Venue:
Castlefield Bowl, Manchester
Date: 27/06/2018
For my sixtieth birthday, Nile Rodgers and Chic kindly arranged to play a special concert at Castlefield Bowl, Central Manchester.
The evening began in a bar watching the last ten minutes of Germany v South Korea. Dinner was the early tasting menu at WOOD, run by the 2015 Masterchef winner. Exquisite is too inadequate a descriptor for the heavenly flavours that caressed my tongue. I even indulged in the wine flight, a rarity for me.
It was a casual stroll down to the venue, baking in sunshine, not a wisp of wind, sunglasses essential. The vapour trails high in the sky were rainbow coloured.
Nile was excited. He looked relaxed and extremely healthy. Even before he strapped on his guitar, he came out stage front to join in the singalong to Bill Withers’ Lovely Day. The band were resplendent in white: drums, bass, two keyboards, trumpet and sax. All of them high class musicians. The lady vocalists dressed in elegant orange gowns. The sound balance and quality in the bowl shaped, open air arena was perfect. They opened with the one-two knockout punches of Dance, Dance, Dance and Everybody Dance. As soon as the bass started percolating against the solid 4/4 beat, the crowd began to move with a collective desire to indulge in one of life’s greatest pleasures, the joy of dance. It brought a tear to my eye.
I would say the third song, I Want Your Love, is probably the finest live performance of a song I have ever witnessed. Kimberley Davis’s impassioned vocal was utterly extraordinary, capturing every single nuance of the excruciating pain from unrequited love. Her singing was as much a show-stopper as Philip Bailey hitting those impossibly high notes on Reasons. Kimberley Davis is a superstar singer. Here’s hoping her solo career takes flight, she deserves it. But the sheer exuberance of the interaction between guitar and bass was life affirming. Jerry Barnes has the toughest job in Chic, filling Bernard Edwards bass strap. Of course, he has all those sinewy bass lines down pat but it’s the relationship with Nile that is crucial. They were synergistic, playful, improvisational, energetic and quite beautiful together. They both looked so happy and they made the world feel a better place.
There were many other highlights, hit after hit, relentlessly, a non-stop dance fest for the better part of two hours. Lost In Music must be the best song ever written. The groove in the latter half of Le Freak can move mountains. The stomping rhythm of My Feet Keep Dancing is irresistible. Chic’s Notorious simply eclipses Duran Duran and should have its own studio version. The bass riff of Good Times is a work of art comparable to the Mona Lisa. Rodgers and Edwards were very generous to Sister Sledge. The We Are Family album is disco’s true masterpiece. When Nile smiles, everybody smiles. And the crowd never stopped moving.
It all ended with a controlled stage invasion to party to Good Times/Rapper’s Delight. Still, after the clock had ticked past curfew and the band had left the stage, Nile was stage front chatting to the audience.
Disco music should be prescribed to improve health and well-being. Born from despair, disco brings hope, love and freedom. It is the epitome of happiness and Nile Rodgers is its greatest exponent.
The audience:
The disco crowd is a beautiful crowd and a youthful crowd. Even those in their sixties are young and beautiful. They are always up for a party. They are tastefully dressed, they are lithe, they move with supple limbs and the sunshine brings out the best of them. Best of all, they are fragrant. A disco crowd does not sweat.
It made me think..
I’ve been dancing to Chic for forty years. I missed that callow twenty year old who would go from the mosh-pit of a Clash gig to dance under a mirror ball until the middle of the night. The joy of moving in unison with a partner, driven by Nile’s restless, rhythm guitar, is up there in the highlights of my life. It’s transportive, rapturous. This gig made me look back on all those years, everything I’ve done and everything I didn’t, different dance partners, the hedonism, regrets, moments of pride. I wish I could tell my younger self to relax, stop fretting, just be yourself, be attentive to your partner and dance. Most of all, it made me feel so glad to be alive and still able to let the music take me where it will.
Walking back to the train, the air was satisfyingly cool after such an exhilarating evening. There, in the sky, the moon was full, shining its light even brighter than the mirror ball of my youth. Life felt good. A special, unforgettable day. A special, unforgettable gig. A birthday I will never forget.
F888 the review… You were sixty yesterday and didn’t tell us??
Whatever you do next, promise us it won’t be boring š
Fantastic review Tigs, as life-affirming and joyous as the music itself, thanks for sharing.
I fully admit that as a punk & new wave obsesessed 14 year-old in 1978, Chic and disco in all its forms left me completely cold, but of course, over time, the timeless allure of The Dance finally caught up with me, and 70s soul & disco is now my go-to good times music (see what I did there?) Strange how the genre that seemed so throwaway at the time is the music that’s outlasted pretty much everything else…
PS Happy birthday!
Joyous review of joyous music. I used to hate Chic but I am younger than that now. Oh,belated Happy Birthday old-timer!
I would never have gone to see Chic 40 years ago, but do remember whispering to my more open minded punk mates “have you heard Chic, aren’t they great?”.
Thanks for the best wishes! As a belated birthday present David Bowie is releasing a ‘new’ album tomorrow. I’m blessed, I tell ya!
What, is this the Live 78 one?
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I’ve never heard or heard of it, I have no idea that it’s almost as good as Stage in places, for example, and I am not me, no not nor nothing ever.
Re: the ‘new’ David Bowie album, “Welcome to the Blackout”, half of which was recorded at the 1 July 1978 concert at Earl’s Court, London.
I just wanted to say …
… I was at that gig.
Somehow, I feel a duty to buy the album …
You get free trousers with it.
In several instalments.
I recognise that, Alias.
The mid 70s, with the single so dominant, were an eclectic time.
I could go to a record shop and buy Gary Gilmores Eyes by the Adverts and Shame by Evelyne “Champagne” King and think they were both stupendous.
Excellent point. The tidy 7ā format really encouraged adventurous purchases..
But the Shame 12″ version is the only one worth owning. One of the finest 12″ ever made.
Sounds amazing! I’m seeing him on Sunday in Glasgow at the (bizarrely named) Fiesta X Fold festival, along with Morcheeba, Laura Mvula, Emili Sande and more. Will try and get round to doing a review of it after the event.
It’s gonna be HOT as well. Maybe the hottest weekend in Glasgow since the last time I went to a music festival – T In The Park in ’95!
Fiesta X Fold? A young woman from Hounslow with not much on and two staples on her stomach… poor lass.
It is a stupendous line up. I would dearly like to see Morcheeba (very pleased that they are stiil a headliner) and the wonderful Ms Mvula. You are in for a treat.
But I do share Moose’s confusion. Why does a thoroughly modern music festival in Glasgow get named after a thoroughly dodgy lads’ magazine?
Another who dismissed Chic as disco rubbish in my youth. It is surprising how many of us did then and have revised our opinions now.
Same also with Reggae.
It’s a fine review @Tiggerlion and wish I had witnessed it.
I hated disco. Remember the spotty oiks who sat down cross-legged at school discos if anything dancey came on. That was me. I bloody love Chic. Hope to catch this never ending hits show before it stops.
The never ending hits show still rolls on. It was in Glasgow last night. Catch it while you can.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/dec/14/chic-nile-rodgers-review-sse-hydro-glasgow
Great review, Tigger.
Chic are life affirming music incarnate & Nile is almost impossible to dislike.
I can still remember nearly baulking at paying Ā£ 2.99 for the 12″ of ‘ Le Freak’ – a pal at school was nipping out of school at lunch time to get one for anyone interested & wanted the money up front – so glad I went for it, as the love affair has run ever since.
All power to them, Bernard would be proud, I reckon.