It has been a while I know since I’ve done an article rather than a podcast but when you’re enjoying talking about deathmatches and other great forms of wrestling with great people like Jim Fannin from IWA Midsouth, MJ from Waffly Bollox and so many others - the music side takes a bit of a break y’know?
Over the past few days though I’ve been obsessed with the final date of Fred again’s Alexandra Palace residency in London in which he did a b2b set with the legend that is Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk, Stardust etc), the second time he’s worked with Thomas since the surprise appearance during a show in France last year that marked Bangalter’s first solo DJ set not acting like a robot in years!
Fred of course has become a rising star over the past 5 years with his actual life series of records providing a pretty damn good time capsule of a few years that changed the lives of us all - a pandemic causing us to stay indoors taking away for a time our communal and social aspects, yes things like Zoom took off as we all tried to find a way to interact with each other while Youtube and Twitch reached a peak not seen in years for both platforms as DJs, content creators and more used both to give us moments of light in the darkness.
So the culmination of the usb0002 tour being in London already had a feeling of something special going in…
Throughout the four nights (and many Instagram reels) we all got to see the story of dance/grime/dubstep et al play out - Kano, JME, Ezra Collective, D Double E, Mike Skinner of The Streets, Caribou, Underworld, Joy Anonymous, Skream, La Roux, Benga and Coki all coming together to create special moments: JME rapping over Overmono’s Turn The Page remix, Kano doing 3 Wheel Ups and Ps & Q’s with Ezra as the backing band, Mike Skinner doing Weak Become Heroes over Born Slippy followed by Karl Hyde doing the iconic verses of the latter and La Roux performing In For The Kill over the iconic Skream ‘Let’s get Ravey’ remix for the very first time.
We then find out on the morning of the final show from Fred’s own IG that he felt there was only one way to end the tour - b2b with Thomas Bangalter.
Now it’s not very often I had the feeling of missing out creep up these days in an age where everything gets filmed but I and many others I suspect were really hoping we were going to get the set in full and not just a couple of minutes in a reel. Thankfully Fred gave us the good news early last week - the set was going up in full!
From the moment the speech of My House is playing alongside ‘Marea (we’ve lost dancing)’ and the words what comes next is playing on a loop while we see shots of the crowd in anticipation (and this is after the Kano/Ezra moments earlier that night!) as we are wondering with the crowd how the set’s going to kick off…
Cue those amazing opening chords for Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’ and the Alexandra Palace comes UNGLUED. For the wrestling fans reading this - think of your favourite pop moment of all time and times that by 1000. The crowd singing along to EVERY WORD even before the actual vocals kick in.
For the next nearly two hours we then get taken to a higher plane of a sort - Gil Scott Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised over Clubbed To Death, multiple mashups of Technologic, Digital Love getting mixed with Billie’s Loving Arms AND Raspberry Goddamn Beret, Fred incorporating his tracks into classic Daft Punk tracks (Aerodynamic into Victory Lap being a personal fave) and more.
THE moment though that is the most emotional comes when Thomas plays a track by Caribou called I Can’t Do Without You but he mixes a song called Never The End into it - a song that Thomas’ son whose next to him in the DJ booth sang at the age of twelve. Clearly a surprise to not only Caribou whose in the audience and Fred but also Thomas’ son and the emotion of crying joy on his face just hits you… (and if you say otherwise ‘ll call you a liar!)
By the time One More Time hits again to signify the end of the set - Bangalter joining Fred on top of the booth! - the crowd singing along once more it’s clear that we’ve all seen a historical set in the making whether live there at Ally Pally or via a screen a few days later, one that in my eyes could be very hard to top as my dance set of 2026… but you are all welcome to try (and recommend any you see in the comments or on socials throughout the year!)
Thank you Fred and Thomas for creating something magickal.