Chic’s star drummer is swapping colossal crowds for a more intimate west London gig this May.
Currently touring the world with Nile Rodgers and Lionel Richie in funk band Chic, Ralph Rolle will be performing an exclusive gig with side project Ralph Rolle and the Funk Patrol at Fulham’s Under The Bridge on May 3.
As well as providing Chic’s disco beats for 12 years, Ralph spent 17 years in the Apollo Theatre’s house-band, has shared the stage with Sting, Prince and Aretha Franklin (to name a few), and performed Let’s Dance on Chic’s New Year’s Eve set last year which was televised to over 4.5 million viewers.
Jason Regan, a renowned disco DJ who will be supporting Ralph’s band at their London gig, said: “The biggest crowd Ralph’s playing to in Australia is 100,000 people, and then he comes here and does what we hope is going to be 500 at Under the Bridge.
“Even with a band as huge as Chic and as big as they are, I think that for someone that lives to play, he just has to do it.
“It’s a calling, and he loves to share the music that he grew up with.”
Since Bronx-born Ralph got Funk Patrol together as a side project last year, they have already enjoyed four sold-out shows in Ireland, with their London debut promising to funk-out with renditions of songs by Earth, Wind and Fire and D-Train, for example.
Ralph Rolle and the Funk Patrol and Chic may be two separate musical entities, but Jason believes there’s no difference in Ralph’s passion.
Jason said: “What he brings to it is exactly the same charisma, energy, and the same approach, just with a different batch of very famous funk and disco songs.”
On the night the funk band will feature eight musicians including some professionals and some local, up-and-coming talent.
Supporting DJ duo The Sheen Resistance feature friends Jason and Andrew Burgess, whose sell-out disco nights “Lost in Disco” have been gathering momentum since 2017.
Jason, also a big Chic fan, is also helping to curate the evening’s disco experience.
He said: “The plans for the night is that the whole thing feels like a massive live party.
“It’s going to be completely non-stop from the moment we start DJ-ing until the band finish playing.
“It’s about playing songs that make people feel good.”
