You don’t want to be throwing the phrase musical genius about lightly. Terms such as legend and genius can become very easy to use when discussing the older generations of musicians that still grace the stage these days. However, Friday night without question saw a true legend and musical genius take to the stage for the inaugural This Is Hard Rock event.
The new hotel is joining the ranks of venues offering up outdoor events and also following in Ibiza Rocks’ footsteps to offer up live acts on open-air stages. For the first of a string of shows every Friday this summer, Hard Rock made the debut event a special one with disco pioneer, master song writer and king of the funkiest rhythm guitar playing, Nile Rodgers, and his band Chic. Set amongst the luxury suites of the five-star hotel, you can’t help but feel a bit of the high-life rubbing off on you.
Louie Vega and Kenny Dope AKA Masters at Work warmed up the crowd with a fine selection of disco-flecked house cuts on the sleek all-white stage. Suitably warmed up and in good spirits for the evenings musical delights, Nile Rodgers appeared on the stage with a beaming smile, taking photos of the crowd and introducing himself to the audience.
With a blast of sparklers from the stage, the main man and his band dived straight into ‘Everybody Dance’, getting everybody smiling and the smiles stuck for the rest of the night. I found myself grinning to myself on so many occasions throughout the night as the feel-good atmosphere washed over me whilst I looked out over the crowd having such a good time. If you have seen Chic before you'll know what to expect, as they run through hits such as 'Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)' and ‘I Want Your Love’.
Added to the songs, the musicianship on display was incredibly awe-inspiring to watch as the individual members burst into life – screaming trumpet solos led into groovy guitar jams and the absolute down-right funkiest of slap bass wizardry. Independent of the songs it would be a pleasure to watch the musicians just jam on their instruments all night long.
Around the halfway point, the set took on a distinct new chapter as Nile Rodgers explained that he and his band were about to treat us to a number of hit songs that he has written for other artists over the years. If you didn’t know much about Nile Rodgers and you went to see him play, you would be flabbergasted by the amount of classic pop songs the man has written.
They all click into place with the man’s inimitable style of guitar, with its choppy and innately funky rhythms. It’s musical infectiousness at its peak.
‘Upside Down’ morphed into a mash-up of 'Soup for One' and Modjo's 'Lady (Hear me Tonight)', which then morphed into Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’ seamlessly, as the crowd reacted with all the vitality that the songs were instilling in them. Another funky wig-out saw the musicians bounce into Sister Sledge’s ‘Lost In Music’.
Then it was time for the one that was always going to get one of the biggest reactions of the night, the biggest song of 2013 by a country mile, Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’. The crowd were singing back all the words with delight. Further renditions of Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘Le Freak’ followed before it was time to call it a night with ‘Good Times’, which saw the stage full of people dancing and huge explosions of confetti covering the crowd.
Chic trade in the feel-good vibes and they delivered them in abundance. It was magical stuff.
