Last night, we got the absolute pleasure of watching Janelle Monae and Chic at the iTunes Festival at the Roundhouse in Camden. I was excited enough as it was (sorry if you follow me on Twitter - I got a bit excited) but when we got there and I realised how close we were I nearly had a full on meltdown.
Janelle was incredible - my new ambition is to be the third backing singer (not sure I could pull off that wig but the outfits were TO DIE). She had more energy than a three year old on Smarties and even though the crowd weren't really there for her (a common problem I'm sure in the iTunes ballot system), she got people well into it, even getting the entire crowd sitting down on the floor at one point (I fell over. Not sure why I am let out in public.) She was unbelievable - and her new album is just ridiculously good.
Here's a little sneaky peek of our view...
So then it was the main event. Nile Rodgers is just a total legend - having written some of THE biggest songs...ever, I was slightly expecting him to be a diva. But no, not at all. He was an absolute delight, with a definite highlight being his little speech about how he's not covering Bowie or Diana Ross, they were his songs to start with. Before he came on to get his disco on, he took photographs of the audience which I later learned he started to do to preserve memories after he discovered he had cancer. WHAT a dude.
Then he bought out the sassiest band I have ever seen. The ladies were the epitome of FIERCE and the band were so into it I was surprised they could simultaneously make music and wiggle their hips quite so effusively! The setlist was just beyond, hit after hit after hit, and closing with Nile proclaiming 2013 had been the best year of his life after seeing Get Lucky (yeah, he wrote that too) go to number one in 97 countries. NINETY SEVEN. Someone really will be getting lucky now...
