American musician, producer and guitarist Nile Rodgers treated commuters at London’s South Bank to an impromptu live performance early this morning to celebrate the new Sky Arts – earning the princely sum of £12.30 in the process.  

Nile, disguised as an ordinary busker, pitched up to perform whilst commuters hurried through the morning rush hour, completely unaware that they were in the presence of a music legend. Until, of course, he removed the disguise and belted out the hits that invented disco - ‘Le Freak’, and ‘Good Times’. In complete contrast to playing in front of over 60,000 people at the British Summer Time festival at the weekend, where tickets to see Nile perform were up to £320, London commuters were treated to a completely free performance.

Nile performed his impromptu gig to mark the relaunch of Sky Arts as a single superchannel, alongside Sky Arts On Demand, which contains over 1,000 hours of arts programming. One of the key shows in the new Sky Arts line-up is Guitar Star, a nationwide search to find extraordinary guitar talent of all ages and styles. Running for nine weeks, the winner of the show will perform in front of 30,000 people on the main stage at the Latitude Festival in Henham Park, Suffolk. 

Philip Edgar Jones, Director of Sky Arts said, “We’re convinced that Sky Arts offers something for everyone, and we have tried our best with the relaunch to bring people closer to the stuff they love. We’re delighted to bring that ethos to life with this impromptu performance: Nile is one of music’s living legends and we’re thrilled that he’s helped capture the spirit of Sky Arts in such a fun and entertaining way.  .”

For further information, please contact:

Manisha Ferdinand

Head of PR, Sky Arts

07824 433 269

For images, please go to Imagenet or email Stills@sky.uk

About Sky

Sky is Europe's leading entertainment company. The group serves 21 million customers across five countries: Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK and Ireland. We offer the best and broadest range of content, deliver market-leading customer service and use innovative new technology to give customers a better TV experience, whenever and wherever they choose.

Sky has annual revenues of over £11 billion and is Europe's leading investor in television content with a combined programming budget of over £4.6 billion. The company employs 31,000 people and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SKY). For more information visit www.sky.com/corporate