Live Review: Village People, DJ Maynard

The Village People are The Wiggles for grown ups - and we mean that as the highest compliment. And like for the kids’ band, tonight the audience dressed up in their best homemade skivvies, or in this case, police uniforms, cowboy outfits, construction kits and well meaning, but now quite inappropriate Native American headdresses. (For the record, the VP Native American Felipe Rose now wears a Mohawk-looking thing rather than feathers).

The crowd also warmed up their dance moves while waiting with DJ Maynard, moves backed mostly just by single letters (YMCA, of course), with gusto any toddler would be proud of.

When The Village People took the stage, the bands’ famous uniforms gave even the biggest cynic a little chill.  Despite decades on the road, their choreographed (if not slightly daggy) synchronised dance moves and a glorious backing track continued to reign supreme and timeless. After a cinematic intro they owned the room with Macho Man, then proceeded to run through a great disco back cat including Listen To The Music, Milkshake, In The Navy, You Can’t Stop The Music and a Trash Disco medley that was like an aural mirrorball.

There were a couple of minor hiccups – when the cowboy, Jim Newman, lost his chaps (unfortunately, he had jeans on underneath); and when someone yell-requested YMCA during a relatively quiet moment- “Come on, my little convicts” was the answer back from Rose. Um, light hearted, but a bit awkward.

A new song Let’s Go Back To The Dance Floor (written by KC of The Sunshine Band) was upbeat and well received, and jokes that “Grindr has crashed for the night” were lapped up by those in the know, and politely chuckled at by those who were here for the pantomime rather than Mardi Gras. Either way all were welcome, and by the time the big finale (yes, YMCA) hit, there wasn’t one shred of dignity left in the room. It was glorious.