Rock and Pop: Sister Sledge at HMV Forum on August 27
Published: 11 August, 2011
by ROISIN GADELRAB
NEVER let it be said this page doesn’t give variety. You want retro 90s house, we give you a Bagleys reunion; indie kids, we give you the Camden Crawl; 60s rock ’n’ roll debauchery, cue John’s Children; and straight up Shakespearean hip-hop, and Akala appears on our pages.
So how about a disco revival? Cast your minds back to 1979, the winter of discontent is drawing to a close, The Dukes of Hazzard is on TV, and We Are Family is booming from the ghetto blaster.
Back to 2011 and Sister Sledge are coming to Kentish Town with a full band from Philadelphia, on Saturday, August 27.
So ubiquitous are their hits, such as Lost in Music, Frankie and Thinking of You, that their inclusion in the wedding DJ’s repertoire has almost become compulsory.
If ever there was cause to invoke the word extravaganza, now is the time.
Sister Sledge are taking over HMV Forum and bringing along classic disco and soul artists including Gwen Dickey Jaki Graham and Kenny Thomas.
At the same time, DJ Greg Edwards and Kid Jensen will be playing soul, disco, boogie and rare grooves to keep the party going with an after-show set until 2am.
Sister Sledge – four college graduate siblings, who began performing as teenagers – first topped the charts in 1979 when Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic produced the album, We Are Family.
Their subsequent albums propelled them to international success in the 80s and 90s.
Although many of their hits have been remixed several times, He’s The Greatest Dancer has managed to escape this treatment.
However, it was sampled by Will Smith for Getting Jiggy With It and was covered by Danni Minogue in 2007 – anyone remember that one?
Dickey, lead singer of LA soul, funk and disco band Rose Royce, formed by Motown producer Norman Whitfield, will perform a number of the band’s hits made famous by the movie Car Wash.
Listen out for Wishing On A Star, which she re-recorded with Jay-Z in 1998, as well as Ain’t Nobody and Love Don’t Live Here Anymore – yes the one Gary Barlow later covered.
Vocalist Jaki Graham will be playing classic 80s dance tracks including Could It Be I’m Falling In Love, which reached number five in the UK charts in 1985.
Soul don Kenny Thomas had hits with both Thinking About Your Love and Trippin on Your Love.
The amorous singer must have been so struck by cupid that his vocabulary shrunk under the weight of the angel’s arrows.
Expect to hear other hits such as Outstanding, Best of You – unfortunately not the Foo Fighters one – and Tender Love.