Grandmaster Flash confounded most expectations at his show last night. There was a little too much editorialising on his part, but I guess he has the right to self-aggrandisement, having pioneered hip-hop's entire turntablist enterprise. But he ain't no purist. He starts with the drum break from (yes Simon) fucking Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight", again and again. ("Duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh, duh-duh, duh duh!!!") And just like my own geeky playlists, he puts Sugarhill Gang next to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust". He had 5000 people singing along to "Billy Jean". Music for the masses! For two and half hours, we were beaten into submission by the World's Biggest Party (!!!) DJ. With, uh, virtuoso scratching and bits of manual vinyl looping that Actually Worked (unlike most attempts by Lesser Beings).
Antoinette's very well-chiselled b-boy friend Swiper got up and stage and popped his competition off the stage. The supposed "b-girls" who got up to dance were an complete embarrassment to the Southern Hemisphere, tho. Every b-girl in the audience was seething. But the biggest problem is that Lena and I simply didn't have the stamina. There were something like five support acts, and we bounced up the front to The Herd and Koolism (both excellent). By the time the venerable Grandmaster turned up, we were simply fucked from hours of, um, fun. Perhaps everyone else was, too, cos the last half hour got a bit frayed. But very glad I went. Bumped into Yas, Matt Skellern and Jessie, which was nice.
