Confidence Man get the Glastonbury party started early with Brighton warmup

CONFIDENCE MAN + REENIE – CHALK, BRIGHTON 18.6.24 

Confidence Man arrived at Chalk in Brighton tonight ahead of their third long player ‘3AM (LA LA LA)’ which is set for release on 18th October – Details HERE. 

The band, which are out of Melbourne by way of Brisbane, consists of Janet Planet, Sugar Bones, Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild and they are unarguably one of the hottest acts on the planet right now. They operate just like a portable party that’s levelled dance floors and flattened festival crowds right across the world. They are a machine custom designed to make you dance and lose your cool as the many thousands at this year’s Glastonbury will be finding out when they take to the ‘Other Stage’ on Friday 28th June from 3:45pm to 4:45pm. So ahead of this special festival date Confidence Man have put together a quartet of Glasto warm up shows, these being tonight in Brighton (which has been organised by Lout Promotions) as well as in Gloucester, Falmouth and Exeter. 

I’ve been a fan of theirs since they dropped the ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ single back in 2017 and was fortunate to catch them live that same year at Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar (RIP) on 18th May and Horatios (at the end of the pier) on 20th May, where they were hands down the best act of that year’s ‘Great Escape’

They have regularly been dropping dance earworms ever since, including ‘Don’t You Know I’m In A Band’, ‘Does It Make You Feel Good?’, ‘On & On (Again)’ and ‘Holiday’. Their latest cheeky number being ‘I Can’t Lose You’ (from the forthcoming album) which has an eye-popping pixelated video of vocalists Janet Planet and Sugar Bones individually naked in a helicopter to drum up extra interest. This evening they are as you would expect wearing clothes and as per normal the other two in the band Clarence McGuffie and Reggie Goodchild are very much in the background and hidden under black beekeepers outfits. I’m sure many folk believe that Confidence Man are just a duo because of this!

I find it reassuring that the band performs their tunes with many live elements, unlike a whole host of dance acts who either just DJ their material or don’t even tour, although having said that, not all vocals we hear this evening are actually live, but hey, who cares when we’re all having a ball.  A Confidence Man show is always full of energy and a truly uplifting experience for everyone in the crowd and tonight’s sold out Brighton show certainly doesn’t alter this! 

They take to the stage to a 10 to 1 countdown at 8:46pm which was 15 minutes after (non-binary/Princess) Reenie concludes their banging one hour DJ set designed to get folk in the mood. The crowd are sufficiently pumped and across the next 58 minutes they offload 13 bangers, beginning with last year’s DJ Seinfeld & Confidence Man single ‘Now U Do’. As always Reggie is on keys and Clarence is on drums and Janet and Sugar (initially both dressed in black) are very much out the front offering up vocals (via their cordless mics) and carefully rehearsed and very entertaining dance routines. With a sample of ‘The Bouncer’ by British electronic dance music duo Kicks Like a Mule, namely that famed “Your name’s not down, you’re not coming in”, “Not tonight, you’re not on the list”, Confidence Man are off again with the slower chugging ‘Out The Window’ the first of four cuts from 2018’s ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album.

Selection three was their 2019 ‘Does It Make You Feel Good?’ single which has a serious late 1970’s disco beat with synth strings going down, in fact so much so that even Reggie and Clarence left their stations and briefly near the end of the number joined Janet and Sugar out front of a dance routine. Up next was last year’s Confidence Man x Daniel Avery ‘On & On (Again)’ single, which basically can be described in one word….“Tuuuuuuunnnnne!”. This segued right into another banger, their current single ‘I Can’t Lose You’, which will be track two of twelve on their forthcoming ‘3AM (LA LA LA)’ album and one which Sugar discarded his top to a host of cheers of approval. As with previous Confidence Man encounters, there’s masses of showmanship going on, which includes two or more costume changes from Janet and Sugar and so whilst the brother and sister nip backstage for one of these, we are treated to the 2023 instrumental single titled ‘Firebreak’ where the crowd went “whoooup whoooup” and one which has a passing resemblance to JX’s 1994 club classic ‘Son Of A Gun’. Interestingly JX was actually Brighton based artist Jake Williams, a fact I seem to recall was passed to me by my old mate Jason ‘H’ aka Jason “Phats” Hayward of Phats & Small fame!

Janet and Sugar returned to the stage and were this time dressed in white, where Janet was also 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 shoulders. ‘Feels Like A Different Thing’ from their 2022 ‘Tilt’ album was the tune they had selected next and after this Janet and Sugar both put on small white sci-fi style goggles and they were away with crowd favourite ‘C.O.O.L Party’ from 2018’s ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album. Sugar opened up a bottle of sparkling bubbly and shook it up and sprayed it all over the punters at the front, myself included. In his mind he had just won the Formula 1 Championship and he most certainly was going to celebrate. After this electro friendly tune, Sugar and Janet left the stage again and Reggie and Clarence took it away with the second instrumental track of the night, this being ‘Break It Down’ and by the closing bars Janet and Sugar were back in black and raring to go! 

Selection ten was next, this being the hip swinging ‘Don’t You Know I’m in A Band’ which is found on their debut ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album from back in 2018. Once again Sugar took his top off and both he and his sister poured water over their own heads, which I suppose is one way of cooling down during their energetic set, another one being them crouching down in front of the stage level fans, which had the vibe of a video shoot going down on account of Janet’s hair flying around. She then informs us that the next tune “is a new one”, this was ‘So What’ which will be tune four on the forthcoming ‘3AM (LA LA LA)’ album. I’m very pleased to announce that it’s yet another banger and adding to their top quality dance music output. They certainly whipped the crowd up during this number as both Sugar and Janet got off the stage and came to the crowd barrier for quite some time and addressed their loyal (increasing) followers. I guess it was a clever ploy doing this during the newbie as they might not have worked out or fine-tuned that song’s dance routine yet! 

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. Their penultimate number was the very first song of theirs I ever heard, this being the 2017 earworm single ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ which was included on their ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ debut album. For my first few Confidence Man meetings this was THE best track of their performances and one I was very much looking forward to hearing, as well as crouching down and bopping up again jack-in-the-box style, but tonight this hadn’t bettered ‘On & On (Again)’ which had been the standout number…that is until the arrival of closing number ‘Holiday’ from their 2022 ‘Tilt’ album, which gave me goosebumps! This was another “Tuuuuuuunnnnne!” and the ideal composition to finish on. Sadly there wasn’t an encore track this time around despite it being 16 minutes before the 10pm curfew. So at 9:44pm it was all over. It had been yet another wonderful endorphin releasing feeling of wellbeing and may it long continue! 

Confidence Man……….miss them at your peril! 

Confidence Man are:
Janet Planet – vocals
Sugar Bones – vocals
Reggie Goodchild – synthesizers
Clarence McGuffie – drums

Confidence Man setlist:
‘Now U Do’ (a 2023 DJ Seinfeld & Confidence Man single)
‘Out The Window’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘Does It Make You Feel Good?’ (a 2019 single)
‘On & On (Again)’ (a 2023 Confidence Man x Daniel Avery single)
‘I Can’t Lose You’ (a 2024 single from forthcoming ‘3AM (LA LA LA)’ album)
‘Firebreak’ (a 2023 single)
‘Feels Like A Different Thing’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)
‘C.O.O.L Party’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘Break It Down’ (unreleased)
‘Don’t You Know I’m in A Band’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘So What’ (from forthcoming 2024 ‘3AM (LA LA LA)’ album)
‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ (from 2018 ‘Confident Music For Confident People’ album)
‘Holiday’ (from 2022 ‘Tilt’ album)

www.confidenceman.com