24 June 2016 (gig)
30 June 2016
Prince’s 90s conversion to the creeds of Jehovah was instigated by ex-Family Stoner Larry Graham who tonight brings his own Graham Central Station. His ‘thumpin’ and pluckin’ slap-happy ace of bassing laying down the tone of the evening: ‘DMSR’ (dance, music, sex, romance).
Cee-lo Green (Gnarls Barkley/Goodie Mobb), is resplendent in flailing white silk, looking like Barry White’s love-child, acknowledging his debt to Prince by splicing his own work with fragments of the ‘international lover’s’, his operatic tenor scaling the heights of delirium none more so than on the love-triangle classic ‘The Beautiful Ones’, a fitting lament to the fallen Sexy MF. His ‘Take me with U’ segued into his own ‘It’s Alright’ before the keytar came out to play for his rendition of ‘I feel for you’.
The intermissions showed video footage capturing the virtuoso at work and also reminded of how women were far from superfluous distractions and integral to his bands (from Wendy and Lisa to 3rdEyeGirl).
The shout of ‘What time is it?’ invokes much throat gulping and flowing tears, memories are evoked and shared, introspection turns to retrospection. The star-turn, the inimitable Morris Day and The Time re-enacted their provocative set from the film Purple Rain, Day still the ultra-showman, preening and prancing, never far from his own reflected narcissism, his performance is hypnotic and hilarious, the ultimate light on proceedings. Reeling off classics such as ‘The Bird’ and ‘Jungle Love’ the spirit of the absent becomes present.
Manicured pasticheur Mark Ronson climaxed proceedings with his plagiarised funk and pre-programmed knob-twiddling, a stark reminder of the plunderphonics so prevalent in today’s acts and how the past still manages to be mined and exploited.
For the crowd populated by die-hards who cried hard, this is part of their catharsis, this is what it sounds like ‘When Doves Cry’. On the day of the ‘Brexit’ hokey-cokey (or was it a conga?) it was a boon to be reminded of one of Prince’s greatest songs (unfortunately not played, alas …), 1999’s ‘Free’ with its mantra of the liberty to choose without recrimination. Democracy, basically.
