William Wainwright, the son of two schoolteachers, dropped out of school at the age of sixteeen. William Orbit, the producer of Madonna, Blur, and Britney Spears, is on stage in Notting Hill at the age of sixty-eight.
Had young Billy followed a traditional path, there is no doubt he would have been a successful academic. For the assembled fans, treated to a casual retrospective of Orbit’s contributions to music, it is clear that his real classroom is the dancefloor.
The evening’s lesson begins with “Funky Love Vibrations,” a track released by Orbit as Bassomatic. In many ways the successor to Torch Song, Bassomatic captured the vibe of the early 1990s perfectly. Stuttering, gated sounds and flowing, delayed bleeps created a party atmosphere above a solid rhythm. Brought to the stage, it loses none of its freshness.
The crew for the night has Pips Taylor spinning tunes before the band take the stage Callum Dearden is on bass. Erire Obano handles most of the vocals and keeps the vibe going. James Hockley takes control of keyboards. A lot of work has been done by Orbit’s guitar tech, who has at least ten instruments lined up around the stage.
There are improvised interludes; fragments of tracks that are sometimes hints rather than Greatest Hits scorchers. But there are those, too. Shaznay Lewis of All Saints fame joins proceedings for a performance of “Pure Shores.” “Water from a Vine Leaf” grows slowly, slowly, slowly, into an ecstatic phase. And the building shakes for “Ray of Light.”
Orbit supervises proceedings like an impish don. He spins in his office chair while picking at his guitar. Obano is crowned. There is an encouraging squeeze for Dearden after he leads vocals for one track. He makes it look easy, but William Orbit – A Journey is a moment of fun that took a lifetime to prepare.
