CONFIDENCE MAN + MIND ENTERPRISES – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 4.5.22
Tonight was my fifth helping of the rather wonderful ‘Heavenly’ recording artists Confidence Man over the past five years. All of the concerts have taken place in Brighton and during the month of May. The reason for this is that the previous four appearances prior to tonight were all part of The Great Escape new music festival.
This evening, the Aussie band were playing the Concorde 2 in their own right as headline artists, courtesy of local promoters LOUT.
My four previous Confidence Man encounters have all been 30 minute showcase events, but tonight they were going the whole hog with a 73 minute extravaganza of no less than 17 tunes. Would their vocalist dancing pair of Janet Planet and Sugar Bones be able to keep up their energy levels during the whole set? Let’s find out…….
The house lights went out at 9:01pm and Clarence McGuffie, dressed in a black bee-keepers outfit, took his seat behind the drumset at the rear of the stage. To his right is keyboardist Reggie Goodchild who is dressed in the same attire. The plan for this duo is to totally blend into the background as though they aren’t really there. It has worked perfectly on every occasion I have witnessed them. Mind you, this is also because one can’t help being drawn to continually watching the dance moves (and vocals) of Janet Planet and her accomplice Sugar Bones.
Janet and Sugar enter the stage wearing oversized jackets that look as though a large coat hanger has been left inside. This aids with over emphasising their moves. It reminded me of something stylish that Grace Jones has worn in the past. ‘Toy Boy’ from their latest long player ‘Tilt’ is the opening number. Order the album HERE.
The venue doesn’t appear to have been as packed as some other gigs I have been to there such as Killing Joke and IDLES, but it is a very impressive showing. Having said that, the punters are certainly well up for it this evening. A majority of those around me at the front are flying the flag for the younger generation, but there are several mature folks trying to blend in and show off their best disco mum and dad moves.
‘Out The Window’ from their debut 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album is up next and the coat-hanger attire has already been discarded. There were to be several more costume changes by Janet and Sugar during the set in order to freshen things up. Clarence and Reggie don’t change their attire during the performances as we must forget that they are there.
I guess a majority of similar indie electro poppers would just perform to a backing track, but I’m very pleased that Confidence Man play as much live as possible. It has a real depth of sound and the live synths and drums combo works very well.
Three more tunes from their latest platter (‘Tilt’) followed, namely ‘Woman’, ‘What I Like’ and ‘Break It Bought It’. It was time for another costume change and so whilst the two beekeepers in black carried on holding the fort with unreleased instrumental number ‘Flute Song’, Sugar and Janet were no doubt frantically changing backstage.
Janet was back and wearing a frilly dress whilst donning a pair of conical breast coverings that lit up disco fashion, and Sugar’s take was to have a couple of lighting boxes mounted on his bare shoulders. Clearly the duo were sexing it up a bit for the audience. I vaguely recall hearing ages ago that they are actually siblings and so this might account for why they work so well together with their dance moves, acrobatics and general timing. Throughout this evening they are very much in sync.
‘C.O.O.L Party’, found on the debut ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album, was soon upon us and one of the set highlights. Sugar opened up a bottle of sparkling bubbly and shook it up and sprayed it all over the punters at the front. In his mind he had just won the Formula 1 Championship and he most certainly was going to celebrate.
‘Luvin U Is Easy’ followed and was even better! It’s littered with Ibiza ‘Cafe Del Mar’ vibes and is possibly the strongest tune on the new album.
Earlier we had a costume change to ‘Flute Song’ and now it was time for yet another change of attire, this time to ‘Trumpet Song’. Now back on stage and main vocalist Janet certainly was giving it her all on the vocal front to the heavy funky ‘Angry Girl’ song. ‘Kiss N Tell’ followed and Janet went into overdrive, whereas Sugar’s cowboy hat just went…….Oh OK it was attached to a very thin transparent wire and got yanked off from the rear.
Both the above tunes were great, but ‘Don’t You Know I’m in A Band’ is still an absolute earworm classic. It was yet another highlight of this evening’s energetic set. There was no idle banter in between tunes, it was hit after hit all the way through. The tempo was maintained as was the vocal delivery.
The first Confident Man tune I ever heard prior to seeing them live was ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’. It was rooted in my Top 5 tunes of the year. I played it endlessly and tonight I can report that it is still going strong six years down the line. It WAS the tune of the night, but only just! I reckon many others would also say the same after being ordered to “get down on the ground” by Janet and so we crouched in anticipation for those immortal words “get down” again and we all jumped back up in the air in unison.
‘Holiday’ was the last tune of the main set and reminded me of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ due to Janet’s vocal delivery and certain sections of the music. After this the quartet left the stage. We shouted, we hollered and shouted again and were rewarded with one more tune, that being the heavy funk ‘Relieve The Pressure’. It was a wonderful way to conclude a great night out.
They left us at 10:14pm and, not surprisingly, a long queue formed at the merch stand. If you enjoy electronic dance music with a pop delivery, then you really can’t go wrong with Confidence Man. This was a gig that I had so much been looking forward to. I needed perky up. They succeeded. Hope to see them next May then?
Confidence Man are:
Janet Planet – vocals
Sugar Bones – vocals
Reggie Goodchild – synthesisers
Clarence McGuffie – drums
Confidence Man setlist:
‘Toy Boy’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘Out The Window’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘Woman’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘What I Like’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘Does It Make You Feel Good?’ (from 2019 ‘Does It Make You Feel Good?’ single)
‘Break It Bought It’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘Flute Song’ (unreleased)
‘Feels Like A Different Thing’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘C.O.O.L Party’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘Luvin U Is Easy’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘Trumpet Song’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘Angry Girl’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘Kiss N Tell’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘Don’t You Know I’m in A Band’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘Holiday’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
(encore)
‘Relieve The Pressure’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
Support this evening came from the intriguingly named Mind Enterprises who tonight are a male duo that entertained us from 8pm for 31 minutes with their Euro/Italo disco set.
To be totally honest, I had never heard of these guys prior to this evening and still only have scant details at the moment, such as they might be based in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria. It seems there was quite a bit of action going on from this camp prior to Covid and then it stopped, but now they are back and thank God for that.
They were a perfect opening act in order to get the punters dancing away, whilst they busied themselves with the Roland keyboard, Roland drum pads and knob twiddling.
Those of a certain age will fondly recall ‘Vamos A La Playa’ by Righeira and ‘Funkytown’ by Lipps Inc when clubbing on their holidays in Turkey, Greece and The Med, well Mind Enterprises are of the same ilk. Just 40 years late that’s all. But hey! It’s nostalgia…Right!
Also, one of the guys has a passing resemblance to how Giorgio Moroder used to look in the late 1970’s. His ‘From Here To Eternity’ might as well be ‘I Feel Love Pt.2’. Mind Enterprises have also got a vocoder situation on the go as well.
Whilst typing my notes during their set, I put “1980 Euro disco” and then around one or two seconds later, that’s what one of the guys said! Clearly I had already got where they were coming from. Their sound borders Hi-NRG too, with the likes of Bobby O and Patrick Cowley. It’s certainly party music central with these guys. Let’s hope that they return!
Check out the tunes on Soundcloud.
The four previous Brighton concert reports on Confidence Man:
Thursday 18th May 2017: STICKY MIKE’S FROG BAR 11pm – 12am
Well would you believe it! We agreed that this lot were the best artists of TGE 2017. Confidence Man are fun fun fun and they have produced extremely catchy dance pop music with a unique look too. They are from Brisbane, Australia and is the brainchild of Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild, who dress as black bee-keepers on stage. They are fronted on vocals by girl and boy dancers Janet Planet and Sugar Bones.
When they finally release an album it would be totally ideal as a keep fit or running video. I can’t understand how their final track, the single, ‘Boyfriend’ hasn’t been as successful as something like ‘Barbie Girl’. Yes I know cheesy as hell, but virtually the whole crowd crouched down with the dancers and jumped up again. They have also released ‘Bubblegum’ as a single, however their as yet unreleased compositions are arguably their best, such as ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’, ‘Try Your Luck’, ‘Sit Down’, ‘Fascination’, ‘Catch My Breath’ and their funky set opener called ‘Intro’. Everyone needs some Confidence Man in their lives! www.confidenceman.com.au
Saturday 20th May 2017: HORATIOS 1:30pm – 2:00pm
Having seen Confidence Man on day one of TGE, we really didn’t want to miss them again. So we made the difficult decision to drop the planned Kamikaze Girls gig as they are coming back to Brighton shortly and the fact that they would be playing a longer set then. Confidence Man are terrific fun and they have produced extremely catchy dance pop music with a unique look too. They are from Brisbane, Australia and is the brainchild of Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild, who dress as black bee-keepers on stage. They are fronted on vocals by girl and boy dancers Janet Planet and Sugar Bones.
When they finally release an album it would be totally ideal as a keep fit or running video. I can’t understand how their final track, the single, ‘Boyfriend’ hasn’t been as successful as something like Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’. Yes I know cheesy as hell, but virtually the whole crowd crouched down with the dancers and jumped up again. They have also released ‘Bubblegum’ as a single, however their as yet unreleased compositions are arguably their best, such as ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’, ‘Try Your Luck’, ‘Sit Down’, ‘Fascination’, ‘Catch My Breath’ and their funky set opener called ‘Intro’. I really want them to release these tracks very soon in order to brighten up the summer as everyone needs some Confidence Man in their lives! We agreed that this lot were the best artists of TGE 2017. www.confidenceman.com.au
Thursday 9th May 2019: THE DIVE BAR – BEACH SITE 10:30pm – 11:00pm
At the very top of my TGE19 list was Aussie quartet Confidence Man. We witnessed two of their shows at TGE17 and were well aware that they are fun fun fun. They have been producing extremely catchy dance pop music with a unique look too. They hail from Brisbane and is the brainchild of Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild, who dress as bee-keepers in black on stage. They are fronted on vocals by girl and boy dancers Janet Planet and Sugar Bones.
This was the first of my two TGE19 shows and was my second favourite gig over the whole of the three days. They have got their routine finely tuned and a highlight of the show is when Janet demands that the crowd “get down on the ground” and so everyone obligingly crouches down and all jump up again in unison when requested to “get down”. It’s magic. The track they do this on is called ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ – listen HERE and grab yourself their fab debut album HERE.
Saturday 11th May 2019: THE DEEP END – BEACH SITE 3:05pm – 3:30pm
A second helping of the mighty Brisbane based dance-pop group Confidence Man for our coverage team. I’d seen them perform twice at TGE in 2017 both at the now sadly defunct Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar and on the Palace Pier, so I knew what to expect. As anticipated, they didn’t disappoint! I was glad to have got here early to make my way to the front, as it was jam-packed.
As the heavens opened outside, dancer/singers ‘Janet Planet’ (sporting a conical light-up bra) and ‘Sugar Bones’ blasted out belters from their album ‘Confident Music For Confident People’, which is so good almost every song could be a single. Their energetic and humorous stage show had the crowd dancing frenetically throughout. There was even time for a costume change whilst group founders Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild (who dress as mysterious bee-keepers clad in black) played a high-tempo drum-based interlude. Everyone departed this one absolutely buzzing and with smiles on their faces. If you get a chance to see them – go! Check out the track ‘Try Your Luck’ which I’m sure will be released as a single sometime soon.
