Nile Rodgers Pres.the Chic Organisation @ The Forum, London
Nile Rodgers Pres.the Chic Organisation @ The Forum, London - 14th June 2013
It may have been my friend's love of his music that brought me here - a friend who neatly summed up Nile Rodger's contribution to pop by stating;
"He's produced almost every song you've ever danced to!!";
But what brought most other people here, especially the surprisingly large number of young people who were almost certainly not born when Chic were in the charts, was without doubt the song of the summer Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", a track so Chic it could be 1979 all over again!
The young crowd was entertained early on by legendary disco DJ Nicky Siano who posed with Nile to take a photo when the legendary songwriter/producer briefly popped onto the stage to sample the party atmosphere pre-gig.
Soon after, the lights dimmed and Nile then carefully led out his band - all immaculately dressed top to toe in white - onto the stage before suddenly launching into "Everybody Dance" as the lights came on.
From there it was a whistle stop tour of firstly Chic minor classics such as "I Want Your Love" and then those productions that Nile Rodgers is less well-known for - which prompted Nile to defiantly say "We are NOT a covers band!" - including Sister Sledge's "We Are Family", Modjo's "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)" (which samples Chic's "Soup For One"), Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out" and David Bowie's "Let's Dance".
The momentum built up from hit after hit was not undone by a short rudimentary pause before the encore: everyone knew the two tracks that remained to be played so they tore down the roof by heading straight into the slice of disco heaven that is "Le Freak!"
The one two Chic attack was complete when Nile strummed the famous chords to "Good Times", perhaps THE most influential disco track ever. Indeed this was demonstrated as The Chic Organisation segued "Good Times" smoothly into The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Nile Rodgers launched into a word perfect take of the famous rap that pretty much invented rap as we know it.
Almost as quickly as it had begun it was over, such is often the case with hit heavy sets but there was just a little time for Nile and his band, upon soaking up the applause, to allow a DJ time to play Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and for everyone to have a mass sing along. Nile held out his smart phone to capture the moment just as he had done at the beginning of the night when first coming onto stage; this was without doubt a night that would live long in the memory!
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