Who
Nile Rodgers and Chic
Where and when
West Holts Stage
Dress code
Matching white suits and dresses for The Chic Organisation
What happened
"I'm just trying to get through as many songs as possible," explained Nile Rodgers. The audience could perhaps have worked this out without his help: there's something joyfully relentless about the the latter-day Chic Organisation's approach to live performance. Everybody Dance, Dance Dance Dance, I'm Coming Out, Upside Down, He's The Greatest Dancer and We Are Family: that's not the edited highlights, that's the opening salvo of songs. If the aim is to make you boggle at the sheer quantity of massive hits Rodgers has authored, it works. Even when he pulls out a relatively unknown number - Soup For One, from a 1982 film soundtrack – it turns into a cover of a hit that sampled it, Lady by Modjo. Perhaps understandably, an atmosphere of mild delirium seems to settle on the audience, many of whom seem extremely well-refreshed indeed: when Chic perform Let's Dance, which Rodgers co-wrote with David Bowie, their singing momentarily threatens to drown out the band entirely. After the set's close – a mammoth version of Good Times interpolated with sections of The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight, with dozens of audience members dancing onstage – the band leave. Rodgers remains, while the PA blares out Daft Punk's Get Lucky. The crowd stay too, bellowing the song back at him. He looks genuinely moved.
High point
The sight of an enormous Welshman in the crowd, pint of bitter in hand, singing delightedly along to Chic's version of Madonna's Like A Virgin.
Low point
There wasn't one.
In a tweet
Some of the greatest pop music ever made, expertly played by a ferociously well-drilled band. It was fantastic.
