We were invited to cover Nile Rodgers when he played at the Greenwich Music Time festival. The man is a true legend and really needs no introduction but to set the scene, here are a few stats about the great man.
- He and Bernard Edwards formed Disco band CHIC in 1976
- He has produced some of the most popular songs for artists such as Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie and Madonna
- He has sold over 500 million records (CHIC, Solo and as a Producer)
- He plays a 1960 Fender Stratocaster with a 1959 neck, affectionately nicknamed "The Hitmaker"
Armed with the above information, I am sure you’ll agree that this guy is somewhat of a superstar amongst the music scene, we were excited to finally see him in the flesh, playing to a near capacity crowd in Greenwich.
All of his songs are timeless, the second you hear them, you just want to dance, there’s something built into 99.9% of human beings that triggers this desire and was very apparent this evening when he took to the stage and launched straight into “Everybody Dance”, followed closely by “Dance, Dance, Dance”. I was in the photo pit, taking pictured of the great man and all I wanted to do was drop my camera and bust some moves, luckily for the paying audience, I held my composure and did what I was there to do!
It wouldn’t have been a show unless he played a selection of tracks that he had produced for other artists over the years, this kicked off with a couple by Diana Ross, (I’m Coming Out and Upside Down), Sister Sledge, (He’s The Greatest Dancer and We Are Family), Duran Duran (Notorious) and even managed a space age performance of the collaboration he did with Daft Punk (Get Lucky)
The majority of the show was seated, now, for a ‘normal’ band, I can accept this, but for Nile Rodgers and CHIC? What were they thinking? NOBODY was sat down, in fact, from the second he stepped onto the stage until the moment he left it, I didn’t recall seeing anyone sat down, you couldn’t, it was if he had used a cropduster to spray special Nile Rodgers ‘Dancing Dust’ over the grounds to ensure that everyone ‘got down’ and had a damned good time!
Rodgers possesses the energy of a man half his age and judging by his rather ‘colourful’ past, it's a surprise he's even with us at all….
Each member of the band had earned their right to be there, the female vocalists were bang on form, soulful, sassy and cool as cucumbers. The sax player just oozed charisma and style, the drummer and Keyboard player did there thing whilst Niles played his guitar like it was the last day on earth, the man cannot be human! To think that this one human being has produced such a body of work for a plethora of artists simply beggars belief!
Most 65 year olds might nip down to the Post Office to cash in their pensions every Tuesday or maybe pop into the day centre for a stale custard cream and a cup of Joe but not Nile, oh-no, he fills his days touring the globe playing music that has literally touched the hearts of EVERYBODY….what a guy!
A Nile Rodgers & CHIC show is definitely a 2 way thing, it’s as much about the audience than it is about the music and Nile was keen to make sure that everybody was having an amazing time throughout the show. Towards the end of the set, after a 5 minute breakdown with the drummer getting the audience joining in, singing various things (think of the way that Freddie Mercury used to do it), they launched into “Let's Dance”.....everybody losing it in the process!
This led nicely into the last three songs of the set, kicking off with “My Forbidden Lover”, “Le Freak” which saw a fabulous battle between the bass played and Nile on guitar (I honestly think that the bass player won!) before bring the curtain down on an immense night of music with the classic “Good Times” which saw a sea of arms in the air, people loving every second of this floor filling masterpiece!
At the end of the show, Niles stayed on the stage whilst his new single “Till The World Falls“ played in the background, giving everyone a taste of what they can expect from his new long player It’s About Time which is due to land on September 14th and is available for pre-order HERE
For all of the photos taken at the show, please click HERE
Words and Pictures by Steve Muscutt
