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Hard though it may have been to imagine back when he was bashing out obscure garage rip-offs (thusly claiming his spot as forefather of the so-called ‘Cosmic Scouse’ scene of earlier this decade) in early ‘90s curiosities The Stairs, Edgar Jones and his band The Joneses are very much at home opening tonight for The Godfather (Grandfather?) of Soul. And when it transpires that Mr Brown has been waylaid in the vortex of Keele service station, Edgar and his troupe of funk soul brothers are only too happy to fill the void. Switching easefully from chilled funk to big band swing to playful ska, the local hero steps up to the mantle and wins over a subdued crowd. Closing with September single ‘More Than You’ve Ever Had’ from Noel G’s favourite ‘Soothing Music For Stray Cats’ album and The Shirelles’ ‘Dedicated To The One I Love’, the band step out of a potentially sticky situation without so much of a splash landing on their strides. Smooth bastards.
But if Edgar Jones and The Joneses are smooth, then The Famous Flames must be liquid, flowing relentlessly through grooves and moving onstage as one funky-as-hell unit. We’re teased and teased until The Hardest Working Man In Show Business™ is introduced on stage but, from that belated point on, we’re captivated.
There are, it emerges, plenty of those who will grumble that James Brown is past it and that he is carried by his band. True enough, when he asks that legendary question ‘Can I Scream?’, the answer is, well, he can’t. And even after a few lines of lung-straining vocal acrobatics, he is forced to spend a few moments sitting at his keyboard jamming while his backing singers and dancers step into the limelight. But realistically, people must have known that they were coming to see a man who is now 77 years old. It’s hardly fair to expect him to do the fucking splits.
Taut grooves, endless choreography, sprawling jams that keep us on our feet – these are, as they always were, hallmarks of James Brown’s show. We get the classics ‘Get Up Off Of That Thing’, ‘Get On The Good Foot’, ‘Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag’, ‘Georgia’, ‘This Is A Man’s World’ and a valedictory ‘Sex Machine’, and most of us can’t get the grins of our faces nor our hands out of the air. And, better still, there’s no ‘Living In America’.
This man invented dance music, and to see him still rocking it despite being old enough to kick Keith Richards’ ass and send him to bed with no supper is one of life’s few real wonders. That new bag Papa’s got may well be a colostomy bag – but other than that, there’s still nothing that can take the piss out of James Brown.
