David Bowie – Hammersmith Odeon, 1973

OK Janelle, if it is true that you can travel through time, then I will come with you to the Ziggy Stardust tour. It was simply an unmissable event at the peak of Bowie’s powers, and in 1973, it captured the true heart of music bohemia. But more than that, it was the final swansong of Ziggy Stardust as a concept. Thereafter, Bowie would once again shed his skin and evolve into something different, and so this show represented one last strike of lightning in the bottle.

The setlist was jam-packed with some of his most prized hits, from ‘Moonage Daydream’ to ‘Changes’ and even the mind-bending ‘Width Of A Circle’. Under the rooftop of that famous venue, fans would have sweat, sung and danced in complete immersive joy, as this liberal and open-minded icon stood before them. It’s a show that the modern world simply could never replicate.

Oasis – Knebworth, 1996

In fairness to the Gallagher brothers, their current run of shows might go down in similar iconography. But, I’d like to use Monae’s time machine to find out if the ignorant bliss of Cool Britannia in the mid-1990s was better than today. Likely, the answer is yes.

In that field, Oasis fans would have sung every lyric with burning vitality, as Liam Gallagher conducted them in the true prime of his career. Not contaminated by the oncoming introduction of phones and social media, nothing about that night would have been interrupted by the thought of anything else. The show closer of ‘Champagne Supernova’ wasn’t blocked by influencers taking photos of the grand fireworks, instead, fans looked up to the sky, sung along and realised it might not get any better than this.

The Beatles – Cavern Club, 1962

In an ideal world, my time machine would also grant me the power to dampen down the hysteria of Beatlemania and create a universe where The Beatles continued touring in the late 1960s, where they would play shows filled with their experimental brilliance. Alas, that never happened and so I will make do with ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ in The Cavern Club.

Make do, I say, with a wry smile. No, this would be the greatest diy gig of all time, seeing The Fab Four bundle onto a tightly packed stage to sprinkle their magic over a crowd before they go global. Perhaps more interesting than the musical performances would be to see the dynamic between the four in between songs. The smiles, the jokes, the telepathic nods of a group whose bond would change the course of history. That would be well worth the jetlag of time travel.

Aretha Franklin – Fillmore West, 1971

The live album of this gig is simply one of the greatest of all time, and so the real-life show could well be one of the greatest also. Franklin’s voice is truly mesmerising as it ticks off a string of her greatest hits, while leading a frenzied live band behind her, who, despite the mania with which they play songs like ‘Respect’, are air-tight at every sonic turn. 

As if bulletproof renditions of her own songs weren’t enough, Franklin also reeled off a couple of Simon and Garfunkel and Beatles covers for good measure, to effortlessly prove that there is nothing she can’t do. There’s also a cameo from Ray Charles on the joyous, ‘Spirit in the Dark’, which adds an extra iconic artist to my time-travelling expedition.

James Brown – Zaire, 1974

There was no one like him in 1974, and there hasn’t been anyone like him since. He’s arguably the greatest performer of all time, influencing the likes of Iggy Pop and Mick Jagger after him. Because he simply left nothing out there come the end of the show. He felt every change of rhythm, every step up in tempo and every word sung, in turn granting the crowd permission to physically lose themselves also.

In this iconic performance, he walks on stage with outrageous swagger, de-robes in an instant and drops into the most insane dance routine of all time. All the while, he manages to hit every vocal note of ‘The Payback’ on time and give the crowd something concrete to sing along to. Behind him, though, is a band and more specifically a rhythm section, who never let their foot off the gas the entire time. There was barely a moment of silence in the show, and they kept things rolling with unrelenting force, matching the energy of their fearless leader. Together, it was a masterclass in immersive and unpredictable joy.