Grace Jones

The 'ting' at the beginning of 'Slave to the Rhythm' is one of those moments in rock n' roll you really wait for, save yourself for, and treat yourself to. It tests your Hi Fi (I'm thankful for Giles Smith in Lost in Music for bringing this to my attention). I've sat through a whole Grace Jones gig just for 'Slave to the Rhythm' and it was worth it, and I went bonkers when I heard that opening 'ting'. 'Slave to the Rhythm' is such a great track Grace Jones made a hopeless and infuriating whole album leading up it it, but I never cared. 'Slave to the Rhythm' is one of the greatest records ever recorded thanks to Trevor Horn.
So there she was hulla hooping through the whole thing for the Queen and on the other side of sixty at least and it was totally fabulous. The band smiled for the first time.
The whole Queen thing is rubbish and such rubbish you can hardly walk the streets or look at the television for the idiocy flashed at you minute by minute. Never have so many idiots had so much to say about something so, well, ineffable, meaningless and daft. State sponsored jubilation; never have comedians been so unfunny, never has Paul McCartney looked so peculiar, and never has Elton John sounded so awful. And never have so many republicans been so depressed for days on end, since I guess we are paying for it all. So, thank god Grace Jones had no idea what she was doing, concentrating on the hulla hooping and balancing her hat, and that Madness, no doubt by accident, provided much needed humour by projecting Robin Hood Gardens on Buckingham Palace. At least whoever had that idea can pat themselves on the back this morning, rather than looking ruefully in the mirror with self loathing.