Ladies and Gentlemen... Miss Grace Jones
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Anticipation was sky-high at the Royal Festival Hall to see the icon that is Grace Jones, appearing as part of Massive Attack’s Meltdown. As famed for her bad behaviour and outlandish outfits as for her powerful voice and stunning physique, the audience waited patiently for her invariably striking appearance.
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The show began with the video for new track Corporate Cannibal beamed onto a screen behind the stage. Stark black and white shots of the singer’s face and body moulded themselves into various shapes while she sang “I’m a man eating machine” setting the pace for the evening.
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A huge canopy rose from the stage to reveal Miss Jones on an elevated podium, wearing a headdress with day-glo lights, towering heels, and a cape covering the top half of her body which she would later lose to reveal nothing but a skimpy leotard. “I’m coming out naked” she teased at one point from behind the wings.
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As she launched into Private Life to much excitement, I analysed the audience here tonight. In attendance was a large gay following enthralled by her bold masculine appearance and attitude, older couples who had followed her since her Studio 54 days and disco albums, and younger fans captivated by her appearance as a Bond Girl in A View To A Kill and then by her androgynous image on record sleeves and magazine covers.??
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Indisputably a true icon, from her days as model and muse of Andy Warhol, to critically acclaimed vocalist releasing classics such as Libertango, My Jamaican Guy and La Vie En Rose all of which she performed to rapturous applause tonight, and a change of image which would confuse and awe the public in equal measures with heavy shoulder pads and her much mimicked ‘flat-top’ afro hairstyle.
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During Pull Up To My Bumper Jones urged the crowd to get up off their seats and jump onto the stage, a frenzy ensued as all around me people ran down the stairs to oblige. Now down to just her leotard, she continued singing as the mob of a few hundred people gathered round her, all trying to get close to their idol. I wondered if they’d ever leave the stage, but Jones was escorted off for another hat change before emerging to play Love is the Drug, a Roxy Music cover. From the Nipple to the Bottle got everyone up off their feet again, remaining this way till the end.
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Anticipation yet again as we waited for the encore, so much so that the occasional roadie onstage provoked boos of disappointment.?? She returned triumphantly to perform Slave to the Rhythm, possibly her most famous song.??“I love you all” she screamed.
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Move over Madonna, Grace Jones is the greatest.
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Leila Hawkins