Nile Rodgers has his say on Sir Cliff radio ban row

Legendary American seminal musician and producer Nile Rodgers from ‘Chic’ has waded into the war of words between Sir Cliff Richard and Absolute Radio 60s after the new station said it was banning the singer from its playlist.

The 71 year old hit back at the station, set to launch on November 22nd, after it defiantly said it would not play any of his 40 plus tracks from the decade which include 7 UK number one singles and 34 UK top ten hits.

Nile told Absolute Radio 60s DJ Pete Mitchell that ‘the problem with Cliff is that as sort of cool as he was, he didn’t have that thing that translated over to the States.’ And that ‘He didn’t make a generation of kids say ‘wow, this guy changed my life, it was just another person with a hit record and there’s a big difference between people who had hit records and people who would make you march in their parade. You know, he wouldn’t be the dude that you’d wanna smoke pot with.’

Absolute Radio 60s bosses made a further statement on the row today after Cliff Richard reacted furiously to the ban saying:

“Absolute Radio 60s is the sound of the most influential decade in music history. Yes, Cliff enjoyed chart success, but we believe timeless acts of the decade that remain relevant today, are bands like The Beatles, The Stones, The Doors, The Who and Aretha Franklin. If there was no Beatles or Stones we’d have no Oasis or Kings of Leon. No Aretha Franklin, then no Amy Winehouse or Adele. We don’t feel the same influence can be said for Sir Cliff.”