Their hits have filled dancefloors for over 40 years. As Kool & the Gang embark on another round of summer gigs, founder Robert ‘Kool’ Bell reveals the secrets of their success
It was after a gig in France a few years back that Robert “Kool” Bell found himself in receipt of an unlikely business proposition. “The promoter came to me and said: ‘Listen, your concerts are sold out – how would you like to sell bottles of champagne at your shows?’ I said: ‘Well, how many of my fans want a bottle of champagne after a concert? They want T-shirts and caps, that kind of thing,’” he shrugs. “Then he said that what he really wanted to do was get it on the shelves, like Dom Pérignon and Cristal. He wanted to take me to d’Epernay, to Rheims – the Champagne region. So I went over and we made Le Kool champagne. The name,” he adds, “has that French vibe to it.”
I didn’t imagine I would end up discussing Premier Crus, terroir and the ongoing plans to revise the boundaries of the Champagne region when I arrived at Bell’s hotel in Docklands, London. Still, there’s something telling about it: someone was prepared to market a Kool & the Gang-branded champagne 40 years after the band’s commercial peak, which says a lot about the deathlessness of their hits.