Sly And The Family Stone live in London
At nine o'clock, the omens are not great. Sly And The Family Stone are meant to be starting their headlining set right now, and the strict curfew on this inner-city festival is 10.30. On the main stage, though, Chris Stein has decided to add a five-minute guitar solo to "Rapture", while Debbie Harry looks on with a sort of professional vapidity. Blondie, in all their lumpen, functional weariness, aren't going to be finished any time soon.It is, then, nearly 9.50 before Sly And The Family Stone arrive onstage. Actually, it's just The Family Stone. And if we're being picky and going to believe the Wikipedia entry, it's not even The Family Stone, but a tribute band fronted by Stone's sister, Vet, who until recently were called The Phunk Family Affair.Of course, we were expecting nothing more. Sly Stone's recent and highly unlikely return to the stage has provoked a bunch of mildly outraged reviews, as collated on that Wikipedia page. We know the form: the band will play a few of his hits, then Sly himself will wander on for a couple of perfunctory tunes. Maybe the band will carry on for a while, but that'll be it.So anyway, here are the band playing "Dance To The Music", and they're a decent funk showband, a little too fond of taking solos, and fronted by a woman - Vet Stone - who's a capable singer but who doesn't have much in the way of presence.It's OK: the edge of those old records is missing, of course, that precarious mix of tension and euphoria. As they roll out "Everyday People" and "Hot Fun In The Summertime", the pleasures are less complicated; those of a party band, not a blazing collective with a revolutionary subtext.But after about half an hour, just as the rain arrives, so does Sly Stone, and everything changes. He doesn't look great, to be honest - hunched and swivelled, seemingly dressed like Flavor Flav, though at least the towering blond mohawk that he sported at the 2006 Grammys has gone. But then he starts singing "If You Want Me To Stay", and it's terrific; fragile and wandering a little, but with all the emotional resonance that he summoned up nearly 40 years ago. It's quite moving, too, and thankfully the band have cut the showy fills.The thing is, if you go to a show like this expecting to be disappointed, as I did, you can deal with such primadonna-ish behaviour. After two songs, Stone appears to say something about going for a piss, and disappears. The band look momentarily flummoxed, but just carry on with the set without him.Amazingly, he comes back, and "I Wanna Take You Higher" is great, too. "Stand" is even better, and now Stone is sat on his piano stool, spinning round and round, singing with this great parched feeling, and - judging by the close-ups - an expression of justifiable rapture on his face. Towards the end, he scuttles off without even acknowledging the crowd, and seconds later the curfew shuts down the band. That's it.As ever, folks, there's a longer version of this up at my "Wild Mercury Sound blog on Uncut":http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.php?blog=6&p=360&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more360
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