Africa Now!
It’s Friday. It’s been a long and annoying week at work, but I am happy. Last night’s Africa Now! gig was quite possibly one of the best I’ve ever been to, kicking all other contenders (oh, all right – that’s The Stone Roses, Franz Ferdinand, Steve Reich, The Go-Betweens and TISM) to touch.
It was just an amazing line-up, better than I ever anticipated when I first booked: Rachid Taha, Amadou & Mariam, Toumani Diabate, Baaba Maal, Daara J, Amy Sacko, Oumou Sangaré, Bassekou Kouyate, Souad Massi, oh and, Damon Albarn.
From the very minute the show started, on the dot at 7.30pm, to when I left four hours later, it was brilliant. Time stood still, yet flew. There was no dross, no boring new songs, just roof-shattering tunes, riffs and jams with oodles of spine-tingling moments.
I don’t know how many of you have experienced a typical gig in the Barbican Main Hall before, a sit-down venue which usually manages to sap the soul out of everyone but the London Symphony Orchestra, but it is testament to the evening that by 8.30pm most people were up dancing, giving standing ovations, screaming and whooping. This never happens at the Barbican.
I cannot possibly do justice to last night with mere words, nor even with any music I could bung up by the musicians involved. I just hope someone plans on releasing a live album of it.
Tags: music = opinions
October 25th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
I’m glad you had a good time. It sounds awesome. I don’t know much about African music. I’ve always liked what I’ve heard though. Hope you have a great weekend.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Thanks Keith. This gig almost made up for me never seeing Elvis, Led Zep or Frank – who truly would have been amazing!! Have a good weekend yourself.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Yes it was brilliant – I have several new CDs in my collection now……..btw, I approve of your taste in music. Steve Reich……….
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Hello Will and welcome. It was an amazing gig. Straight after, I rushed out and bought Bassekou Kouyate’s Segu Blue album – which I highly recommend if you don’t already have it.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I do have it – as I did exactly the same as you. And it is probably the best album I bought this year – did you get “Oumou” by Oumou Sangare? Becasue that (and inthe Heart of the Moon by Toumani Diabete) – actually there’s no space here to list them all :)
November 24th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I do indeed have ‘Oumou’. In fact, I bought it quite a few years ago and Oumou Sangare was the major reason I booked tickets for Africa Now in the first place. She has an amazing voice and I could not let the opportunity to see her pass by, particularly not her and Toumani Diabate on the same bill. As much as I love Amadou and Mariam and even Rachid Taha, they were just an added extra.
Did you see Rachid Taha by the way? I had to leave by the time he came on otherwise I would never have been able to get home. Very, very annoying.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
….afraid I didn’t for exactly the same reason as you. Still I think I must have paid about £6 an hour (so less than the minimum wage) for that gig, so can hardly complain.