THE Sugarhill Gang are responsible for bringing rap and hip hop to the commercial masses way back in 1979 with Rappers Delight. They were joined at Fibbers by fellow pioneers Grandmaster Melle and the Furious Five featuring Scorpio.

The room erupted as Master Gee and Wonder Mike took to the stage in “True York” to all the usual calls and responses people have to come to expect since the early days of hip hop. I lost count of how many times I said “ho!” The crowd clearly loved it and Fibbers was sweltering within minutes.

Things moved up a notch after about 20 minutes when The Sugarhill Gang took a deserved breather – these guys are now in their 60s after all – and Grandmaster Melle Mel entered the stage. In response to the classic The Message, the crowd really started to light up.

Despite the overall message of love and good music, there was a brief boo when Vanilla Ice was mentioned, but Melle stuck up for him before launching into White Lines, by which point I don’t think there was anyone left in the place not dancing.

Rejoined by the Sugarhill Gang, there was much bigging-up of each other and reflections on the history of rap and hip hop before they inevitably treated the audience to Rapper’s Delight. They then descended into an audience singalong that bizarrely included Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer and Queen's We Are The Champions.

After a few more muscle flexes from Melle they were suddenly gone and that was that. After being whipped up into such a frenzy in the hot party atmosphere, it was shame that everyone couldn’t keep on dancing, and it felt like a slight anticlimax.

Regardless, True York was most definitely in the house last Friday night.

Review by Jonathan Wilcox