Wheels Of Fortune (1982)
7) Speak To Me (1984)
8) Sleep (Electro-Induced Original) (1982)
9) The Box (Single Version) (1979)
10) Blind Eyes (1981)
11) Fireside Favourite (Album Version) (1980)
12) I Discover Love (Single Version) (1983)
1979: Back To Nature 7": 9
1980: Fireside Favourites: 5, 11
1981: Incontinent: 1, 10
1982: For Whom The Bells Toll 7": 4
1982: Under The Flag: 6
1983: I Discover Love 7": 12
1984: Gag: 3, 7
1984: One Man's Meat 7": 8
2001: The Best Of Fad Gadget: 2
Watch The Mass Be Served More Trash (46:41) (KF) (Mega)
You can find my C90 Fad Gadget compilation, The Damage Done, here
A very, very happy birthday to the wonderful, magical Kate Bush, born 30th July 1958.
I fell in love with Kate at age 7, watching her mesmerising performance of Wuthering Heights on TV. Since then, she has produced an incredible body of work which demonstrates the breadth and persistence of her vision, not just the music, but the videos, the concert performances and the rare but fascinating interviews.
I've attempted a career-spanning, 66(ish) minute selection of songs to celebrate this woman's work (see what I did there?) It was impossible to avoid some of the big hits - there are so many - but I've also chosen some deeper cuts and alternative versions, including one of Kate's earliest demos from 1974, age 16.
David Gilmour heard Kate's music and helped produce a demo tape, which led to a signing with EMI that continued for over a quarter of a century. Since 2011, Kate's releases have been on her own label, Fish People. Director's Cut revisited and reworked songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. 50 Words For Snow, an album of all-new songs, followed the same year. 2016 saw Before The Dawn, a live document of her spectacular return to live performance in 2014.
The first Kate Bush album I owned was Lionheart, a birthday gift from my brother's then-girlfriend in the 1980s. As such, this will always be my favourite, the songs deeply ingrained in my consciousness.
It speaks of Kate's mass appeal that it was one of the relatively few artists that my parents didn't complain about my playing loud at home. My brother, my friends, my girlfriends, pretty much everyone I knew owned at least one Kate Bush record.
When I lived for a brief time in Derby, the guy in the flat next door used to constantly play hair metal at high volume, with one exception. I knew that he either had a lady visiting or was trying to create his own luck for a night out whenever he played Kate Bush's greatest hits compilation, The Whole Story. We didn't have much in common, but we at least agreed on Kate.
Kate found a whole new generation switched on to her music when Running Up That Hill was used in the Netflix series Stranger Things. I've never seen it, but it must be alright if it means that Kate's music is appreciated all over again.
Stick to the end of this selection and you'll hear a snippet from an unexpected phone interview by Emma Barton for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on 22nd June 2022. Even her speaking voice is a joy to listen to.
Have a day filled with love and hugs, Kate, and thank you for the gifts you have given, which continue to surprise, delight and enrich us.
1) Never Be Mine ('Director's Cut' Version) (2011)
2) Hounds Of Love (Album Version) (1985)
3) How To Be Invisible (Album Version) (2005)
4) Night Of The Swallow (Album Version) (1982)
5) Delius (Song Of Summer) (Album Version) (1980)
6) Big Stripey Lie (Album Version) (1993)
7) Army Dreamers (Single Remix) (1980)
8) Symphony In Blue (Album Version) (1978)
9) Among Angels (Album Version) (2011)
10) The Sensual World (Album Version) (1989)
11) Kite (Album Version) (1978)
12) Don't Put Your Foot On The Heartbrake (BBC TV Performance) (1979)
13) In My Garden (aka Garden By The Willow aka Something Like A Song) (Home Demo) (1974)
14) Wuthering Heights (New Vocal) (1986)
15) Shoedance (The Red Shoes Dance Mix) (1993)
16) ...Kate speaks... (2022)
1978: The Kick Inside: 11
1978: Lionheart: 8
1980: Army Dreamers EP: 7
1980: Never For Ever: 5
1982: The Dreaming: 4
1985: Hounds Of Love: 2
1986: Experiment IV EP: 14
1989: The Sensual World: 10
1993: The Red Shoes: 6
1993: The Red Shoes EP: 15
2005: Aerial: 3
2011: Director's Cut: 1
2011: 50 Words For Snow: 9
2014: The Season Of The Witch: Cathy's Home Demos (bootleg): 13
The Orb's 1991 song Perpetual Dawn is one of the greatest singles and album tracks of the year, decade, all time, in any genre. I never tire of listening to it and it sounds as 'now' in 2024 as it did over three decades ago.
Clearly in agreement, the full nine-and-a-half minute version from The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld has been reissued with a brand new video, visualised by Kavi-Karnapura Robin Buckley.
Alex Paterson pops up here and there, vintage footage woven into the visual fabric. Thomas Fehlmann joins him on the decks at 4:42 and Alex and Youth aka Martin Glover come together for a split-second 'then and now' segment at 4:51.
The narrative, such as it is, either makes no sense or complete sense, depending on how you approach it but as someone who is ambivalent about AI and/or CGI, this is a compelling watch and if it introduces a new audience to the greatness of The Orb and Perpetual Dawn, all the better.
Continuing my love of French music with the spotlight back on one of yesterday's featured artists, Daft Punk.
I posted the first Dubhed selection dedicated to Guy Manuel De Homen-Cristo and Thomas Bangalter way, way back in February 2022. I confessed then that "I don't own a single Daft Punk album - and I probably need to do something about that". Suffice to say, I've since taken care of business.
I've stuck with roughly the same rules as before: keeping the selection to just under an hour, twelve rather than ten songs this time around, A greater focus on album versions this time around too, though the occasional remix has slipped in.
What an incredible body of work this pair produced before calling it a day. When I saw Nile Rodgers & Chic in concert the other week, Nile admitted that he didn't understand why they'd stepped away just as Daft Punk was enjoying it's greatest success and in his view had so much more great music to give.
I think they did exactly what they needed to do and their legacy will continue to speak for itself.
We're going to celebrate one more time...
1) Rinzler (2010)
2) Television Rules The Nation (Album Version) (2005)
3) Teachers (Extended Mix) (1997)
4) The Brainwasher (Erol Alkan's Horrorhouse Dub) (2006)
5) Da Funk (Album Version) (1996)
6) Give Life Back To Music (Album Version ft. Nile Rodgers) (2013)
7) Human After All (SebastiAn Remix By Sebastian Akchoté) (2005)
8) One More Time (Album Version) (2001)
9) Lose Yourself To Dance (Album Version ft. Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers) (2013)
An eighty minute French electro dance mix to soundtrack your Olympic weekend, as requested by Anonymous on Tuesday.
To mix my metaphors, when Anon made this comment, it became an itch I had to scratch and I ended up going down a rabbit hole. But it was so much fun! So much so, that I've spent so much time deciding on the tracks and stitching them together that I've basically run out of time to write about it...!
Anyhoo, from my initial thought that I might not have much to play with, the reality is that I seem to have tonnes of the stuff. to the extent that I've had to leave out several artists that I like, such as The Hacker, i:Cube, Le Knight Club and Rone because I didn't have the room.
From a ridiculously long long list, I had to impose further rules to help me whittle it down to a CD-R friendly size.
So, first of all, the artists all had to be French passport carriers, so that cut out Francophiles such as Classixx (sorry, Anon!) or Aeroplane.
Secondly, if I was choosing a remix - which ended up accounting for most of this playlist - it also had to be by a French artist. Great though they are, remixes by Justin Robertson, Adrian Sherwood or even chancers like Les Rythmes Digitales aka Jacques Lu Cont (Stuart Price to his mum) had to go.
Thirdly... well, that was enough to go on actually and what I ended up with is a 16-track selection that I think hangs together pretty well.
There are loads of familiar names, as per Anon's list: Daft Punk, M83, Justice, Air, Étienne De Crécy; others such as Miss Kittin, Fred Falke, Château Flight, Sébastien Tellier, Kid Loco and Cassius.
Some might be less familiar: La Horse (Ivan Smagghe & Julien Brambilla), Para One (Jean-Baptiste De Laubier), Dombrance (Bertrand Lacombe) and Donovan (David Saïd & Nicolas Nekmouche); all worth checking out in their own right.
Unfortunately, my tardiness with this post means that I've blown any chance of getting a look in with Rol's Saturday Snapshots over at My Top Ten. I'll be lucky to get a certificate of attendance, let alone a bronze medal...!
1) Sexual Sportswear (Donovan Remix): Sébastien Tellier (2010)
2) D.A.N.C.E. (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix): Justice (2008)
3) Sexy Boy (Étienne De Crécy Et Les Flowers Pistols Remix): AIR (1998)
Side 1 of a cover versions cassette compilation, recorded 26th November 1999.
Preparing for the end of the millennium party with a mixtape of songs transformed or tortured by (then) contemporary. Who would have thought a quarter of a century on, many of these artists would still be recording and touring?
I recorded a trio of CD-Rs titled Hokey Karaoke for my friend Stuart in 2008 and posted the first of these on here in 2022. Only two duplications with this track list, one of them being the closer to this side by My Bloody Valentine which,, coincidentally, opens up the companion collection.
Great to be reminded of these songs, especially that superb O.M.D. bassline, Republica's OTT take on Gary Numan and what an awesome live act Senser were.
1) Waiting For The Man (Single Version): O.M.D. vs. The Velvet Underground (1980)
2) Stepping Stone (Ghost Dance Mix By Terry Farley & Mr. Suggs): The Farm vs. The Monkees (1991)
3) (Don't Fear) The Reaper (Single Version): Apollo 440 vs. Blue Öyster Cult (1995)
4) Children Of The Revolution (7" Mix): Baby Ford vs. T. Rex (1989)
5) Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun (Live @ Reading Festival): Senser vs. Beastie Boys (1993)
6) Hanging Around (Album Version By Tony Visconti): Hazel O'Connor vs. The Stranglers (1981)
7) Sexual Healing: Anita Lane ft. Mick Harvey & Barry Adamson vs. Marvin Gaye (1993)
8) Jacky (7" Version By Trevor Horn & Brian Malouf): Marc Almond vs. Jacques Brel / Scott Walker (1991)
9) Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds vs. Gene Pitney (1986)
10) Are 'Friends' Electric?: Republica vs. Tubeway Army (1997)
11) We Have All The Time In The World: My Bloody Valentine vs. Louis Armstrong (1993)
Another delve into the vaults for a review of Remixed by Mari Boine, first published on 8th April 2006, with newly added video and Bandcamp links.
Taken from the latter's artist biog, Mari Boine Persen is a "singer, musician, songwriter and activist from Sápmi, Norway. Her music is infused with her Sami roots
(joik),
jazz, rock and electronic sounds. Mari has worked with artists like Jan
Garbarek and Bugge Wesseltoft, and participated in the breathtaking
video clip One World One Voice. Her solo album 'Gula Gula' was released
(internationally) on Peter Gabriel’s RealWorld label in 1990."
This is what I had to say about Remixed eighteen years ago.
I
confess to a habitual acceptance of remixes and a borderline obsessive
desire to track down reworks by artists as much as a band's original
material. The result is a vast collection of obscure remixes by the
likes of Andrew Weatherall, Slam, Fluke and Orbital, which often make the
proverbial silk purse from a sow's ear.
However, it will also frequently lead me
to discover more artists and remixers, or just simply appreciate the
record in it's own right. Such is the case with Norwegian artist Mari
Boine's Remixed.
I picked up this promo CD for a couple of quid,
simply because it featured Jah Wobble, Bill Laswell and Biosphere, and
thought that any other listening pleasure would be a bonus. What can I
say? Ten tracks and just over an hour later and I've been playing it
frequently ever since.
Chilluminati
provide an atmospheric opener in Gula Gula, neatly leading into Jah
Wobble's distinctive bass on Cuovgi Liekkas, which roughly translates
as 'Radiant Warmth', appropriately enough.
The tempo then picks up with
Those Norwegians' funky take on Gulkan Du, before taking it back down
for the spine-tingling Alddagasat Ipmilat by Biosphere. Regardless of
my familiarity with the artists, each of the remixes complement each
other and use Boine's vocals to great effect, wisely tending to leave
them intact.
The notable exception is album closer, Ahccai by Phono*,
which weaves a single note vocal into a pulsating beat that ensnares the
listener.
* If you're wondering why the description doesn't match the music via the Bandcamp link above, it's because I've belatedly discovered that the tracklisting on the promo CD I purchased was incorrect.
Phono didn't remix Áhččai (track 10) but in fact Mun Da Han Lean Oaivamos (track 8), which samples Nelson Mandela.
Here's the version of Áhččai that I referred to, actually remixed by Future Prophecies aka Richard Thomas and Tony Anthun.
And to close my 2006 review:
I'm not sure that I'm curious enough to seek out Mari Boine's
other releases, but Remixed will be troubling my CD player for some
time.
Truer words rarely spoken. I still rate Remixed in 2024 but to date it remains the sole Mari Boine album in my collection.
In This World by Moby entered the UK Top 40 on 16th November 2002 at #35, spent another week at #60 then vanished from the countdown altogether.
There's a sense of irony and inevitability, matching the song's lyrical and video's narrative theme. The latter depicts a group of aliens who set off from their home planet to make contact with the denizens of planet Earth. On arrival, they discover that they are miniscule compared to the animals and humans populating the planet and as a result are completely ignored. Eventually, they give up and return home.
Moby's lyrics are so sparse that they arguably cannot be considered social commentary but there is something there to interpret about our individual search for meaning and relevance in our blip of existence on this crazy spinning rock.
A close family member is very ill right now and life is being measured in units of time, which is hard to process and it's bringing some of these thoughts and feelings to the fore.
This song popped up on a random shuffle and the timing has gifted the song with a fresh meaning and relevance. Back in 2002, it was just another single from 18, the follow up to Moby's ridiculously successful album Play, which was marking a slow but steady decline in his chart fortunes.
In This World was one of six singles lifted from 18, but the third and last to dent the UK Top 40. It's a good song but a little too reminiscent of the music from Play to have made much of an impression at the time.
What Moby has always been good at though is working with a range of female singers who lift what might otherwise be quite ordinary songs to a higher level. In This World is a good example, presented here in four versions, each with a different lead and imbuing the song with their own character and resonance.
The post leads off with the 2002 single version, as with the original album version, credited with the voice of Jennifer Price. However, the song itself samples Lord Don't Leave Me, a 1956 song by The Famous Davis Sisters - you can listen to the original here.
Performed live, In This World is stripped of much of the musical accompaniment from the studio version, which added momentum but inevitably dates the song. This happened very early on, as evidenced by this performance at Glastonbury in June 2003, just over a year after 18 had been released.
The singer with Mony's touring band from 2000 onwards was Diane Charlemagne, a consummate vocalist who sadly passed in 2015. Simple acoustic guitar, synth and violin throughout, but it's all about the voice. Wonderful.
Fast forward to March 2014 and a concert at The Fonda Theatre in Florida. The singer is Mindy Jones, who has frequently collaborated with Moby and here delivers a nuanced and measured performance.
Last May, Moby released his 21st album, Resound NYC, revisiting songs from his back catalogue, orchestral arrangements with a range of guest vocalists. Surprisingly, the beats are back in this version which return some heft to the song, though somewhat at the expense of Marisha Wallace's otherwise sterling attempt. Not that I'd have been able to tell, but apparently that's Nicole Scherzinger providing harmony.
The Famous Davis Sisters' lead is unassailable, but for me it's the live version with Diane Charlemagne all the way.
Are you ready Nic? Uh-huh Josefine? Yeah Serra? Okay Alright Augustina, let's go!
Los Bitchos have delivered a second brace of singles to herald the arrival of album #2, Talkie Talkie, at the end of August.
Kiki, You Complete Me recreates Grand Theft Auto as an arcade game called Miami Drive, the song itself effortlessly soundtracking the breakneck race around the city.
1K! evokes the family holiday home movies of the 60s and 70s, although Los Bitchos clearly didn't film this in Weymouth or Tenby, my regular haunts as a kid. This one reminds me a little of Pista (Fresh Start), the first song I heard by the band, mixed up with some Spaghetti Western spices and simmered gently.
La Bomba is like a bath bomb dropped into hot water, an explosion of fizzing influences and inspiration. In just over two minutes, you get hints of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) by ABBA, Ring My Bell by Anita Bell and Rasputin by Boney M. The video (and the cover of the single) throw in a nod to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen but it's otherwise it's a smorgasbord of 80s stylistic nods throughout.
Sticking with the 80s, sonically and visually, Don't Change is a bit of a red herring as Los Bitchos' sound has inevitably evolved since their debut album. It's so much bigger and bolder yet has lost none of the charm, energy and straight out fun of their previous recordings. The video for Don't Change matches the joie de vivre beat for beat, Serra's 'inflatable guitar solo' in the lapping surf is hilarious.
Los Bitchos played a brilliant set at Glastonbury last year. I can only find one song remaining online, but it's a doozy, the opening song of their first album, Let The Festivities Begin. titled The Link Is About To Die.
If you've got just over half an hour to spare, then I'd also recommend the set Los Bitchos performed for ARTE Concert last month, which includes performances of La Bomba and Don't Change, alongside the aforementioned Pista (Fresh Start) and The Link Is About To Die as well as the AA-side of last year's Pah! single - and a rare vocal outing - Tequila.
1:28FFS
4:25The Link Is About To Die
10:30La Bomba
13:10Lindsay Goes To Mykonos
16:31Don't Change
20:25Pista (Fresh Start)
24:05Tripping At A Party
26:55Let Me Cook You
30:40Las Panteras
35:18Tequilla
Los Bitchos are in the UK this weekend for the Deer Shed festival in Topcliffe, North Yorkshire and return for a full-on tour in October and November. Sadly, the latter dates coincide with a planned Clan K holiday so I won't get to experience Los Bitchos live this time around, but the album's on pre-order.
Propaganda release their third album of all-new material in four decades in October. Founder members Michael Mertens and Ralf Dörper have teamed up with British singer/songwriter - and fellow Düsseldorf resident - Thunder Bae.
The self-titled album contains eight songs, thirteen if you go for the limited double vinyl or CD editions. Purveyor Of Pleasure emerged as a lead single in May, with album opener They Call Me Nocebo following a few days ago.
More reminiscent of 1234, their 1990 album for Virgin, but with a harder sonic edge the songs are good...but are they great?
If you're looking for something inspired more by the ZTT-era iteration of Propaganda, then Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag have you covered. They teamed up with original co-producer Stephen Lipson as xPropaganda to release The Heart Is Strange in 2022.
Not simply an attempt to recreate the past, there's an exciting dramatic tension to the music. And hearing Claudia and Susanne's voices together again? Wonderful.
But which is better?
Propaganda with Michael Mertens, Ralf Dörper and Thunder Bae?
Or xPropaganda featuring Claudia Brücken, Susanne Freytag and Stephen Lipson?
I was thinking that this blog was long overdue more Julian Cope. A quick check also revealed that I posted a themed Cope selection on 21st July 2023, so the fates have spoken.
As an added bonus, here's a photo of the Arch Drude stripped to his banana yellow keks on stage at the first Phoenix Festival in Stratford-Upon-Avon on 16th July 1993. I was there and no matter what consciousness-altering substances the audience may have consumed, Julian Cope out-psyched us all.
Today's dozen songs span releases from 1984 to 2024, from second solo album Fried to the most recent Cope's Notes collection of outtakes and lost versions, this time focusing on 1992's magnum opus Jehovahkill.
Amazingly, given the number of JC compilations I've posted already, I think I've managed to avoid using any songs (or versions, at least) that have featured on a previous Dubhed selection. Check for yourself, as I've reactivated links to all fifteen of them below.
Is there really such a thing as too much Julian Cope?!
1) Paleface (1992)
2) All The Blowing-Themselves-Up Motherfuckers (Will Realise The Minute They Die That They Were Suckers) (2008)
3) Senile Get (1995)
4) Odin In Lindisfarne (2023)
5) Pristeen (Album Version) (1991)
6) Preaching Revolution (Album Version) (2009)
7) Poet Is Priest, A Number Of Numbers (1995)
8) Vive Le Suicide (2012)
9) Pulsar (Janice Long Session) (1984)
10) Desi (1989)
11) Stop Harping On About The Way Life Used To Be (2018)
12) Me Singing (Album Version) (1984)
1984: Fried: 12
1989: China Doll EP: 10
1991: Peggy Suicide: 5
1992: Fear Loves This Place EP: 1
1993: Floored Genius 2: Best Of The BBC Sessions 1983-1991: 9
1995: 20 Mothers: 3
2008: Black Sheep: 2
2009: The Unruly Imagination: 6
2012: Psychedelic Revolution: 8
2018: Skellington 3: The All-New 21st Century Adventures Of Skellington: 11
Last Friday (12th), Clan K experienced Nile Rodgers & Chic in the beautiful setting of Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire. It was our second consecutive annual trip to see a concert. And given that the first was a majestic set from Madness, the bar was high. But this is Nile Rodgers we're talking about here, it couldn't be anything less than brilliant, could it? Well...yes and no.
First support slot was filled by (it says here) "one of the UK’s most intriguing viral pop acts in the last 2 years". Now if that didn't immediately identify London 5-piece Deco then, like me, you are considerably out of touch.
Here they are, posing for a pic with the Westonbirt crowd as a backdrop. The photo provides another useful reference point. See that white tent peak on the right, in the far distance? That's the (hideously overpriced) merch tent and that's roughly where Clan K were, with recycling bins behind us and rosé quaffing picknickers all around.
So, what were Deco like? No idea, we missed them completely. It's an occupational hazard with a Clan K venture, in any configuration. My desire to see every moment and every act on the line up is tempered by the reality of "getting ready", which invariably means that we'll invariably miss the opening act.
Sorry about that, Deco, I'm sure you were fantastic, so here's recent single I Love That Song, with it's League Of Gentlemen-channeling video, to compensate.
Luckily for Clan K, there were two support acts that evening, and we arrived on-site just in time to catch the start of Sophie Ellis-Bextor's set. Sophie comes across as a sweet, lovely human being on TV and is always entertaining but I will confess that, apart from the song that she did with Spiller and uber-hit Murder On The Dancefloor, I'd struggle to name any other song that she's released.
But that's okay! Perhaps Sophie had anticipated that I wouldn't be alone in this regard and this 8-song, 45-minute "Kitchen Disco" set largely consisted of other people's songs, plus the aforementioned two greatest hits.
I'm not going to lie and say that Sophie offered definitive versions of ABBA's Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) or Like A Prayer by Madonna, but she was lots of fun, self-deprecating and humorous and, most importantly, got the crowd going. Well, the thousands near the front at least. Back near the bins, several parties seemed more interested in inane chatter than enjoying the music, the swine!
Browsing my collection, I have only one Sophie solo song, a so-so cover of Duel by Propaganda, and a fair bit by her old band theaudience. I do have the CD single of Groovejet but I'm going to forego that and, in a nod to Strangeways' excellent guest series at The Vinyl Villain recently, here's Cinerama with their epic version of the song, recorded for a John Peel session in November 2003.
After a week of lousy wet weather, fortune smiled on us this Friday, with clear skies and pleasant temperatures as the sun began to descend. Everything was running as smooth as clockwork, with the main attraction due on at 9.00pm, so it was something of a surprise when Niles quietly appeared on stage (and on screen) early, the rest of the band joining him one by one. And then, in another unexpected turn, a belated, booming PA announcement of Nile Rodgers & Chic's arrival, reminiscent of a wrestling match. I was half-expecting the announcer to introduce "special guest star, Giant Haystacks"...!
Chic in 2024 are a 9-strong, super-slick machine, Nile with Jerry Barnes (bass), Russell Graham (keyboards), Richard Hilton (keyboards), Ken Gioffre (saxophone), Steve Jankowski (trumpet) and Ralph Rolle (drums). Vocals were mostly provided by Kimberly Davis and Audrey Martells, respectively left and right of Nile in the above picture, although I think pretty much all of the male musicians got to sing lead during the 25-song set.
Twenty-five songs, you say? Did Chic have that many hits? Well, no. As Nile explains during one of his (many, many) monologues throughout the night, Chic were not really that successful back in the day, on either side of the pond. Despite a slew of now-classic singles between 1977 and 1979, only 5 cracked the Top 10 in the UK and only one album, 1979's second C'est Chic, got into the Top 20 peaking at #2.
Therefore, despite the band performing on stage, the emphasis here is on Nile's incredible career as a writer and producer, with less than a third of the set comprising Chic songs. So, there's an impressive run of hits by Diana Ross, Sister Sledge, Madonna, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Duran Duran, Sheila & B. Devotion and David Bowie. Pretty much every one with a Sky Arts-style introduction. All fascinating stuff and, let's face it, at this point in his life, Nile can do what the bloody hell he wants on stage. But it does make for a rather disjointed experience, musically-speaking.
And no-one really needs to hear the guys murdering the classics, vocally at least. The only time it's a bit more bearable is when drummer Ralph Rolle gets into a "funkosity" riff which at least involves some audience participation.
I may be alone in having a mixed reaction to the female singers too. Kimberly Davis leaned more heavily towards the kind of shouty vocal gymnastics that generall leave me cold but was much better when giving a more restrained and nuanced performance. Audrey Martells was the better performer of the two on the night for me and definitely had the best hair.
Kimberly and Audrey dominated the screens to each side of the stage, which was pretty much our only view of what was happening on stage. As the real star of the show, Nile seemed to have relatively little screen time, so we could hear but not really see his consummate guitar playing. Quite bizarre, on reflection.
Had we got deeper into the crowd, I think our experience would have been different, as it felt like many of the people around us didn't really have a clue who Nile Rodgers was. Given the sheer number of songs that Niles was cramming in, there was an inevitable over reliance on medleys in the first half.
It did mean that it took me a while to warm up, but despite my misgivings the songs are so infectious that it's impossible not to Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) and I was soon giving it my all.
Roughly ninety minutes later, Good Times morphed into Sugarhill Gang's Rappers Delight and then the concert just kind of stopped. Music piped through the PA as Nile announced that the song was Chic's new single with Purple Disco Machine. And then, he and the band left the stage.
Many of the audience had already been packing up their food and booze, folding their chairs and blankets and hot footing it back to their cars to be 'first' in the queue to exit. Clan K hung on, in the hope of an encore that wasn't to come, then returned to our own vehicle. Our relatively late arrival meant that we were parked quite near the exit, so the price of missing Deco to get out and homeward bound fairly painlessly was worth paying, to be honest.
So, a weird night, all told. You can't deny the brilliance of the music and although it would never have happened, I would have been very happy with an all-Chic set. As it was, the night was a good education if you have no idea who Nile Rodgers is but not quite the unforgettable experience that I was hoping for.
As I can't possibly hope to recreate the set without inflicting a 5-hour Dubhed selection on you, I've instead gone for a 45-minute compilation of Chic classics and deep cuts, spanning 1977 to 1982.
Will You Cry (When You Hear This Selection)? I hope not!
The photos of Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Chic were taken by Nige Brown and published by the Stroud Times on 17th July. You can see more of Nige's work here.
