Mark de Clive-Lowe witnessed D'Angelo play London's Brixton Academy on Wednesday 19 July 2000.
I was living in London at the time and I hadn't been there that long. There was a huge buzz behind the show because D'Angelo's album Voodoo already had this mystique around it - it was unlike anything else that had been out. Then you had the Jill Scott record, [Erykah Badu's] Mama's Gun, [Common's] Like Water for Chocolate - that whole scene was the hottest thing there was. So when I head D'Angelo was coming to London, I got tickets straight away.
The anticipation at the show was palpable. He is one of those cats who is unlike any other. It reminded me a little of the first time I went to a Lakers game in LA. I grew up in New Zealand watching a lot of NBA, and there I am at a Lakers game and the starting five are coming out, and there's Kobe Bryant. There was that kind of buzz - it was so special and so real.
Voodoo was very much a studio record and, as a musician, that kind of thing makes me very curious to see how it will be performed live. He had this huge set-up on stage and an incredible group of musicians - Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson on percussion, James Poyser on keys, Pino Palladino on bass, Anthony Hamilton on backing vocals... a true supergroup.
I'll never forget the start of the show. The whole stage went to black and they were playing a loop off tape, a twisted out-of-space break or something, and then the whole band was onstage walking around in a circle, all in dark hooded robes. The anticipation at that moment was incredible.
