Steps and Chic have a ball at Greenwich Music Time Festival – review
The groups live up to their (very different) legend statuses in London.
By Will Stroude
Renewing the vow he made a few years back to do as many live shows as possible, Chic frontman Nile Rodgers raised a cheer so thunderous it would have rattled the roof at Greenwich Music Time had there been one to rattle.
In the open-air courtyard of the splendid Old Royal Naval College, with the River Thames as a backdrop and tall ships sailing by, it was a ‘Yowsah, yowsah, yowsah’ moment that proved yet again that there ain’t no party like a Chic party.
A musical genius and the most genial of hosts, 65-year-old Nile and his tighter-than-tight band took us on a magical musical tour through original Chic hits (‘I Want Your Love’, ‘Le Freak’), songs the Chic Organisation have penned for other people (‘I’m Coming Out’, ‘We Are Family’), plus stuff he’s produced (‘Like A Virgin’, ‘Let’s Dance’) or co-written and played on – most notably Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ which proved to be the most elating moment in an evening full of them.
These days a Chic show is a well-oiled machine that always starts with ‘Everybody Dance’ and ends with ‘Good Times’ and, even though there’s a new album – their first in 16 years and thus suitably named It’s About Time on the way in September – it’s all about the hits, with (brilliant) new single ‘Till The World Falls’ relegated to a video clip at the end.
Any spontaneity comes from drum rolls and guitar licks, not unexpected tunes thrown into the mix, but when a setlist is this joyous and crowd-pleasing why mess with it?
Playing the same venue the previous night, Steps brought their own set-in-stone setlist – the one that they’re touring with under the Summer Of Steps banner which kicks off with ‘Summer Of Love’ and ends with ‘Tragedy’.
Their show is all about pleasing the crowd too, cramming in everything from ‘5,6,7,8’ to recent hit ‘Scared Of The Dark’, doing their Abba-on-speed thing with ‘Deeper Shade Of Blue’, slowing it down for ‘Heartbeat’ and camping it up a treat on ‘Better The Devil You Know’ and ‘Chain Reaction’.
Claire, Lisa, Faye, H and Lee are riding the nostalgia wave that saw them pack out arenas last year and the new show is, by necessity of being in smaller venues, scaled down and a little cheaper – with fewer bells and whistles and backing dancers who aren’t quite up to scratch.
Oh, and they really need to ditch those robot heads that are a blatant Kylie rip-off and look overly cheesy even in a show that’s as big a cheese-fest as a Steps show.
But, now all in their early-40s, the five Stepsters are clearly having as much of a ball as the audience. In an era when music-makers often take themselves too seriously, their world of epic pop and easy-to-do dance moves makes for a great place to spend a couple of hours in.
Rating: Chic 5/5, Steps 4/5
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