If it’s pop and disco bangers from the 70s to the noughties you’re after – with a Spice Girl thrown in – then Hyde Park was the place to be on Sunday.
Those crafty programmers at BST put together a line-up of wall to wall crowd-pleasers for what turned out to be an arm-waving singalong on a sunny afternoon.
Sets by Groove Armada and a DJ turn by Mel C preceded the arrival of the legend that is Nile Rodgers just as the mercury topped 30 degrees.
He’s a consummate pro – and how could he not get the gathered masses into the groove with a song-writing back catalogue that takes in Bowie, Madonna and Donna Summer?
First though were the hits that made him famous with Chic – Le Freak, Everybody Dance, Dance, Dance Dance and I Want Your Love were no sooner polished off then we were plunged into the Donna Summer covers I’m Coming Out and Upside Down.
Rodgers has worked with them all and has nothing left to prove except how much joy he still takes in still.
Aided by the belting voices of a pair of hugely talented singers, covers of Like A Virgin, Material Girl and Bowie hits Modern Love and Let’s Dance only serve to remind you of Rodgers’ iconic status as producer, writer and all-round great guy.
A set highlight was a thundering rendition of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky a tune so catchy it’s impossible to stand still.
Jake Shears of The Scissor Sisters and Mel C at BST Hyde Park. (Image: Sienna Lorraine Gray)
The day after Pride it was the right vibe for the sheer anarchic energy of The Scissor Sisters – Jake Shears, Babydaddy and Del Marquis are New Yorkers who owe their breakthrough more than two decades ago to the UK.
With opener I Don’t Feel Like Dancing they remind you of ABBA if they had grown old disgracefully – whipping up the crowd on a hot afternoon with tongue in cheek club anthems – Filthy Gorgeous, Get Your Tits Out and an insanely upbeat Take Your Mama/George Michael Freedom mash up with a leg kicking Mel C guesting.
Jake affectionately told us: “This is really special for us because London is really the Scissor Sisters’ hometown… it always has been.”
Nile Rodgers and Simon Le Bon at Hyde Park. (Image: Bethan Miller)
Which paved the way for headliners Duran Duran for a two hour set spanning all their hits.
They opened with Is There Something I Should Know? and their James Bond theme A View To A Kill (better than I remembered) followed by Hungry Like The Wolf.
It wasn’t until Lonely In Your Nightmare and Ordinary World – dedicated to the England football team that we got our first ballads of the night.
By this time dusk was descending and frontman Simon Le Bon still fitting into skinny jeans and deck shoes – and a spiky haired John Taylor channelling Keith Richards in sleeveless t-shirt were displaying the on stage ease of people who have been performing together for more than 45 years.
Nick Rhodes, in shoulder padded suit referencing Man Ray, channelled the New Romantic look and synthpop that made the band famous while drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist John Taylor underpinned the whole with a rock edge.
The Reflex, Planet Earth, Girls on Film – along with covers of White Lines and Psycho Killer were sung along to with gusto.
There was only time left for an encore that took in fire eating and percussive flames to Wild Boys, and the phones-aloft moment of Save a Prayer and Rio before we were packed off in time to get home to watch England’s victory over Mexico – what a night.
Earlier Le Bon had called it correctly: “I have faith in this team. I believe in them.
“I think they’re gonna do us proud. They can overcome the cauldron that is the Azteca [Stadium].
“They can overcome the altitude. They can overcome the team that is Mexico.
“I believe.