Nile Rodgers and Chic review: Hit after hit from a peerless back catalogue

Grateful: Nile Rodgers
Getty Images for BMI
Gemma Samways20 December 2018

By his own admission, Nile Rodgers has a lot to be thankful for, be that selling more than 500 million records or recently conquering cancer. On the final night of his European tour, the 66-year-old hitmaker credited the latter experience for the renewed creative drive that spawned Chic’s first studio album in 26 years, September’s top 10 record It’s About Time.

Unusually for an artist with a record to promote, Rodgers and the virtuosic, eight-strong collective didn’t play a single new song last night, opting to cherry-pick from his peerless back catalogue instead. Chic standards such as Everybody Dance and Chic Cheer were interspersed with sparkling renditions of his productions for Diana Ross, Madonna, and Sister Sledge, with vocal powerhouses Folami and Kimberly Davis taking turns to sing the lead. Indeed, the latter’s soulful riffing during the disco ball-powered breakdown of I Want Your Love received a much-deserved ovation from the audience.

Introducing his smash Daft Punk-collaboration Get Lucky as “prophetic”, Rodgers spoke of feeling like “one of the luckiest people on this earth”. A rapt audience shimmied in the aisles to a gold-streamer-strewn outing of Le Freak, and danced onstage during the band’s beatific set closer Good Times.

In fact, if it weren’t for the venue curfew, you suspect that both they and the band would still be there partying now.

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