Nile Rodgers and Chic: Live at Glastonbury 2017

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Overview

As Nile Rodgers points out from the stage, the last time he played Glastonbury was four years ago, on the West Holts stage – touring with a new version of the Chic Organisation was one of his responses to being diagnosed with an particularly aggressive form of cancer. Their shtick was exceptionally slick back then: four years on, with Rodgers cancer-free and fresh from volunteering at Grenfell Tower, it’s slicker still. Rodgers has a back catalogue preposterously over-stuffed with sublime music: the latterday Chic’s skill is presenting it as a kind relentless, mind-boggling barrage, without slipping into wedding disco cheesiness. There are obviously omissions – there’s no room for Dance Dance Dance, My Forbiden Lover or Thinking of You, but it seems fairly churlish to quibble in the face of a set that steamrollers the Pyramid stage crowd: We Are Family, Le Freak, Good Times, Get Lucky, Upside Down, Let’s Dance. The crowd’s response is pretty delirious, but that seems only fitting.