LONG before MADONNA, GRACE JONES was the material girl who paved the way.
And a quarter of a century on, while they both share a penchant for tight
minimal cladding it is Jones - at 60-years-old, a decade older than the
Queen of Pop - who carries it off best.
She out-cusses her, looks half her age, and needs less gimmicks to pull off a
live show which is nothing less than mesmerising.
She may change hats and jackets offstage between each of the surprise 16 songs
in the Royal Festival Hall set which lasted more than an hour longer than
billed, but when she stood on a podium in front of a sell-out crowd stripped
down to just a corset, g-string and see-through leggings, she looked nothing
less than a Greek goddess commanding her throng.
From her Close Encounters of the Third Kind-style arrival to set-opener
Nightclubbing through to set-closer Slave To The Rhythm - dressed as a
peacock and thanking hat-designer PHILIP TREACY in the same breath as
her band members - Jones ruled supreme.
Other highlights included her launching herself into the crowd - which
included celebrity NOEL FIELDING - while screaming at a backstage
assistant to find her lyric sheet and when he (probably wisely) failed to
show his face, Jones started freestyling.
And then she invited dozens of the crowd onstage to Pull Up To The Bumper.
Enthralling.
