I like the Dome, the sound is always good, the sight lines are excellent and even though it’s in Brighton you can be home in under an hour.
Lee Fields and the Expression... are the support act and they come on stage to around fifty people in the sparse room. Lee Fields is a sixty something American soul singer and both physically and vocally is in the James Brown. So much so that he vocalled four of the songs on the new James Brown movie Get on Up.
Tonight is clearly to be a lesson on age is no barrier to having a good time and strutting your stuff. It’s a breathless forty minute set full of sing-alongs, dancing and a tight soul band. Word gets around and the venue is three quarters full at the end and he leaves to great applause.
Twenty minutes later the Dap Kings take to the stage and take it up a level musically. An unnecessary couple of numbers by the two backing singers makes way for the star of the show Sharon Jones. Its then a full on ninety minutes of soul classics, anecdotes, Tina Turner impressions and then an energy sapping dance class circa 1965. I am exhausted just watching her. And what’s most remarkable is a year ago she was in hospital with cancer and mid-way through chemo. There’s no better lesson to us all about getting on and enjoying life.
There’s no one highlight. It’s a faultless soul revue show from start to finish and a good bop was had by all. But once again we attracted the drunk prick in the audience. This time a laydee who was a little bit pished. She wasn’t so much falling into people but seemed intent on dancing with other girl’s boyfriends. She was an annoyance as opposed to anything more threatening and it didn’t dampen what was a great show.
So the double header was done and the consensus in the car home was that was a good trip. And we’ll do it all over again with a youth reliving visit to see Culture Club and Alison Moyet in December