South Facing Festival – Grace Jones
Crystal Palace Bowl, London
27th July 2024
Superdiva Grace Jones brings her special disco magic to South London for Love Motion day. Naomi Dryden-Smith throws on some glitter and takes photos.
It’s a beautiful day in Crystal Palace, and the Hawaiian shirts and body glitter are out in force, filling the small arena in colourful droves on a disco diva pilgrimage. Sadly, just as we’re collecting our passes comes the news that Roisin Murphy has had to pull out of her double headliner slot. A huge disappointment; she’s a great and entertaining performer with an array of fantastic photogenic outfits.
The event is thrown into some chaos, with no chance of a replacement, just some hasty rescheduling of existing artists – and news that Horse Meat Disco, up before Roisin, will now play a longer set to cover her slot too. The tunes are good, and the crowd seem relatively happy to dance out extra long dj set in the sunshine, patiently waiting for Grace Jones.
Often fashionably late, today it’s an extra 25 minutes before Grace finally emerges, looking like a cloaked voodoo wizard and drawling her own take on the David Bowie/Iggy Pop classic, Nightclubbing. She’s wearing her intimidating gold death mask and looks pretty scary until she slowly unfurls a long fishnetted leg with Mary Jane platform shoe to camp squeals of approval from her adoring fans.
There are several layers to a Grace Jones performance. Musically, it’s vibrant pop songs, including several covers (Nightclubbing, The Police’s Demolition Man, Roxy Music’s Love Is The Drug, The Pretenders’ Private Life). The sound is excellent, produced from the shadows by her talented band, which includes her son Paulo on drums.
Every song has a different costume theme, and it’s clear that Grace sees herself and her body as a canvas to express her art. Often, although not tonight, she’ll appear topless, covered in tribal body paint, exhibitionism but it’s more about art than sex.
The costumes also have an autobiographical purpose – Bloodlight And Bami, the documentary put together by Sophia Fiennes that followed Grace for a year, reveals many insights into her upbringing in Jamaica. One of the more memorable ones is that she and her siblings suffered regular beatings at the hands of their step-grandfather, and she explains that she channels his angry demeanour into the fierce faces she is famous for. He’s definitely present tonight during Demolition Man, which she sings while angrily crashing drum sticks into cymbals, glaring at them in hatred and ultimately throwing her sticks into the crowd in disgust.
Later she comes out in a hooped skirt and bonnet costume, depicting her early years dutifully attending daily prayer meetings and Pentecostal church services and conforming to strict rules of behaviour imposed by her family, only to rebel and become the Grace Jones we know – a transition she demonstrates by cheekily pulling up the skirt to show her knickers and using her drum stick suggestively.
At times, there are glimpses of vulnerability in this artist, but they’re fleeting and quickly overtaken by another of her famous facial expressions- haughty, angry, beaming, fierce…
For Pull Up To The Bumper she climbs onto the shoulders of a security guard and gets down close to the crowd, showered in confetti, throwing her head back and laughing – clearly loving this part of the show.
The set closer and ultimate highlight is Slave To The Rhythm, where she always defies her age and anyone else’s age by singing the entire song whilst hula-hooping – generally in platform shoes and often navigating stairs. And she never drops it.
Grace Jones is a genuine icon of our times, a hula-hooping warrior queen work of art. Go and see her if you can.
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All words and photos by Naomi Dryden-Smith. Louder Than War | Facebook |Twitter | Instagram | portfolio
Use of these images in any form without permission is copyright infringement. If you wish to use/purchase or license any images please contact naomi@louderthanwar.com
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