Review - London 19/6/04

The tube station at the corner of Hyde Park was closed due to overcrowding on its narrow platform so we wandered down past Marble Arch following the knots of people down to Hyde Park. It was overcast but still warm and as we entered the park there were groups of fans sitting on the grass drinking, smoking and eating before heading inside the superfence. The numbers of people were a surprise and as we walked in dust clouds were kicked up by the ranks of trainers!

Okay now let me be honest we managed to blag upgrades to Golden Circle tickets and I was really glad we had. It was loads less crowded than the assembled throngs behind us. I guess compared to festivals back stages for this kind of thing are much better, at festivals they’re boring, at Hyde Park they were full of food stalls, bars, merchandising etc, beers were the usual £3 a pint but I’m getting used to the price tag. I believe the other side it was the beer token system again!

Now in the other side of the double cordon it may have been full of 14 year old fans, but here it was the fans who were 14 a decade or so ago. Full of mainly twenty five to thirty five year olds a few (us included) with kids and most wide eyed on chemicals!

Good job they were cos the first band on, Chicks on Speed, were dire! And that’s a positive description. They hit the stage dressed in homemade colourful costumes looking a bit ‘doggy’ if you don’t mind me saying just as the rain starts.

The techno stuff is all backing track, their first song is ‘We don’t play Guitars!’ and it’s probably cos they have no musical talent. By the second song the crowd are booing. One of the performers on stage pretends to knit another reads a magazine, three vocals over a backing track with a fuzzbox is the current state of American performance music.

Soon a bloke joins them with a violin and batters it with his bow along to what could possibly be called a tune. That’s it the blokes around me have had enough. The bottles come raining down from the golden circle, these folks have paid £50+ and they aren’t standing for the drivel. The track was called fashion and they run off stage, the violinist comes back out all upset and shouts, “We are the 21st Century you better get used to it! We are gonna be big so f**k off!” The security have a major job stopping some of the bigger blokes getting on stage and killing him. The band leave the backing track playing but it’s the end of the set.

By James Brown the rain is intermittent, considering it’s an older crowd in the golden circle I look back to gauge the reaction from the kids on the second tier, they are all loving it. His backing band of middle aged and old men assemble on stage dressed in red jackets and white slacks. It’s a full band, drummer, 2 bass players, lead and rhythm guitars and a 3 piece horn section. There’s also an aging MC.

He introduces the band and builds up the arrival of JB in Soul Train style. The backing singers ‘Bitter Sweet’ come out and it’s nearly twenty minutes before the MC asks us are we ready for some super dynamite soul? We all are and we all feel good!

The first track by the Godfather is Soul Power and proves he may be an old man (as are many of his band) but it doesn’t dissipate the soultastic energy of these tracks, these boys have got soul. The clouds darken for Soul Man but the rain holds off and during Get Up, Get Off That Thing some lovely dancers come on stage to keep us entertained. It starts to rain as Get on the Good Foot starts but we are all far too happy to have our spirits dampened and the Dancers are back in Stars and stripes and ooo these girls can move.

By the next song Super Bad, we’ve been treated to some audience banter and the rainbow soul train has brought us glorious sunshine. The Soul Band behind Mr Brown is a delight, really funked up with scrambling bass chops, horns everywhere and a great drum beat – this is how music should sound, Chicks on Speed take note.

Hit Me produces the trademark JB dancing, at God knows how old the man can still move! There must be elephants in pain without their pain killers somewhere in the world tonight! I Feel Good has the crowd dancin’ and he can hit all the notes. Get Up and Do My Thing follows and the crowd are hooked. The song spirals out to a jam, it’s a great set and I’d recommend catching the old bloke at Glasto if you’re going..

Right from the off the Chili’s get us going a powering intro with Flea maniacally whipping chops from the bass, meets huge cheers . Then they turn all the screens on and suddenly I realise it’s the biggest stage in the I’ve ever seen a hug monolithic structure built to the gods of Rock!

They open with Can’t Stop the bloke next to me profers me a huge spliff saying, “They come from the same place as us, you know what I mean, us, all these happy people!” I gaze into his coal black eyes and nod. The bottles are still flying around the Golden Circle and Kiedis’ eyes appear to be rolling in his head!

Suddenly they take it up a notch. They are full of energy, the whole crowd lifts off. Flea just yells woo hoo amd breaks into break neck chops on the bass. The huge speaker stacks fire the sound into us, everyone is rockin out infront of the huge stage, with the six screens flickering occasionally ruby red, the same colour as the brilliant sunset starting behind us.

Parallel Universe is up next and my daughter doesn’t know it, so she slips down off my shoulders and Anthony does some crazy ass dancing we are all getting very off it! Flea yells out to us at the end of the song that George Bush and Tony Blair are homosexual lovers and that’s about all we hear from the band. John Frusciante laughs at the comment and promptly starts on a rendition of I Feel Love – the crowd all join in and there is a lot of love around.

The wind has dropped and is warmer now, there are read streaked clouds across the sky and I’m chilled out looking over the crowd behind us way off to the back with steam or dust rising off them. Scar Tissue starts and I look down at my daughter, she’s hunched up but singing along as are we all!

The rousing applause at the end is followed by the sounds of tuning up and nothing else, they aren’t talking to us tonight anymore, it’s about the music as By The Way kicks in, with an extended jam we’re all getting warmed up now too. But for me it was starting to go wrong.

My daughter was burning up, complaining of feeling cold, I quickly finished the smoke (bad move) and we moved further out of the audience to the quieter edge of the Golden Circle and before the bedlam of the front of the main arena. My favourite song The Zephyr Song was trailing off when suddenly she was passed out, we made the decision fast to pull on the gig.

We retreated to hospitality and had her checked out, exhaustion was the verdict, turned out she hadn’t slept the night before for worry. We were so pleased we had blagged Golden Circle tickets as it meant we had got out of the venue easily and quickly, as we leave I hear the sounds of trumpets and cheering! But I can’t finish the review, from what I saw the Chilis were magnificently on form and it was a huge stage to perform on.

We walked off carrying an ill child, walking off to find an open underground station on a barmy summer night in London. Next time we go to a one day concert we’ve learned to leave the kid at home!

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