The word ‘genius’ is thrown around a lot these days.
Sometimes, it’s valid. Albert Einstein, for instance, was probably a genius. Leonardo Da Vinci, too. Oh, and Alan Turing, Marie Curie, and Mozart. Heck, I think it’s even fair to say that Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, and Bruce Springsteen likely score reasonably highly on the Genius Scale.
Sometimes, however, it is not.
In the last seven days, this humble reviewer alone has heard it used to describe The Performing Artiste Known as Lorraine Kelly’s reaction to being asked if she remembered working with then-Conservative Leadership candidate, Esther McVey. I’ve seen it being bandied around as a descriptor for the creative outputs of Shawn Mendes, Ellie Goulding, Justin Bieber, and The Wurzels. I’ve even heard it used to describe whoever decided to turn Michael Gove into the planet’s hottest up ‘n’ comin’ MC. (Ed.: We might allow that last one).
Occasionally, though, I think that genius is indisputable.
Nile Rodgers is the songwriter and producer behind more hit records than you and I have had hot dinners.
He wrote We Are Family for Sister Sledge, I’m Coming Out for Diana Ross, Like A Virgin for Madonna, and Notorious for Duran Duran. He produced Let’s Dance and Modern Love by David Bowie, Original Sin by INXS, and Inside Story by Grace Jones, and co-produced Get Lucky with Pharrell Williams and a little-known French duo named Daft Punk.
On top of that, he’s the mastermind of his own band, Chic; a band whose music you will know, and have danced to, and will have provided the soundtrack to numerous Nights To Remember for you, your parents, and your grandparents the course of the last fifty years.
He’s won three Grammys, is the chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s one of the most successful songwriters and producers of all time, and his collated musical output has totalled well over 575 million sales worldwide to date.
And on Friday night, he brought his hits to The Eden Sessions.
Now, as a reviewer, you generally attempt to cast an objective eye over proceedings.
You never seek to be critical, for that’s not the aim of the game; you merely attempt to take in as much as you can, and then relay an honest, impartial, and fair review back to your readership.
There was, however, literally nothing to criticise about Nile Rodgers and Chic’s’ show at The Eden Sessions.
Not only was it technically perfect – with every note, crash, and harmony being expertly executed by Nile and his all-star team of seasoned funk veterans – but the setlist read more like a Now That’s What I Call Pop Music track list than it did the product of one man’s mind.
By the time we’d reached the midpoint of the set, we’d already been treated to I’m Coming Out, Lady (Hear Me Tonight), Upside Down, and We Are Family; so, by the time the band closed with a sucker-punch of Everybody Dance and Good Times, we had pretty much accepted that our jaws were going to be welded to the floor for the foreseeable future.
It was a masterclass of modern pop performance and a live set of the kind that you feel privileged to be in attendance for. We came, we saw, and we danced like our lives depended on it; Nile Rodgers & Chic’s set at Cornwall’s Eden Project was, truly, absolutely funking incredible.
