In these tough economic times, we’d all probably like to bugger off on a ship to a faraway galaxy. 35 years ago, the funky, spacey Diaspora of the funketeers of Parliament came down from the Mothership to give the bland musical diet of the world a kick up the backside, landing on Planet Earth on a yearly tour-by-tour basis to get the populus of the world to shake their collective hips; hoping that once you “free your mind... your ass will follow."

The Jazz Cafe is a more intimate venue that George Clinton is probably used to. He’s played at Brixton’s Academy and Kentish Town’s Forum, but this three-date stop-off on his world tour had more of a controlled feel to it; as if the entire funk was contained like a genie in a bottle. 

An appropriate playlist of funk filled the Cafe in anticipation of the main act. Songs from Kool & The Gang (the sublime ‘Music is the Message’), The Coasters (‘Down Home Girl’, wickedly sampled back in the 1990s by both Chubb Rock and Pete Rock on two different, but distinct tracks), and the 80s Go-Go classic ‘Bustin’ Loose’ by Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers, gave the audience a chance to let their hair down. 

A diverse crowd of bo-ho’s, music nerds, the curious and the downright bizarre mingled around the main stage, trying to build-up the energy and atmosphere. Ben Volpeliere-Pierrot, from 80s pop band Curiosity Killed the Cat,  was spotted necking a bottle of beer, unassumingly, whist wearing that trademark hat from twenty-something years ago. 

With no support - well, funk doesn’t need a support, not with George Clinton headlining - the stage got quite busy and crowded in short time. A full band came on, dressed in garb and regalia right out of a space ship transported from 1979. 

Clinton took centre stage in an oversized white and grey patchwork, full-length Kaftan number, with a black pork pie hat and white trim, and he orchestrated the epic replaying of ‘Funkentelechy’, which included a six-minute saxophone solo that seemed to go on for much longer, and seemingly could only have been undertaken by a man with a double larynx or someone pumped with oxygen. But the musical arrangements took a differing turn as bass guitar, drums and trumpets - not to mention the smooth vocals of Clinton himself or his lady muse - all extended the funk until it stretched the Jazz Cafe’s recently recruited funketeers to the point of elasticised ecstasy. 

The live instrumentation gave the audience no room to breath as Clinton segued into ‘Flashlight’ and continued the similar interchangeable instrumentation to completely change the landscape of the original rendered recording. Again, it turned into something epic, and which could have gone on longer than the 20 minutes allotted. This was the beauty of funk. Arrangements on one level could be turned into something quite different; endless, morphing, leading into places that change the song’s dynamic, whilst maintaining a flexibility to change things again and again ... should the band choose to. 

The ubiquitous smoking of a joint by Clinton and having it passed around would have been quite boring, had he not turned on the charm a bit and engaged the audience. 

Joint smoked, and we were off to ‘(Not Just) Knee Deep’, a very familiar track, not least of all because De La Soul sampled it on their first album with ‘Me, Myself and I’. The recognisable riffs and arrangements were, once again, given over to unpredictable, spacey dimensions, giving the song new live and high energy; executed with more drama as it was being recreated live, without the need for electronic manipulation. 

Clinton and the rest of the Parliament/ Funkadelic squad said their goodbyes and left it up to the guitarist and drummer to create a brilliant head-nodding instrumental that went on for what seemed like forever. 

George Clinton is nothing if not predictable, and with a back catalogue that would make Argos jealous, he could have played track after track for hours on end. He could have had an all-day party in the Jazz Cafe and we all would have been high and happy on the funk that poured out and got people dancing, making weird shapes with their arms and hyptnotised by the syncopated rhythms ... not to mention being just high on life itself.