Splendour In The Grass headliner Mark Ronson promises an Uptown Funk you’ll never forget

IT’S the standout hit single of 2015. And Mark Ronson says just wait until you see what what he does with Uptown Funk during his Australian gigs.

Mark Ronson, UK musician in Sydney to promote his music. Pictured at Four Seasons hotel Sydney. Picture Craig Greenhill

MARK Ronson could easily replace Kevin Bacon as the epicentre of the postmodern parlour game of six degrees of separation.

The British producer, songwriter, hitmaker and sartorially suave nice guy can be linked to hundreds of past pop icons, present chart-toppers and future stars.

Play the separation game with his monster hit Uptown Funk, which has sold at least 10 million copies.

2015 ANTHEM: How Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk got made

First up there is its vocalist Bruno Mars, who Ronson also worked with on his hits Locked Out Of Heaven, Moonshine and Gorilla.

A YouTube browse finds cover versions by Kelly Clarkson, Fifth Harmony and even Something For Kate with Tim Rogers.

But it was the performance at the famed Glastonbury festival last month which highlighted Ronson’s power to bring in the big guns.

There’s Grandmaster Flash on the decks, Mary J. Blige on vocals and George Clinton on shout-out vibes.

It was a megastar moment at a festival crammed with marquee names and high expectations.

Ronson said he was still buzzing days later, buoyed by the back slaps and congratulations for his set he received as he walked through Glastonbury’s mud-caked punters in the days after his set.

The ambitious guest list for the performance was inspired by a conversation he had with his neighbour, XL Recordings boss Richard Russell about what to do if Mars couldn’t make the gig.

Russell suggested Ronson trawl through the festival line-up.

“We picked our legendary dream team who would make the best Uptown Funk performance ever,” Ronson says.

He knew Grandmaster Flash from his New York DJ days when he would open for the fabled hip hop star and had worked with Blige.

“George Clinton was the only person I didn’t have a relationship with before; I cold-called him,” he says.

“I didn’t know he was even at Glastonbury when we went on stage, it was a little nit touch and go and then he just walked on stage right at the right moment. It was just magic.”

Joining him at Splendour In The Grass tomorrow — but probably not for Uptown Funk — will be his good mate and Uptown Special album collaborator Kevin Parker.

The Tame Impala frontman and English producer became friends on the Future Music Festival national run in 2011.

The pair have enjoyed sporadic studio jams since then and ended up working on three songs for Ronson’s record.

He has hinted there is likely to be a psychedelic style of project from the pair when they have a gap in their respectively hectic schedules.

“On our stage was us and Tame and MGMT and we all got this nice thing going on there every night so that’s how we became friends,” he says.

“Usually it’s easy with us, just me calling or emailing and asking if he can come over but I am sure s … is about to change because Tame will be on their world tour for the next year or two. It feels like it is going to explode for them.”

As it has for Ronson. There has been little time to celebrate his phenomenal breakthrough success with the single and the album.

Besides touring commitments, he has been a man in demand for his production magic. The Duran Duran fanboy helmed their new single Pressure Off, which also features Janelle Monae and Nile Rodgers.

He has a credit on the ASAP Rocky, Rod Stewart and Miguel track Everyday and Lana Del Rey album Honeymoon.

And he became an unofficial commentator for Amy, the documentary film about the life and death of his friend Amy Winehouse.

Before this interview, a rep for the usually candid Ronson politely requests there be no questions about Winehouse. You can’t blame the guy for feeling exhausted after months of discussing the tragic singer and songwriter he worked with and became close to during and after the recording of her Back To Black album.

And it would be tough being asked to speculate on what her future might have been even as his present finally reached a successful pinnacle after many years of hard work.

Ronson said the success of Uptown Funk and the Uptown Special record — which was dedicated to Winehouse — came when he felt no one was expecting him to make it.

“Maybe no one else was expecting me to make a really strong album but I hold myself to these slightly unrealistic goals or levels. As ridiculous as it might seem, my comparison in my head is Daft Punk and the other people making the best, biggest s…,” he says.

“And it’s the same with the show. I don’t think anyone was expecting us to have one of those great performances at the (Glastonbury) festival.

“There’s Pharrell and Kanye and Florence but when I am dreaming up what the show is, I am this perfectionist who wants it to be great.

“It is the most important thing to me because I don’t get to do it that much either. I want it to be memorable when I do it.”

So the big question is that in the absence of Bruno Mars or Mary J. Blige or Grandmaster Flash or George Clinton, how is Ronson going to make the performance of one of the biggest songs of 2015 something memorable at Splendour In The Grass?

When we spoke, he wasn’t sure yet. Or he’s keeping it a big surprise.

“The thing about Uptown Funk, that as a song it has reached the point you could literally play the backing track for four minutes and it would go off because that song belongs to the people now. I would rather play it with no vocalist and have everyone sing the lyrics,” he says.

“I have never had one of those records — maybe a little bit with Valerie — that as a DJ I could drop the fader and all the kids sing it back to you.

“But I can tell you, nobody is going to be disappointed with the way we play the song.”

SEE: Mark Ronson, Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay, tomorrow; Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, July 28 and Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, July 29.