Nite of live beats

BY CHUKS NWANNE
ANYONE, who attended the yearly Nigeria-Britain Music Concert, held recently at The Vault, Victoria Island, Lagos, would surely agree that the show was a classic. Aside the quality of guests at the event including the former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and a host of others, the concert could pass for a standard for staging music shows in the country. Well, with the British Council, MTN, Nigeria Breweries among others as sponsors, the concert could have been less in quality.
With the stage jam-packed with all sorts of musical instruments ranging from guitars, keyboards, saxophone, conga, drum set… and multiple microphones, it was obvious that we were in for a live concert. Just as predicted, the artistes performed all their songs live, with the stand-by band providing instrumental backup; there was no room for ‘DJ please, play me track 1.” It was a night of live music at its best.
Anchored by comedian Omobaba, who spiced up the night with jokes, the stage came alive with HST, a group of three guys with the dream of making good music. The FESTAC brought-ups raised the roof with their energetic performance before giving way to Dekunle Fuji.
Dressed in a branded T-shirt, Dekunle, a gospel fuji artiste, who derived his stage name from his penchance for fuji music, initially struggled to lift the audience with first song; it seemed that didn’t work. At that point, the Theatre arts graduate of the University of Lagos turned to his popular track, which got the audience singing, ‘mo love Jesu gan, mo gbadu Jesu gan,’ as they dig it in juji style.
Singer, Nomoreloss made his presence on stage with Ololufe, a song that actually brought down the already heated atmosphere. For sure, a good number of the guests, especially the ladies, got hooked by the track. The concert took a twist with the introduction of the band by Nomoreloss, with each of the members free styling with on their instrument. He wrapped up his performance with his own version of Olando Owoh’s composition, Iyawo Asiko.
Ego crooner, Djinee mounted the stage in style, but not at his best in terms of vocal. “I’m sorry my voice is going; I’ve been performing for the past weeks,” he said in defense. Well, the former Soundcity presenter managed to do justice to his songs on stage. Truly, the voice was missing, but Djinee’s stagecraft was intact. He opened with My Pillow, before doing I No Dey Shame, a track that nearly took him off key; but Djinee was able to pull it all through.
Gospel singer, Tosin Martins was next after Djinee. The lawyer turned singer started out on a promising note, but his act suffered halfway; there was power failure; Tosin tactically disappeared from the stage. Funny enough, what one expected to be the low point of the night, turned out to be one of the highpoints of the concert.
While the technical men were struggling to restore power, the band kept the stage alive; except for the keyboardists, guitarists and the backup singer, who remained on stage though, providing moral support for the percussionists. Talking drummer was on heat in action. Then the saxophonists took over, blowing popular tunes that saw the audience singing along, while the drummer was busy rolling the drums steadily. In between, power was restored. At that point, Tosin reappeared on stage to wrap up his performance with his popular track, Olomi.
Abuja-based pop music group, Style-plus was the top of the bill for the night. The group of three opened with Runaway, one of the songs from their debut album; the track actually took many down memory lane, when Style-Plus used to be the rave of the moment. These days, you hardly see them gig major concerts, especially in Lagos. Olufunmi was next, followed by Table for Two, a song from their second album.