➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣

Glamour to the hilt: at the Albert Hall in 2010 Grace Jones changed costumes for almost every number — here she is crowned with her Treacy glitterball hat. Photographed © by Shapersofthe80s

❚ GRACE JONES’S HURRICANE-DUB went live today with the track This Is Dub free to hear at Soundcloud. On Sept 5 Wall Of Sound releases a double CD Hurricane-Dub. It comprises nine-track disc 1 containing the original version of Hurricane from 2008, which was Grace’s first album since 1989, wittily textured with collaborations from Tricky, Brian Eno, Sly and Robbie, guitarist Leo Ross and percussionist Tony Allan. The 2011 package adds a 10-track disc 2 featuring newly created dubs by producer Ivor Guest with fewer vocals but extra mixes of outtakes and unused riffs. They are said to bring “a new, deep, darker side to the already wicked bass-lines”.

A onetime member of Andy Warhol’s entourage, the 63-year-old Jamaican-born supermodel established herself as the eccentric queen of disco divas with hits throughout the 70s and 80s, her gamechanging album being the sleek and timeless Warm Leatherette which led to a tour performing her bizarre One Man Show and a Grammy nomination. She also invested in a movie career, but returned to music in 2007. Over the past two years her savage and passionate soul has been the elemental force powering the Hurricane stage tour. This renewed a creative partnership with her former lover, Jean-Paul Goude, to establish her new brand image in the spectacular glitterball hat by Philip Treacy, not to mention a galaxy of OTT costumes by Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka. Grace’s visually glamorous show returned for a second visit to fill London’s Royal Albert Hall to its 5,500 capacity in spring last year, and saw her son Paulo Goude in the band playing bongos. In recent years Grace has made her home in England with her producer who is also the fourth Viscount Wimborne.

➢ See coverage of Grace’s London 2010 concert at Shapersofthe80s for links to performance videos

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