(From a clipping so no article details as to magazine date, etc.)

RED HOT CHILI

PEPPERS Pride Park Stadium, Derby

It must be strange being a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers right now. After taking something like 20 years to become an overnight success, their wacky socks-on-cocks period is now well behind them, and they find themselves packing out venues on the biggest UK tour of this summer. But with some observers suggesting that their sprawling new album Stadium Arcadium has taken them even further down the REM route, are the Chili Peppers sacrificing credibility for massive global success?

Certainly tonight’s 26,000 crowd isn’t made up of your usual rock fans. One suspects that for many here, RHCP are the acceptable face of rock; the bit of rock it’s okay to like when they fancy something just a little more edgy than the usual dose of Rob Wlliams or Dido.

Of course, the Chili Peppers oblige the hi seekers and zip through muscular funk-rock workouts such as Give It Away and Can’t Stop. But all too often they slip-slide into instrumental workouts that cause of the crowd to wander; the 1o-minute jam’ that closes the show is self-indulgent. Yes, there, plentyof dancing, but there’s plenty of people in the crowd looking bored too.

It’ll take more than a few minor quibbles to halt the Chills’ juggernaut, however. Only the extremely churlish would seek to deny the band their moment in the sun.