We managed to break with tradition tonight and arrived at the venue with time to spare, so Gill and I had time to enjoy some decent food at the Everyman Bistro at the other end of Hope Street. Sauted potatoes with oyster mushrooms in garlic and parsley, fresh fruit salad and coffee in case you were wondering. The menu at the Everyman always has a good number of veggie meals on it, and there were several marked gluten free as well tonight. The food is always good and there is a well stocked bar if you fancy a drink - avoid the busiest times though, it can be too crowded for comfort.
Get on with the music! The lights went down on the auditorium with 2/3 of the seats filled and a band came on and played 3 or 4 songs before they even spoke - not a word of introduction for either the band or the songs, so what follows is partly deduction and partly guesswork! According to the RLPH website, the lineup was changed to include Natacha Atlas instead of Souad Massi but anybody who didn't look it up might never find out! So we assume it was Natacha Atlas and her band that sloped on and started playing - there was a bass player, a rock style drummer, an African drum player, a lad playing a bodrhan type drum, somebody's uncle playing synth and 2 female vocalists. The first song was vaguely reminiscent of Talking Heads' "Its all right" at times, featuring a regular western drum beat with the other 2 percussionists adding more eastern rhythms on top, while the synth player pressed every button he had on a fairly small keyboard to produce a vast array of instrumentation, strings, horns and so on. The second song might have been called "Anna" or "Only a matter of time" but short of trawling through her discography (its rather long, she is quite prolific), we may never know. There were some interesting rhythms behind this band, but they seemed out of kilter somewhere - Gill wondered if they had all had a row before they came on and the performance lacked any life - the sound was a bit muddy too. I'm no great fan of synthed instrumentation either, and we had plenty of that, often with instruments being switched on the fly which felt even more artificial.
Natacha - if was she, put in a couple of dances as things went on, and after a while they seemed to warm up a bit. The only song we recognised was a rather lacklustre version of "I put a spell on you" and it was only towards the end of their set when Ali put in an African drum solo that the audience really began to respond more than politely and things did improve.
When they left the stage and the lights came back up we were still none the wiser and to be honest I didn't feel like I wanted to find out any more either. Its a shame because I think on a good day the band would be really good.
A quick change on the stage (plenty of room on this stage which is usually home to an orchestra) and an icecream for us and on came Emmanuel Jal - a young man I have heard of and he made sure we knew what he was about: "I believe I survived for a reason, to tell my story, to touch lives" - Jal's band consisted of himself on vocals, a set of decks and associated dj, a female vocalist and an electric guitar player - and a laptop computer - and the sound coming through was energetic and fluid, the lyrics clear enough and the female vocalist's contributions were strong and confident. The guitarist seemed to be playing more than I could clearly make out, but what I could hear was great, a good backing track for the vocals and electronics coming from the decks. Again the songs where not really introduced, and may have melded into each other, the next vocal theme being "Love Revolution", then "Hiya" or "Howa" which was introduced with a strong story about a young man who was saved from suicide by a smile from a schoolmate. This song featured acoustic guitar and keyboards, a small child plucked from the audience to help with the dancing and by the end of this short set the whole audience was on its feet - the Philharmonic rocked! Band introductions informed us that the female vocalist was called "Araya" (I'm not sure of this name, but I'll try and find out and update this when I do), and that the guitarist (sorry, I missed his name) was really black despite his white skin!
No icecream in this break, but we were soon seated and ready for the main event - down went the house lights again, and running on came Amadou and Mariam's band running! It was as if they had picked up the energy from Emmanuel Jal and ran on with it, launching into their set at a higher level. I can hardly read my notes, such was the frenetic pace of the show, but I can tell you that it was wonderful, energising, exciting and hmmm, excellent!
For the fashion conscious, Amadou and Miriam were wearing matching powder blue suits and the ever present dark glasses, while the djembe player featured a fantastic black shirt with huge white polka dots, and sported a good set of dreadlocks!
There was a very energetic bass and acoustic guitar player - who threw himself around the stage and provided the rock and roll poses whilst playing some lovely deep rich bass parts.
Part way through the set Miriam went off and left Amadou to it, playing first a rocker with a fine guitar solo, then a slower number to acoustic guitar, before Miriam came back on and turned the wick up even higher - leading on to some marvelous percussion solos, a dj spot and so on and so on- we were too busy dancing to write much down, but my last entry says "Soul Fire" then "Just Marvelous!"
For the encore there was a party with everybody on stage - including Emmanuel Jal and his band, then we all went home with big smiles on our faces.
Sorry there isn't much detail here - I would just say that if you get the chance, go and see them - if you don't, buy the CD!
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