Review: Mark Ronson & The Business Intl @ Manchester Academy

When:  Sat 2 Oct 2010

Reviewed by:  Abbas Ali

As one of the most well connected men in pop, Mark Ronson inspires love and extreme hatred in equal measure. Much admired for his production of Amy Winehouse’s classic ‘Back To Black’ LP, and his own trombone-laden 2006 effort ‘Version’, he’s also equally known for designer suits, model girlfriends, and friendships with everyone from Tom Cruise to Jay-Z.

His upbringing may bring accusations of nepotism, and, if we’re honest, he clearly lives a life that most people envy. Like the male, indie equivalent of Cheryl Cole, he appears to be the man who has it all.
The problem is, what do you get for the man / woman who has it all?

In Ronson’s case, it appears the thing he craves the most is critical acclaim. Having painted himself into a corner with his Motown and 60s girl group influenced earlier work, which has since been copied a thousand times by inferior acts, Ronson has clearly taken a drastic change in direction, reinventing himself with 80s electro sounds, hip hop beats, and a Pat Butcher style shock of blonde hair.

Luckily for the London born superproducer, two out of three of his new ingredients work. Coming onto stage tonight in Manchester, with an ice-cool demeanour as the beats begin to drop and the lights come up, it’s clear he means business. So does his new band, the Business International. Beginning with instrumental  ‘Circuit Breaker’ from the new album, he’s joined by the band in a mass drumming extravaganza, as they each knock out the beat on the various banks of drum pads across the stage.

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Then it’s time for a vast array of singers to take turn at vocal duties.

Since it’s not London, we don’t the benefit of celeb buddies such as Winehouse, Duran Duran, or Boy George, but we do have others, including Ronson’s hype man, rapper Spank Rock, seductive girl vocalist (and former Pipette) Rose Elinor Dougall, Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet (who sings his biggest hit, ‘California’, the O.C. theme tune), and 80s Madonna styled vocalist MNDR.

Kyle Falconer of The View gives us a performance of current hit ‘The Bike Song’, as well as his rendition of ‘Valerie’, for which is joined on stage by the author of both numbers, Dave McCabe of The Zutons, in what is a highlight of the show.

Another follows when Ronson, largely a background figure overseeing proceedings behind a keyboard stand, comes to the forefront to perform a brief DJ set. His formative experience playing New York clubs and parties shows as his patter, which consists of sweet talking Manchester as a clubbing and music city, wins the crowd over. His engaging shouts to the crowd are totally at odds with his somewhat boring offstage persona. “I know I’m not from here”, he says at one point. “But I can say one thing: I’m glad to be home”.

His fellow musicians soon flood the stage once more, and somewhere before the end, Ronson performs the title track from his new album ‘Record Collection’, as he sings of how he’s not interested in trappings of fame. “I only want to be in your record collection / and I’ll do anything it takes just to get there”, he implores the crowd, and judging from tonight’s show, you can’t doubt his sincerity.

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