SHALAMAR + GWEN DICKEY – BRIGHTON DOME 21.6.26
Gwen Dickey 19:35 – 20:10
Now if Shalamar were not legendary enough for us all, tonight’s support comes from a true legend; Gwen Dickey. One of the finest female vocalists of her generation, probably best known to many for being the voice of Rose Royce, the R&B, Soul, Disco, Funk band who were hugely popular during the 70’s. Gwen was with Rose Royce from 1973 through until 1980, at which point she moved to the UK and continued on with her own solo career. Although in recent decades she has formed her own version of Rose Royce and toured the UK.
This evening Gwen is performing to an instrumental backing track, so no live band support, I should also mention Gwen performs seated in her wheelchair, as sadly she suffered a spinal injury in 2010, but if you think that has any sort of impact on the sheer beauty and power of her voice you are completely mistaken, as this evening’s 36 minute, 8 song set was utterly brilliant and spellbinding.
Gwen arrived on stage in a fabulous outfit glittering and sparkling in the soft lighting to the intro of ‘Is It Love You’re After’ a Rose Royce song from 1979, the one that many years later S-Express sampled for their 1988 theme. This version tonight though, was not as funked up as the original, giving far more focus on the wonders of Gwen’s voice; it was a real uplifting start to the set.
“Brighton, good evening, wow, thank you, and you are singing already. I like that, I hope you came to party”, Gwen then introduced herself joking that only 3 people knew who she was, and the next song was another Rose Royce song ‘Ooh Boy’.
Commenting on the large number of the crowd joining in Gwen said “I love to hear you sing, that makes my heart feel so good, let’s have some more music, you know this one”, it was the sublime ‘Wishing On A Star’, sung with such passion and skill, when I told my daughter who had joined me that Gwen was 72 years of age, she was in shock, as she thought she was in her mid 30s! A few people by this point were now standing out of their seats and a good half of the crowd were singing.
Gwen said she wants “to see us sway” as the next backing track fired up, but a few bars in Gwen called a halt to the sound “I’m getting ahead of myself, this song is a Rose Royce song even though you may have heard Mary J Blige sing it, but…” then the music fired up again cutting her off mid story, so we never heard what was going to be said as Gwen had to start singing, the song was from the 1977 classic ‘Car Wash’ soundtrack it was called ‘I’m Going Down’. Afterwards Gwen got back to her talk “Now before I was getting ahead of myself, this one you might know” and as soon that incredibly recognisable keyboard intro to ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’ struck, it prompted a massive roar from the crowd. And what a song, absolutely sent shivers down my spine hearing it live from Gwen herself.
“Thank you so much, wow, I’m speechless, now the next one, it’s a new Gwen Dickey single, nothing like the Rose Royce music, I’d like to sing it for you. The gentlemen I wrote it with said you’ve got to come into the modern age and I was like excuse me, do you know who I am! (jokingly said), they said the younger artists, this is the kind of music they are doing, so if Gwen Dickey is doing a single it has to come into the modern age of music so we did that, tell me what you think, let’s try it”. The song was called ‘Water’ from the 2024 EP ‘This Is Gwen Dickey’. It was groovy, and had perhaps a slightly tropical / reggae vibe. We had a bit of a lightshow too, and it was one you could easily dance along to. Gwen told us Rose Royce is the past Gwen, and this is the new Gwen, she joked “I can step into the modern world and compete with the young ones too”.
As the set was getting closer to the end we were given a push by Gwen “Brighton ain’t nobody in this whole wide world loves you more than me, Gwen Dickey makes some noise, if you wanna get out of those seats I don’t mind, pump it up, pump it up, turn it up turn it up” and as that familiar beat kicked in everyone was up and at it dancing and singing, the song was ‘Ain’t Nobody’, originally a Rufus & Chaka Khan song, that Gwen put out her own version with KWS in 1994. If other parts of the set had not fired people up, that one very much did, most people were up standing now, myself included and all singing along. Gwen had a quick statement to make “Before I press on, I apologise to those that were sitting down that I ruined your view by making everyone stand up, I hope you can forgive me, I like people to have a good time”. Once she had people confirm she was forgiven, we were informed “let’s get to the ‘Car Wash’”, the classic Rose Royce song that we all knew was coming and what an end to brilliant set, perfectly orchestrated to build that party vibe, leaving I’m pretty sure everyone in the building on a real happy high. That really was a treat of a set to hear and see, I’d love to see her with a full live band, that really would be something.
Gwen Dickey setlist:
‘Is It Love You’re After’ (Rose Royce cover)
‘Ooh Boy’ (Rose Royce song)
‘Wishing On A Star’ (Rose Royce song)
‘I’m Going Down’ (Rose Royce song)
‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’ (Rose Royce song)
‘Water’ (from the 2024 EP ‘This is Gwen Dickey’)
‘Ain’t Nobody’ (Rufus & Chaka Khan cover)
‘Car Wash’ (Rose Royce song)
Shalamar 20:40 – 22:10
The party didn’t stop after Gwen Dickey, there was a 30 minute interval in which a DJ on the side of the stage spun disco and funk and soul classics, and people were dancing and singing by their seats and in the aisles. I also noticed some of those who had been further back made a beeline for a few of the empty seats further forward to get closer to the action. I could also spot quite the party crew down at the very front, wearing gold as was the instruction for the evening in the pre-tour advertising. Why gold you may ask, well, this is a special Golden Anniversary tour, marking 50 years of Shalamar. The vibe in the venue was hyper positive and everyone was eagerly awaiting the main act. At 8:40pm the lights dimmed and an introduction tape played like a radio station tuning in and out of the bands greatest hits before a voice called out “Are you ready for Shalamar!” and the 7 piece backing band fired up.
Let’s quickly mention the stage set-up before we get into the music, we were to have 10 people on stage, comprising of two keyboard/synth set-up’s, a bass player, a guitarist, a drummer and two backing singers, all of whom were in position and playing as our main event trio stepped on stage, and those three dynamic individuals are vocalist Howard Hewett, who was a member of the classic 1982 line up and wildly regarded as one of the greatest soul singers of all time, we have vocalist Jeffrey Daniel, again another member of the classic 1982 line up and the man who taught Michael Jackson the Moonwalk, he famously performed the backslide as it was known then on ‘Top Of The Pops’ a year before Jackson was taught. Our ensemble is completed by Carolyn Griffey, the longest serving vocalist of Shalamar since 2001. All three are looking spectacular in their sparkly outfits and hats this evening.
This superb hour and half set took in a mega 17 songs, however rather than the more traditional song, stop, story, song, stop, story, the set was divided into four blocks of medleys, all non-stop keeping the party vibe going like one long funky disco night from the early 80s. The first Medley of songs pulled together; ‘Right in The Socket’ from the 1979 album ‘Big Fun’, “Come on now Brighton” cried Jeffrey “put your hands in the air” as we melded into the second song and stone cold classic from 1980 ‘Make That Move’, Carolyn beckoned us on “are you guys in the mood for the 50th anniversary tour of Shalamar?, let me hear you say yeah, come on Brighton make that move, just clap your hands right now”, as the beats carried on. We were asked “Brighton we want to know how many Shalamar ‘Friends’ we have out there”, yep it was the title song of the 1982 album ‘Friends’. This one was shortened to a verse or two and the chorus before a tempo drop into slightly slower ‘Sweeter As The Days Go By’ from the 1981 album ‘Go For It’. More rally calls came from the band “Are you ready for some Shalamar funk, come on, we are going to give it you” as we rounded off the first mega medley with ‘I Owe You One’ from the 1979 album ‘Big Fun’. This featured some major dancing as the band chanted “go Jeffrey, go Jeffery” as he showed off his skills. Wow, what a start to the show, a good 22 minutes, we were not getting fobbed off with shortened songs or teasers, we were getting some full on dance along fun here.
The band introduced themselves and Jeffery told us that the next song was very special to them as when MTV first started they only wanted to play rock music, they wouldn’t even play Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean’, but eventually they banged that door down and this next song was the second ever RnB video on MTV the song, it was ‘Dead Giveaway’ from the 1983 album ‘The Look’. This was a proper dance along song and 100%, one you would expect to have an MTV video, really funky 80s. Part way through we were introduced to guitarist Stelios who had a guitar solo, another power vibe from the 80s, everyone was clapping along and dancing.
“How are you all doing out there, are you having a good time?” Howard quizzed the crowd “now I’m told Brighton has a lot of lovers out there” at which point he started pointing out people in the crowd and telling them to put their arms around each other, he carried on “at home it’s Father Day, is it the same here?” And he encouraged the ladies to put their arms around their men and with that we were easing into our second melody set of the night, the first two songs being sung and led by Howard. This took in the trilogy of ‘Somewhere There’s A Love’ from the 1980 album ‘Three For Love’, ‘Help Me’ from the 1982 album ‘Friends’ and ‘This Is For The Lover In You’ also from the 1980 album ‘Three For Love’. It was very much the love song section of the show, the last of which had been covered by Babyface in the 90s, tonight’s version was more hip hop’d up, smooth and cool.
With a break in the music it was time to hear from Jeffery “Now this is Shalamar and we are celebrating our 50th Golden Anniversary and we are so happy to be here to share it with you, we have a guy down here that has come all the way from Japan just to see us, you see, that’s why we don’t call you fans, you are Shalamar friends, is that okay and if you are real Shalamar friend you will remember this song”, it was ‘Take That To The Bank’ from the 1978 album ‘Disco Gardens’, this one is led by Jeffery with Carolyn on those backing vocals. The crowd were encouraged to sing back at the band, it had a great disco vibe, during the number the band threw out special Shalamar 50 Take That To The Bank notes to those at the front.
We now hit the third medley section of the evening, I am calling this the smooth section, as it took it in the very cool and chilled ‘Over And Over’ from the 1983 album ‘The Look’, followed by the equally smooth ‘Full Of Fire’ from the 1980 album ‘Three For Love’, however it finished with the awesome ‘Dancing In The Sheets’ from the 1984 album ‘Heartbreak’. This song also featured in the movie ‘Footloose’, sung by Howard, it has real Prince vibes, so much so that towards the end it morphed into a cheeky bit of Prince’s ‘1999’.
We now had a little jazz interlude where Jeffery questioned Howard about him being asked if he wanted to come back to Shalamar hence it being the ‘The Second Time Around’ from the 1979 album ‘Big Fun’. Thus we entered the mega hit medley section of the show. Now the crowd had been up and down all night in their chairs, dancing in the aisles at the tops and bottoms of the stair wells, but by this point virtually everyone was up, totally enjoying this non-stop party. The golden hits kept coming with ‘There It Is’ from the 1982 album ‘Friends’ and the fantastic ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ from the 1982 album ‘Friends’. “Brighton do you feel good? Do you really feel good? Well as you are feeling so good, let’s all dance together” and as were instructed to “Step to your right, to your right, to your left, to your left, back it up and bring it forward”, everyone certainly had a go! Can they make us feel good? You betcha!
Now with only 1 hour and 10 minutes gone on the clock, I anticipated the encore of the night would be ‘A Night To Remember’, the huge hit from their 1982 album ‘Friends’, but I did not expect an 18 minute full on version of it. And boy oh boy was this something, not only did we have the song fully extended, we also had some of Edwin Starr’s ‘War’ thrown in. Towards the very end Jeffrey took a section to say “It’s time to make peace, spread the love” and now it was time to give some love to Howard Hewett, his musical partner for over 50 years, then spreading the love back Howard give a big up to Jeffrey Daniel, the man that taught Michael Jackson the Moonwalk, and we were then treated to some amazing dancing including the aforementioned dance move. Jeffrey then brought the attention round to ‘Baby Girl’ Carolyn Griffey, this was a really touching part of the show, each member giving the love and giving us details of some of the long list of massive achievements and people they have worked with, thanking everyone. At the end, the band all made sure they went along the front and sides of the audience high fiving, shaking hands, having quick words with the fans, really indulging and showing the love, which was mutually respected back by the fans.
I have to say, I was blown away by this evening’s performance, I’ve probably become very accustomed to going to smaller venues, catching bands on the way up, so don’t often get to see bigger productions of more established artists or legends as in this case, but blimey the production here was amazing, great lights and a brilliant backing band, tighter than tight who all played solidly for the full duration without missing a beat. The thing that blew me away the most was she sheer magic of Howard, Jeffery and Carolyn, all three did not stop, choreographed dancing, vocals always on point, the way they all moved and interacted around the stage, this must have been rehearsed to kingdom come to have it all so perfect. The sheer warmth and love in the music and their interaction with the crowd. Everyone in that building was happy, dancing, singing along, the weight of the world gone for an evening. I had brought along my young teenage daughter as I wanted her to catch this show while she can, what with Jackson fever seemingly making a comeback; I’ve certainly gained some father day points for bringing her to see the man that taught MJ the Moonwalk, her face when Jeffery performed it this evening said it all. If this is their 50th anniversary, just imagine their 60th anniversary, and I bet they will all still be fresh, dancing around and all looking like they are in their 40s.
The UK tour picks up again at the end of the June running into July before some festivals over the summer, catch Shalamar while you can.
Shalamar:
Carolyn Griffey – vocals
Howard Hewett – vocals
Jeffrey Daniel – vocals
The Shalamar Backing Band:
Stelios – lead guitar
Stu – keyboards
Jamie – drums
John – bass guitar
Carl – keyboards
Lauraine McIntosh – Shala-Angel backing singer
Viveen Wray – Shala-Angel backing singer
Shalamar setlist:
‘Right In The Socket’ (from the 1979 album ‘Big Fun’)
‘Make That Move’ (from the 1980 album ‘Three For Love’)
‘Friends’ (from the 1982 album ‘Friends’)
‘Sweeter As The Days Go By’ (from the 1981 album ‘Go For It’)
‘I Owe You One’ (from the 1979 album ‘Big Fun’)
‘Dead Giveaway’ (from the 1983 album ‘The Look’)
‘Somewhere There’s A Love’ (from the 1980 album ‘Three For Love’)
‘Help Me’ (from the 1982 album ‘Friends’)
‘This Is For The Lover In You’ (from the 1980 album ‘Three For Love’)
‘Take That To The Bank’ (from the 1978 album ‘Disco Gardens’)
‘Over And Over’ (from the 1983 album ‘The Look’)
‘Full Of Fire’ (from the 1980 album ‘Three For Love’)
‘Dancing In The Sheets’ (from the 1984 album ‘Heartbreak’)
‘The Second Time Around’ (from the 1979 album ‘Big Fun’)
‘There It Is’ (from the 1982 album ‘Friends’)
‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ (from the 1982 album ‘Friends’)
‘A Night To Remember’ (from the 1982 album ‘Friends’) (including a section of ‘War’ by Edwin Starr)
