Nile Rodgers has seen and done it all. He has collaborated with the world’s top music stars including Madonna, David Bowie and Duran Duran and Daft Punk. The Chic Organisation created by Nile and music partner Bernard Edwards created a string of monster pop hits between 1977 and 1983, when they wrote and produced eight Chic albums, two for Sister Sledge, along with one each for Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, Johnny Matthis, and Sheila B and Devotion. Everybody knows at least a dozen Nile Rodgers songs, and who can say that these days?In 1981 he worked with a little known Australian band, an “opening act” in Nile’s words, that he discovered while watching another collaboration of his at the time, the Canadian band Spoons. After meeting the band backstage after that show, Nile was delighted to find out that this band and its extremely charismatic singer warmed up their live show by singing their own version of Yum-Yum, a song from his solo album Adventures in the Land of Good Grooves. The bond was established for Rodgers’ first real 80s pop collaboration: what would become the monster smash hit Original Sin by INXS. As with much of Nile's career, one thing led to another. ‘Original Sin’ was much admired by Duran Duran who then requested he work with them on the next stage of their career and musical transformation. In our conversation, Nile tells me what it was that he so enjoyed about working with Duran Duran and how it became a partnership over a longer period of time (across both the Arena album, the 1986 classic Notorious and then Astronaut after the band’s reformation as a five piece). How does a virtuoso player have such a knack for a hit? Part of Nile’s secret sauce is his self-made belief systems, including the ‘DHM’. The Deep Hidden Meaning. It was the DHM that connected Nile deeply with the lyrics to Original Sin (which he tweaked to “dream on white boy, dream on black girl” to reflect the story of Beverly and Bobby (his mother and stepfather). At the centre of his belief system though, is work. A work ethic that has seen Nile (in his own words) have more failures than successes. Yet the failures mattered too. For one thing, his solo work was admired by Bowie and, as mentioned, INXS. But once he’d worked with Bowie, he knew things would be different no matter how successful the outcome. Nile’s virtuosity, self-made belief systems and work ethic paid dividends commercially for almost every artist he and the Chic Organisation worked with (particularly up to the mid-80s) and in many cases helped boost their careers. But here’s the thing...Nile’s job description (in his own words) is problem solver...whether it’s helping shape the big vision or tweaking minor but critical detail (that Original Sin lyric for example). Someone counted that he has worked on 18,585 recordings, which even for Nile Rodgers sounds unfeasible. And that audit doesn’t include his work pre-Chic! How can that even be possible? It is because Nile continues to be a serial collaborator, a “worker bee” and one very effective problem solver. Listen in and find out some of his working secrets and those great little stories. Many thanks to Andrew James Johnson for edits and original music and Mick Clarke for the cover art, as everSupport the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

In the Art of Longevity, a new podcast from The Song Sommelier, we take a whistle stop tour of a classic band or artist’s career, but we break a few of usual ‘media interview’ rules (well, we break all of them). Ultimately we reflect on learnings, wisdom, battle scars and wounds and ask “what really defines success”. It’s a question many fans and fellow musicians and all aspiring musicians want to know answers to.Brett Andersen from Suede once said that all successful artists have followed a similar journey, comprising four stages: the struggle, the stratospheric rise, the crash, and then the renaissance.  In this first episode, Keith Jopling talks with Olly Knights of Turin Brakes about the band's two-decade career: their beginnings, early success, creative peak and commercial crash, and the slow but steady rehabilitation of the band as they prepare for album no. 9.  Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

Dylan Jones, long time editor of GQ, writer and father, picks out his favourite New Romantic tracks as part of his “Sweet Dreams Festival” fantasy setlist. Dylan Jones has been Editor of the UK fashion and lifestyle magazine GQ since 1999. Alongside that he has become an established author and journalist of culture and politics. Since Jones joined GQ, the magazine has won numerous awards. Dylan himself has received the Mark Boxer Award for lifetime achievement, honouring him not only for his work on GQ but for his career in journalism. Jones was appointed OBE in 2013. A man of impeccable taste, he also happens to be a Song Sommelier fan too, so we invited him onto The Fantasy Setlist podcast. Sweet Dreams is Dylan’s latest and 10th music focused book. Dylan has been on a fascinating journey documenting the period of New Romanticism and “the decade that taste forgot”, reclaiming the period as one of great bohemian and entrepreneurial spirit. As such, we asked him to reflect on his revelations in writing it and also talk about his favourite tracks of the period. Plus of course a few musings on what a ‘Sweet Dreams Festival’ line up might look like. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

What more can be said about U2 as a live entity? Well, maybe look at it from a personal perspective - in this case, U2’s performances’ impact on the life & times of Paul Smernicki, music manager (Hyyts, Swim School, Magnum House) and long-time label executive. And at one fleeting moment, a potential addition to U2’s management team. Starting with Zoo Station from Achtung Baby, the opening trio of Paul’s very own U2 Fantasy Setlist is full of bangers including the monster songs ‘Streets’ and “Beautiful Day’, but listen on. From an exquisite live recording of A Sort Of Homecoming (from the Unforgettable Fire), Paul’s choices take us somewhat deeper into the U2 cannon - lots of early tracks, just a couple of fabulous B-sides and one or two unusual moments including The Edge’s track Heroine (sung by Sinead O’Connor on the record, but by The Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser in Paul’s ‘fantasy’) and U2’s mostly forgotten Christmas song. The subjects we talked about include tips on how to play Wire on guitar (hint: don’t bother trying) and how going to gigs from bands you love will always be worth more than sofas. In Paul’s view, U2’s Boy album is one of the greatest debuts of all time, which is something you might dispute, but only after spending some time listening to the album!  Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/

In our first podcast - yep that’s right - we’ve done a podcast (well everyone else has, so why not us!) lifelong Dylan fan, and long term TSS collaborator, David Freer, guides us through some of Dylan’s mystery, while adding something of his own. Support the showGet more related content at: https://www.songsommelier.com/