My CHIC Story

About me and my fantastic journey with CHIC and Nile Rodgers.

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My name is Luc and I live in Switzerland. For those who wouldn't know, the abbreviation commonly used to refer to my country is "CH" (from its Latin name "Confœderatio Helvetica"), hence my nickname: CHCHICfan.

The beginning

I discovered CHIC in 1978 with the single Le Freak. I really liked the song, especially Nile Rodgers' unique style of playing the guitar. When Good Times came out the following year, it was a revelation. I found this track extraordinary, especially the long instrumental bridge. I was lucky to win the LP Risqué at a radio quiz and, in the same week, I ran to buy both previous albums Chic and C'est Chic.

My passion for this band had started. I then discovered that the songs of Sister Sledge (He's the Greatest Dancer, We Are Family, Lost in Music and more), which I was also liking very much, were also "written, arranged and conducted by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers for the CHIC Organization, Ltd.". How wonderful! At the time, there was no Internet and it was much more difficult to keep up to date with artists' projects. One day in 1980, I heard a song playing in a record store. The very "CHIC" sound caught my attention and I asked to see the cover: it was Diana, by Diana Ross, produced by The CHIC Organization. I bought it immediately! The albums of Sheila & B. Devotion (a big surprise to see this famous French artist produced by my favorite band!) and Debbie Harry followed.

I had also noticed that a new CHIC album (by the band itself) was released every year. At that time, I feverishly scrutinized the window of my record store which displayed all the new releases. But in 1984... nothing! CHIC's annual LP has not been released. What a disappointment! Fortunately, there had been the respective solo albums of Nile and Bernard, then the productions of Nile Rodgers like Let's Dance by David Bowie. I was on the lookout for anything that had the name of one of the members of CHIC.

For my birthday in 1984, my brother gave me a Madonna record. I knew this artist a bit from her hit song Holiday, but she wasn't appealing to me more than that. I was a little surprised at the choice of my brother. He then told me to look at what was written on the back... And then I understood better: "Produced by Nile Rodgers for Nile Rodgers Productions, Inc."!

Well, I'm not going to retrace here the entire discography of my favorite musicians. Nevertheless, the return of CHIC in 1992 with CHIC-ism was an immense joy, fueling a great hope to see the band back more regularly. Sadly, hope was shattered by the death of Bernard Edwards in 1996.

First show

The following years were less CHIC-ish, until 2004 when, thanks to Pocat's CHICtribute.com website, I heard that Nile Rodgers & CHIC will perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Switzerland. Excitement: 26 years after having known them, it will be the first time that I will see them in concert. And what fun! Even better than I had imagined. It was a waking dream. I hid a camera and took a few badly framed photos on the sly, to have a souvenir. I was afraid of being caught... At the end of the concert, CHIC announced they will be back the following year!

Of course, I didn't miss the 2005 concert, which also included guests like Marcus Miller, David Sanborn and Boney James. And since the singer Sylver Logan Sharp asked to send our best photos to nilerodgers.com, I was less embarrassed to take some and sent them also to CHICtribute.com who put them online. So did the legacy Nile Rodgers' website too.

In the spring of 2006, I discovered with great surprise that eleven of my photos from 2005 were used, along with those of another amateur photographer, for the booklet of an edition of the live CD/DVD A Night in Amsterdam. This release wasn't supervised by Nile Rodger's teams. However, although I am not credited, I am very happy and feel very honored that my photos have been chosen.

First meet

In July of the same year, CHIC are again at the Montreux Jazz Festival but this time as part of a tribute evening to Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of the Atlantic record company, with many other artists including Buddy Williams, Ronnie Cuber, Jerry Jemmott, Cornell Dupree, Les McCann and the Souls Survivors, George Duke, Paolo Nutini, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, Kid Rock, Stevie Nicks, Steve Winwood, Robert Plant and Chaka Khan. The ticket for this gala is quite expensive and the standing places are this time at the back of the room. So I told Pocat that I probably won't attend this show, especially since CHIC will only perform a few songs and they'll also give a free concert the next day, still as part of the Festival. Pocat then offered me to ask Nile Rodgers for a pass, so that I can take pictures for his website CHICtribute.com. I couldn't believe it, but Nile agreed!

The day before the concert, despite several prior confirmations, I still hadn't received a pass. I informed Pocat by giving him my mobile number. At around two o'clock in the morning, while I was soundly sleeping, my cellphone rang. Still completely drowsy, I picked up and heard "Hello, this is Nile Rodgers... "! I couldn't believe my ears and got suddenly wide awake with my heart beating like crazy. Nile apologized for the inconvenience and asked me to come to his hotel reception in the late afternoon to sort out the access issue. He was very kind and predicted a great show for me tonight. I was very excited and had a hard time falling back to sleep!

At noon, Nile called again to inform me that I can get my pass directly at the Festival VIP desk. Arrived there, my name wasn't on the list and they sent me from counter to counter. I laughed myself at the impression of a liar that I must give by saying that Nile Rodgers called me that night to confirm I'll get a pass! I finally had to call Nile, who was able to remedy the situation by speaking with the access manager. So I got a golden bracelet that gave me access to the concert and the right to take pictures. An hour before the concert started, Nile called me again to make sure everything was in order. I was really touched by the simplicity and kindness of the artist.

The concert was indeed fabulous, with many big names in music. Surrounded by press photographers with their big zooms, I was able to take pictures with my little digital compact camera. Once the concert was over, I was allowed to go backstage and meet Nile Rodgers for the first time. We exchanged a few words and he thanked me for the photos. He also agreed to pose with me for the photo that became my avatar. After all these years of admiration for this great artist, it was truly an unthinkable dream coming true. I will never forget this evening, made possible thanks to Pocat whom I will never stop thanking.

The next day, I attended the free concert at Jazz Café, where Kid Rock joined to rap on Good Times/Rapper's Delight.

Ahmet Ertegun died at the end of 2006. A little later, the Nile Rodgers team asked me for permission to use some of my photos of Montreux for a tribute page to the founder of Atlantic Records, which Nile published in BillBoard magazine of February 24, 2007, on page 43. Again, this is an honor I could never have imagined.

More shows

It took me 5 more years to see CHIC again on stage. It was on June 18, 2011 at the Trianon in Paris, after Nile recovered from prostate cancer. A memorable concert with a crazy atmosphere, in which I discovered the new lead singers Kimberly Davis and Folami.

In late 2011, I was contacted by a journalist who asked for permission to publish two of my photos of CHIC's bass player Jerry Barnes for an article about him in the January 2012 issue of the German magazine Bass Quarterly. I happily accepted.

On July 13, 2012, Nile Rodgers curated the closing night of the Montreux Jazz Festival. With his friend and festival founder Claude Nobs, they put together the Freak Out! night with a host of stars including Alison Moyet, Johnny Marr, Mark Ronson, La Roux, Tavares, Ultra Naté, Martha Wash, Cerrone, Taylor Dayne, Dimitri From Paris, Grace Jones, and even the local but worldwide disco star Patrick Juvet. At the end of the night, I was able to have Nile sign my copy of his biography Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny.

A similar event was planned for the following year. Unfortunately, Claude Nobs died in a skiing accident in January 2013. Nile was very affected and the event did not take place.

That's when I started to attend more and more CHIC concerts, when they were in surrounding countries: France, Italy or the United Kingdom. I didn't have any particular contact with Nile Rodgers but would go very early in the queue to be, if possible, placed in the first row in front of the stage.

As an anecdote, some decisions were sometimes very spontaneous. On July 31, 2013, I was having lunch at my usual restaurant and, on Twitter, I saw that Nile had posted a photo taken from the hotel he was staying in. It showed the southern slope of the Alps. I told myself that if he saw that, he wasn't that far from Switzerland! Upon inquiry, CHIC was giving a concert that evening in Aosta (Italy), a 3-hour drive from my home. Tickets were still available and the next day was a public holiday in Switzerland. My blood boiled. I ate my meal extremely quickly and went back to work to ask my boss if I could leave at  3pm. He granted me this favor. So, I also picked up my 18-year-old nephew who was on school vacation and had never attended a CHIC show. We arrived just in time in Aosta and got the tickets I had booked by phone. This wonderful unexpected evening remains forever etched in our memories.

In 2014, the day after a concert in Juan-les-Pins, Nile replied to a tweet I had posted with a photo of the concert: "Thanks for the love Luc! You are always there for us." That's when I realized that Nile had noticed that I had attended a number of concerts. Once again, his attention to others touched me.

On March 20 and 21, 2015, at the Roundhouse in London, I had the pleasure of attending the two concerts that celebrated the first broadcast of CHIC's new single, I'll Be There. For this occasion, I had my first T-shirts and caps made with my CHCHICfan logo. About ten days later, Pocat sent me a link to a video of an interview he did for Facebook, filmed between the two concerts. Imagine my surprise (and that's an understatement!) to see that he mentioned me, in response to the question of whether there were any fans he remembered. I couldn't believe my ears and felt incredibly happy.

FOLD Festival

Taking up the idea of ​​the Freak Out! night he curated at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Nile Rodgers decided to create the FOLD Festival (FOLD standing for Freak Out Let's Dance). He announced that it would take place on August 4 and 5, 2015 in Riverhead, on Long Island in the state of New York (USA).

The urge to attend this event quickly came. But when I checked the schedule at work, I noticed that several of my colleagues had planned their vacations during that same period. I wouldn't have a replacement to do my work if I would be absent too. In addition, after a brief search, I hadn't really found any affordable hotels in Riverhead. So I gave up.

But I was lucky to have a very human boss at that time (the one who had already allowed me to leave earlier to go see the show in Italy). During a team meeting, he asked us to plan our summer vacations well, to ensure continuity of services. So I didn't say anything, since I knew it was not appropriate for me to take leave at the beginning of August. But at the end of the day, we walked together to the station to take our trains. In the conversation, I told him that I would have liked to take a week's vacation to go to the FOLD Festival but that it wasn't possible due to work. He knew my passion for the band CHIC and then told me that it would be a shame to miss this opportunity. He asked me to send him an email with proposed solutions to manage my work during my absence. So I did and he granted me a week's vacation to go to New York.

The trip to Riverhead was quite an adventure that I will tell you about here.

So I landed on August 3, 2015 at 3:30 p.m. at JFK airport in New York. A very long line loomed at immigration. Anxiety was mounting because the last train to Riverhead was leaving at 5:47 p.m. I had underestimated the waiting time needed for entry formalities to the USA. The agents put into a priority line those who had a connecting flight in less than two hours. Unfortunately, connections with a train were not taken into consideration. It was only at 5:30 p.m. that I finally went through security. All that remained was to collect my suitcase, which had already been unloaded from the conveyor belts, and go through customs. Fortunately, it was quick. But it was 5:40 p.m. and I had lost all hope of catching my train.

I ask at an information desk what other options there are to get to Riverhead. The agent confirms that there are no more trains and tells me that the only solution is to go as close as possible by train and bus and then take a taxi. So I take the AirTrain to Jamaica Station. A train leaves for Ronkonkoma at 6:21 p.m. and I get on this rather old convoy.

When I arrive in Ronkonkoma, there is not much around. A man shouts "taxi!" at all times but he doesn't inspire confidence. There is however a taxi agency but I first go to ask in a kind of grocery store if there are trains or buses to Riverhead. Unfortunately not. I then see a sign indicating the location of the bus departures. There is one and I ask the driver if there is a way to get to Riverhead. He tells me no but that I can take the next bus (#S59) which will take me to Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, then from there the #S58 to Middle Island. This is the closest place to my destination that can be reached by bus.

The bus in question arrives around 7:50 p.m. I ask the driver again how to get to Riverhead and she confirms what the previous driver had told me. I have no smaller than a $5 bill and she doesn't have enough to give me back. I have 2-3 quarters so she asks me to put them in the cash register on her right. She writes down the name of the destination of the bus that I will have to take at the place where she will drop me off. We leave. I am the only passenger. She makes me get off near a large parking lot and tells me to watch for the next bus because it may stop further back. It is 8 p.m. I don't really know where I am, the sun is low and I think that if I miss this last bus, I might have to sleep under the stars over here...

The vehicle arrives 5 minutes later. I later realized that it was the last trip of the day on this line. Here again, the driver cannot give me back my $5 bill. A little upset, he tells me to go further back to let the other people in. A passenger pays with two $1 bills. The driver gives them to me and takes my $5, telling me that he can't do better. The journey seems long and night falls. Along the way, a group of young people get on and say they are going to Middle Island. They have a bike that they have fixed to the ad-hoc rack at the front of the bus. This will help me spot when they get off.

The bus arrives at Middle Island around 8:40 p.m. It is again a large parking lot surrounded by stalls, many of which are already closed. No taxis in sight. I enter an ice cream shop that is fortunately still open. I ask them if they can order me a taxi, because I can't explain myself where to pick me up. The employee does it very kindly with my phone and the taxi arrives about fifteen minutes later. I pay the $70 requested for the trip.

The driver is quite old and his car is just as old. He doesn't really know the road and I have to guide him with the GPS on my smartphone. I have a very limited plan and only activate the network at certain times to save data. Finally we arrive in the city. At a roundabout, I tell him to take the first exit on the right but he takes the second one opposite. No problem, he turns around and goes the wrong way into the roundabout to take the right exit! Fortunately there was no traffic and no one in the police building located right next door noticed the maneuver.

After this journey full of adventures, I finally arrive at my hotel. What a relief. Without waiting, I post on Twitter that I have arrived in Riverhead and that I am looking forward to the festival the next day. A few minutes later, still on Twitter, I receive a private message from Nile Rodgers: "What is your email or phone number? I will make sure my people take care of you.". Once again, Nile surprises me with his extreme kindness. So I provide him with the requested information and shortly after, I receive a text message and an email from Ali, from the Nile Rodgers team, who informs me that I will receive an "Ultra VIP" ticket for both nights! I couldn't be happier.