Date: Tuesday 13 August 2019 Contact: Phoebe Gardiner, [email protected] / 020 7921 0967 ​ ​ ​ Images: available here ​ ​ Video: available here ​ ​

Nile Rodgers’ Meltdown ‘a radical world party’ - PLUS Meltdown returns: 12-21 June 2020

Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Royal Festival Hall 3 August 2019 © Victor Frankowski for Southbank Centre

★★★★★ “A radical world party… [Rodgers’] nine-day festival wraps its arms around as many ages, genders, ​ sexualities and continents as it can.” - The Guardian ​ ​

Southbank Centre’s 26th Meltdown came to a close Sunday night after its most critically-acclaimed ​ ​ installment yet: nine days of world class music, dance, disco and DJ sets, global exclusives, five-star performances, new talent and free parties attended by thousands, all the design of this year’s curator, the legendary Nile Rodgers.

Rodgers says of the experience: “In a life filled with so many unexpected rewards, Meltdown 2019 ​ ​ ​ rises to the level of one of the greatest. I will never forget this experience. And as time goes on the pride for what we've accomplished as a team will only strengthen. I'm overcome with gratitude.” ​

More than 70 acts took over the UK’s largest arts centre from 3-11 August, filling Southbank Centre’s main venues - Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room - and every corner of the 17-acre site with music. More than 40 hours of free programming entertained over 8,000 people, including the C’est CHIC Vogue Ball, a Meltdown Mardi Gras and Friday’s And The Beat Goes On, a ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ showcase of talent from the famous BRIT School

The curator himself was a ubiquitous presence. After his opening night with CHIC, Rodgers demonstrated his famous tirelessness by introducing to the stage almost every festival headliner, many of the talents performing on the free stages and even the outdoor screening of Coming to ​ America (which he scored in 1988) - delighting the audience by joining them for the start of the film. ​

Meltdown has a reputation for staging one-off performances and collaborations by legendary artists - ​ and with one of pop’s greatest collaborators in charge, this year was no different. Audiences witnessed Rodgers and Dave Stewart perform on stage together for the first time ever for the global premiere of Stewart’s Eurythmics Songbook, featuring a stellar roll-call of guest vocalists and ​ ​ musicians including Emeli Sandé, Beverley Knight, Iris Gold, Ryan Molloy, Kimberly Davis and Folami.

Pioneering producer SOPHIE presented a set of brand new unreleased material; Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein performed their music for the third season of Stranger Things in a world premiere; ​ ​ London-based Afrobeat eight-piece KOKOROKO stormed the Queen Elizabeth Hall; Brazilian pop super-star brought the Royal Festival Hall house down in her 2019 festival exclusive; and the newly renovated Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer was transformed into iconic nightclub Studio 54 for one night only, with dancers and aerial performers from Savage Disco and Gersch & Rox, original Studio 54 DJs and another surprise appearance from Rodgers himself thrilling revellers.

Southbank Centre’s award-winning Meltdown is the longest-running artist-curated music festival in the ​ ​ world. Each year, a different cultural figure is invited by Head of Contemporary Music, Bengi Ünsal, to act as curator, and select performers and events of their choosing. Previous curators include Elvis Costello, Laurie Anderson, John Peel, Nick Cave, David Bowie, Lee Scratch-Perry, Patti Smith, Massive Attack, Yoko Ono, M.I.A and Robert Smith.

The festival returns next year from 12-21 June 2020 with another legendary artist at the helm to be ​ revealed in the autumn.

Praise for Nile Rodgers’ Meltdown: ​ ​

★★★★★ “extraordinary even by CHIC’s standards: everybody dances all of the time” - The ​ ​ Guardian ★★★★ "this is the sort of 'wow factor' collaboration that Meltdown does brilliantly” - The ​ ​ ​ ​ Telegraph ★★★★ “an exercise in pure celebration” - The Times ​ ​

★★★★ “irresistible” - The Daily Mail ​ ​ ​ ★★★★ “shimmying into high art without a pass” - The Telegraph ​ ​ ​ ★★★★★ “peerless” - The Upcoming ​ ​

#ENDS#

Press images from across the festival can be downloaded here. ​ ​ Festival wrap-up video can be watched and an embed code downloaded here. ​ ​

For further press information please contact: Phoebe Gardiner [email protected] / 020 7921 0967 ​ ​ Alexandra Shaw [email protected] / 020 7921 0676 ​ ​

Southbank Centre delivers a year-round programme of gigs and contemporary music across its world-class venues and public spaces. See upcoming events here. ​ ​

Join the conversation: #meltdownfest @meltdownfest @southbankcentre www.southbankcentre.co.uk/meltdown

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Nile Rodgers + CHIC

Among music legends, Nile Rodgers is truly exceptional. He amplifies his legacy as a multiple GRAMMY-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist by constantly traversing new musical terrain and successfully expanding the boundaries of popular music. As the co-founder of CHIC and the newly elected Chairman of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Rodgers pioneered a musical language that generated chart-topping hits like “Le Freak,” (the biggest selling single in the history of Atlantic Records!) and sparked the advent of hip-hop with “Good Times”. Nile Rodgers transcends all styles of music across every generation with a body of work that’s garnered him inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2017) and the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2016).

Most recently, he was appointed as the first ever Chief Creative Advisor for the legendary Abbey Road Studios to cap off a year that has included “festival best” performances at both Glastonbury and Coachella that resulted in the BBC nominating the band for the BBC Music Awards as “Best Live Performance Of 2017” and the LA Times stating “Nile Rodgers influence stretches all over Coachella, beaming the sound of a better future”.

His work in the CHIC Organization and his productions for artists like David Bowie, Diana Ross, and Madonna have sold over 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide while his innovative, trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Sigala, Disclosure, and Sam Smith reflect the vanguard of contemporary music. Nile Rodgers & CHIC recently released their first new studio album, “It’s About Time” in over 26 years to critical acclaim and a Top 10 position in the UK album charts.

Meltdown, 1993 – present ​ Southbank Centre’s award-winning Meltdown festival has been running annually since 1993 and is the ​ ​ longest-running artist-curated music festival in the world. Each year Southbank Centre invites a different cultural

figure to act as curator and select performers and events of their choosing. Previous curators include George Benjamin, Louis Andriessen, Elvis Costello, Magnus Lindberg, Laurie Anderson, John Peel, Nick Cave, Scott Walker, Robert Wyatt, David Bowie, Lee Scratch-Perry, Morrissey, Patti Smith, Jarvis Cocker, Massive Attack, Ornette Coleman, Richard Thomson, Ray Davies, Anohni, Yoko Ono, James Lavelle, David Byrne, Guy Garvey, M.I.A and Robert Smith. Meltdown has a reputation for staging one-off performances and collaborations by ​ ​ legendary artists. Patti Smith performed ‘Horses’ in full for her Meltdown; Ray Davies re-staged the TV pop ​ ​ show ‘Ready Steady Go!’; Jeff Buckley played his final UK show at Elvis Costello's Meltdown; The New York ​ ​ Dolls reunited for Morrissey; Nick Cave, Grace Jones and Pete Doherty sang Disney songs with Jarvis Cocker; and a rare live performance from Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser was part of Anohni’s Meltdown. Other ​ ​ previous performers include Philip Glass, Lou Reed, Ivor Cutler, Sonic Youth, Nina Simone, Blur, Radiohead, David Gilmour, Coldplay, Television, The Polyphonic Spree, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nancy Sinatra, Bert Jansch, Jeff Beck, John Cale, Iggy & The Stooges, Motorhead, Massive Attack, Moby, Nine Inch Nails, The Libertines, The Cure and Femi Kuti. Robert Smith’s in 2018 Meltdown was nominated for Music Week Awards ​ ​ Festival of the Year and won the AIM Independent Music Awards ‘Act of Independence’ Award. It is overseen by Southbank Centre Head of Contemporary Music, Bengi Ünsal, and produced by Rhodri Jones.

About Southbank Centre

Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre and one of the UK's top five visitor attractions, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. We exist to present great cultural experiences that bring people together and we achieve this by providing the space for artists to create and present their best work and by creating a place where as many people as possible can come together to experience bold, unusual and eye-opening work. We want to take people out of the everyday, every day.

The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as being home to the National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. It is also home to four Resident Orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and four Associate Orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain).

Southbank Centre Venues RFH - Royal Festival Hall QEH - Queen Elizabeth Hall PUR - Purcell Room HG - Hayward Gallery