8 years ago at The Boom Boom Room George Clinton sent down his troops in Parliament Funkadelic to sit in The Staxx Brothers after their show at Yoshis.
The owner Zander Andreas who was considering managing The Staxx Brothers at the time, gave us the heads up that George had mentioned his plans, and that we had to be ready to play ‘We Got The Funk’. We learned it on the drive down.
George was not in the building but the core of his band at the time was, which was a mix of classic members like Kid Funkadelic and newer blood Eric McFadden, who we played with at California festivals and other dates on our attempted rise to Funk Rock power, in the days of We Are The Blaxstonz and Jungle Cat.
The Funkadelic crew played 3 or 4 songs with us for 40 minutes. Only eight years ago most phones were trash at capturing video and audio. Scant evidence is all we have besides fading local legend on Fillmore St. We were victims of our success in making people put away their phones and just dance.
I saw countless people have this moment looking through their phones at our show;, looking around them in this outstanding flash of self awareness at those dancing around them. They would put away their phones and join in. The video they were capturing would never capture that magic and the suddenly understood that they were actually missing out in a vain attempt not to miss IT.
Well I almost told someone in the crowd to pull out their damn phone but this 40 minutes stretch was a trance. It was like swimming with dolphins. I was afraid that if I pulled out a camera or got others to do so in a contrived manner, these dolphins would just swim away.
Also I was quite busy fronting a hybrid mix of The Staxx Brothers and P Funk, doing my best with Jake Amster and Chris O’Connor to keep his train on the rails whizzing around blind corners, as P Funk accepted in real time our subtle and not so subtle changes to their greatest songs like ‘Red Hot Momma’.
The look you gave them when it happened and you give them this shrug and the telepathic apology,
“Look what we did there totally worked”.
The shrug meets the nod, then we smile. In fractions of seconds: acceptance and forgiveness. The spell is unbroken and in fact a bit more tightly fastened around the invisible pocket we ride like a whirling black hole.
I thank God, any God, every God, and the ghosts that haunt the Fillmore and The Boom Boom Room itself, that this moment totally worked. And at least I snapped this one red eyed photo.
Eight years ago today. I missed the chance to get back there with my last line up and it was one of the reasons why I shut down the band and am approaching this from a different angle with folks likeDennis Cook, a man who loved The Staxx Brothers like his own dear nephew.
This is the type of legendary sh☆t that is the standard, and the next time I make a run on the throne, I am going to have War Elephants and a hit. And labels behind me.
I have a plan. But even the best laid plans and execution of said plans may never match the good fortune and fate of George Clinton hearing about us and sending in his search party to see if we really had the Funk. To see if as Dennis Cook claimed, we were the closest thing to vintage Funkadelic without ripping them off one bit.
The greatest compliment we ever received after Dennis first laid eyes upon us when Flowmotion let us follow their headlining set at Meltdown in the beer garden, where broke our world record with the Running Man and unleashed ‘1992’ with our gold capes and time machine.
These moments represent the collective power and will and creativity of a band I pushed like a racing horse to the point out heart would necessarily explode, and I would send this band off to stud.
Let the horse stud, don’t beat him if he’s dead. Don’t beat the horse at all. But you sure can slap her ass at full speed at scream,
“Yaaaas Queen, catch up to Funkadelic girl”. That’s when you turn around and a front man and look Kid Funkadelic in the eye and say, “I got this sh☆t Kid, just follow me…Mr. Hampton sir.”
A couple of years later the universe sent me Bernie Worrell and I was his George Clinton for some of his final shows. It is alleged that I sang for him at his heroic last stand, at Free Funk Friday at Wild Buffalo, which is a whale of a true tale. I said my goodbyes before I went off again to England to witness the shockwaves of Brexit, which was the day Bernie passed.
You may not believe me, but some people know. Bernie’s magic was powerful and he gave me a new band…for a while.
Back to the workshop. Next time we storm the castle.
☆ Paging Hambone Wilson and Eric Struthers. These are the times we invest in more such magic. Eric Struthers sure did.
— with Eric McFadden and Richard Egan.
Davin’s new song has become a global earworm and Caribbean dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN. The video is now available on Youtube.
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many ventures, such as the AMAZING blog, 100milesofmusic.com. In the spring of 2018 he spent weeks networking in and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica. He will return there soon for more recording. His single with British band Sherlock Soul is available here.
