I was a member of the choir! It was literally the coolest thing I have ever done in my life! Thanks Southbank for putting it up. Great memento to have!

@johnmcevoy8784

7 жыл бұрын

Thats a dream come true :) Nice one.

@kahadangtang1303

7 жыл бұрын

Holly Brain

@kahadangtang1303

7 жыл бұрын

Holly Brain wq

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

I was the big guy, who front-lined the choir, front and centre. We got to do the blow-off, the emotional false high followed by the real high just before the end, and the encore! Most people were up and dancing already, but by the time we were done with them, everyone was, including most of VoiceLab (the Choir)! I'm also a Reiki practitioner, and I just opened the taps to get the feelgood, we knocked the socks off the rehearsals as a result. When you get to their hearts, they stay hooked high for good, there is no going back, they are out of the 'hood. It is down down down down roots. The lesson is to do more of the same. Reach out and bring them in.

@bsadewitz

5 жыл бұрын

I simply stumped upon William Onyeabor via a KZread suggestion. I've been listening to Nigerian Music for years (after I'd lived with an Igbo housemate) and somehow I missed this. "What? Who is this William Onyeabor? What is this sound? How was I not aware of this? How is this even possible?" Better late to the party than never. You guys gave this music the performance it demands. Thank you so much.

How on earth did I miss this? This would be one of the top gigs I wish I was at .

@devonstart2758

2 жыл бұрын

yeah man

@Trixie_Django

11 ай бұрын

Same and I'm a year behind ya. ;)

I ‘have been at this only concert in Italy some years ago ! a true discovery, fantastic group

Wow. Just Wow. Great show. Every part of the William Onyeabor renaissance story is nothing but a labor of love. Thanks to everyone that played a role in bringing this to the world. The best part is that the man himself, the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma (as Churchill described Russia) was alive to, if not see, hear about the reawakening of the music we knew 40 years ago was futuristic and a cut above the rest. He was a mystery back in the late 70s and early 80s. While we never could figure out how this guy acquired state of the art gear that big established recording companies could only dream of (cost of one of those moog synthesizers could feed a village back in them days), we were forever in awe of the album liner notes that said "All instruments played by William Onyeabor". He really did it his way, from soup to nuts. Rest in peace great one. Thank you Luaka Bop, Uchenna Ikonne, Atomic Bomb band and the other good folks that embarked on this journey and seeing it through.

Wow! How did I not know about this? The concert was amazing. Thanks for honoring a great musician. I loved his music in the 70s.

@Trixie_Django

11 ай бұрын

He's still going strong to this day. One of the living legends for sure.

Rest In Peace Fantastic Man

@FinnBaygan

7 жыл бұрын

hes still alive

@johns.7609

7 жыл бұрын

I doubt you're speaking of the same person.

@drumstick74

7 жыл бұрын

+Isä Ankka Byrne, yes, but William Onyeabor unfortunately died in 2017. I just found out myself.

Still to this day probably the best gig I've been to. Would love to see the Atomic Bomb band back together one day. David Byrne and the choir were what left me starstruck as a teenager, but I think that perfect version of Heaven & Hell is what's stayed with me down the years. Moses' voice is gorgeous.

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

Nice to know! What was it like in the audience? Objectively, from the start. You find your way across from a station, and there's this institutional monolith in front of you. Stale coffee and overpriced sarnies. So you dump luggage, have your tickets checked, settle in to a seat in an orange-lit hall. The lights go down - and?

I hadn’t even heard of William Onyeabor until he showed up on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist yesterday and I went, whoah what is this? Searched him, listened and a day later I’m watching and listening to this magnificent concert! I’m in awe.

Best concert I saw all year. So great to be able to see it again.

I saw this band in Roskilde -14 in the middle of the night. Daon Albarn sang fantastic man....great party

"Music ain't got no color" said a good friend of my dad's once :-) that's clearly on display here: so much great spirit, throughout

David Byrne enters stage at 41:54, if you were wondering where he's at... ;-)

@ingloriousbasterd3067

6 жыл бұрын

Yes I was,thanks,exactly what I was looking for when I checked out the comments.Like you knew I would be wondering...smart:)

@bernlin2000

5 жыл бұрын

Ty for letting me know when the meltdown begins 💗💗💗

Simplemente impresionante, Mr. Byrne & Atomic Bomb, los escuchamos!

Loving this it’s what we need in lockdown. ❤️

Dave is pure joy...truly THE electric Jesus!:)

God damn I missed out on this one...spectacular...envious of those who were there.

Brilliant, a very fine tribute , well done to all involved in this very fine performance'.

What a gem of a masterpiece!

I hope William Onyeabor’s estate is collecting royalties.

Thank you for sharing, love from the Malabar Coast.

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

Love back from the Choir, can you take it on?

i love this so much

Atomic Concert! You Dudes know how to make my funky ass shaking.

What uplifting music.

this absolutely effin fantastic. You guys nailed it. AND yall got the FIRE in your feet. wish i could've been there

@Trixie_Django

11 ай бұрын

True story!

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

Pure impro, last minute offstage, as the sheer quality of performers we were backing, in the choir, meant our entry had to be appropriate and maintain the vibe!

Every. Single. Time. Love it.

Mr.Onyeabor war der Nigerianische J.Zawinul.Soundtechnisch!

What a great party!!!.

Great music & good luck.

I remember seeing this at Latitude festival and having the biggest boogie!

oh das geht von der ersten sekunde voll ab,stark

"Fantastic Man" is aptly titled!! Great energy

megaparty schon unter den musiker,voll geil

You look so good fantastic man!

I really enjoyed this - energy & musicality is great - a little monotonous on rhythms but more than worth viewing! I'd like to purchase this on DVD - maybe even DTS Sound?

Duuude. this is very cool.

muito foda!!!

talk about some powerful energy

32:24 Token white guy shirt! 😆👏

The best. We lost a very fantastic man.

@JoseGranny

5 жыл бұрын

Who?

serait´ il possible de faire un tour ds toute l´Afrique pour permettre aux Africains de Savourer et Apprecier le Talent de William Onyebor

Demais

Please go on tour

saw them at womad and the greenman, among the hgighlights

Saw this show the same week at Green Man Festival. Blew my mind! Big fan of Ahmed Gallab's work in Sinkane, but this live show was just something else.

@marialedacfandrade6631

Жыл бұрын

Who sings "Heaven and Hell"?

@liamevans4124

Жыл бұрын

@@marialedacfandrade6631 I want to say it's Jamie Landell. Might be wrong.

@marialedacfandrade6631

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! Liam Evans! He's great, what a voice!

@marialedacfandrade6631

Жыл бұрын

@@liamevans4124 I found Hes Moses Sumney.

This would have been so much better in a dirty, sweaty disco like it was intended to be.

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

That was the real success, getting the audience' bums out of the seats. Compare the start of the gig with the end!

This needs to tour.

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

It did - the band took it to a few places, with different local configurations in support. I'm just happy to have been a very small part of it.

@southbank - can you repost this on Twitter for the Lockdown? More people need to see it! It will spread the absolute joy of this concert (can't believe it was 5 years' ago!)

bomb!

Oh Snap....

👋

Did someone fall over the drum kit in the dark at the start? Such a lovely sax intro interrupted??

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

No, they kicked the stairs. You come on at floor level and do a sharp turn, because the stage is movable, and is about five feet above floor level. With only one spot and black stairs, it happens.

30:12 Great track well my favourite anyway

That's different :)

Should really watch the whole thing, but David Byrne appears to start at 41:44

50:40

I need this on my iPod!

@ryandhough

8 жыл бұрын

Yeah! An audio only version of this would be great.

@njdave2007

7 жыл бұрын

Easy enough to rip and track.. I just did it myself.. :-)

No wonder this is one of Damon Albarn's major influence.

@jessica5497

3 жыл бұрын

Wow really? That's awasome. I love Damon and Byrne... Now i have new music to check It out

The synths should be a lot louder!

He's such a fascinating man.

great stuff but strange mix with that drums almost completely in the left channel

@robertsyrett1992

7 жыл бұрын

Well the drums are on the left side of the stage ;^)

@KarlGeorges

7 жыл бұрын

Robert Syrett haha, makes sense

@beachware5372

3 жыл бұрын

i totally agree

зульт!

I didn't know David byrne could play the sax!

@BIGeSTRING

Жыл бұрын

He's a real multi-instrumentalist. he plays many more intruments

@MauriceMossisitnot

5 ай бұрын

When did you see him play sax here?

@MauriceMossisitnot

5 ай бұрын

@@BIGeSTRING When did you see him play sax here?

@BIGeSTRING

5 ай бұрын

@@MauriceMossisitnot i didn't see him play the sax but I have read that he can play many instruments. I don't know if you'll be satisfied with that because I believe you really want proof, don't you?

@MauriceMossisitnot

5 ай бұрын

@RING Yes I've heard of that. I just wanted to know where I could see him playing the sax because that would be cool and I've never seen him do it before. No need to get a wee bit snarky about it, I was simply asking a question. Nonetheless this concert was very enjoyable.

Who's the girl on the drums?

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

Sarah Jones (Hot Chip and heaven only knows how much else)

Is that Zoey Deschanel playing the drums?

@lancebrown8441

5 жыл бұрын

Meg White from White Stripes?

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

@@lancebrown8441 Sarah Jones, now backing Harry Styles. I'm about ten feet behind her!

1:12:45 It's Auntie Maxine Waters!!!

Who's singing atomic bomb?

@PlatinumJestar

4 жыл бұрын

Alexis Taylor from the band Hot Chip who are also worth looking up.

In the description: "Onyeabor has been likened to a prototype LCD Soundsystem, or the Kraftwerk of West Africa." Why not the FUCKIN WILLIAM ONYEABOR OF WEST AFRICA?! People need to quit comparing musicians from the developing world to those from, say, Europe or NA. Just my opinion though.

@Freak1Jesus

7 жыл бұрын

I have no problem comparing artists. People who doesn't know who William Onyeabor is might get interested and start listening to him if he is compared to more relatable artists that they like. Same goes for new artists from Europe and NA aswell.

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

Fair enough. However, if you look at where he took trad hilife, he DID blend some of the Western synth techniques of groups like Kraftwerk and Focus with it, and I was an extra link myself: when I was at college at Loughborough in the mid 70s, I was lucky enough to join the University Radio Station at the exact moment when Mike Smith, the Program Controller, launched Kraftwerk: Radio 1 picked them up from him. I took over the job from him, so I'm very much part of that heritage, which was partly driven by the presence of Nick Phillips as Professor of Laser Studies on campus: he designed all the early laser light shows, and so we did the gigs, I (purely notionallly!) was actually Stage Manager for Queen playing for 500 students the week Bohemian Rhapsody hit. 500 in the hall, and 10000 outside - how we got the lads away is my secret. I actually stood back and watched and learned while their team did it, and that and my background knowing something of where they were coming from is how I got to frontline the Choir in this gig (I was just behind Sara on the drums, and we had a little competition going to see if she could drown me, so I surfed her drums as I'm also a drummer too. I'd learned stagecraft from some of the masters, ELO, Mud, too, and my drum mentors were Reuben Blades and Steophan Hannigan... So yes, I did know hilife before it started to drive rap, when it was as likely to be accompanied by thumb pianos and was still very much "roots" in the way you'd like, a purely local tradition., and that is why he has ben "likened to ..." because that is where some of what he added to the trad did indeed come from, much reworked. It's a perfectly fair comparison, and doesn't diminish him in the least: it's not what you did, or where you come from which matters, it's what you're doing now, in the present, and what we did then took William's work further still. I'll probably put this on loop tomorrow, the anniversary of his passing.

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

You'll also find a link to Alexis' Taylor's explanation of the connection to LCD Soundsystem further down the page.

alexis taylor doesnt do smooth and good justice.

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

Live gig, it was about 90 in there. I defy you to sing for an hour and a half in those conditions!

@bugpwdrdust

11 ай бұрын

@@JelMain not saying he's a bad singer, he's just too white

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

@@bugpwdrdust Welcome to World Music. When I last checked, the UK wasn't in outer space. William took ideas from 1973-4 UK, Kraftwerk for sure, and did the same in an African culture Mike Oldfield had done in an English. We had a new instrument to play with, W. Carlos and Isao Tomita had given classical a shake-up, at exactly the same time HIP was rocking the Early Music scene. It's not done yet. The core African is secure, so we can play with it. To quote Sarha Moore's blurb for her City Lit course, "There is a musical narrative that begins in Africa, travels to the Caribbean and South America, then back to Africa, carrying musical styles and rhythmic patterns." And that's just within the ethnic style: I've pointed out how the same works in North America too.

@bugpwdrdust

11 ай бұрын

@@JelMain sir, this is a KZread comment section

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

@@bugpwdrdust And I, sir, am not a numptie

why in groups with 2 drummers they do the same thing without interest, while there will be so much to dig to the level polyrythmie... Please dare you who are great artists

@mrpollo3470

4 жыл бұрын

Sometimes it sounds like they're doing the same thing, but they aren't. Most drum set rhythms are by their nature polyrhythmic, so sometimes it's hard to realize that the two drummers are actually playing separate rhythms that come together. I haven't actually gotten to the drums in this video yet, so I might come back and agree with you. But my guess is that they are, and that it's just not easy to hear.

@mrpollo3470

4 жыл бұрын

In the first song, the drummers are playing two very different beats, but their bass drum hits are in synch. One is lose on the ride, the other is doing 16th notes on the hi-hat. It sounds like one rhythm, but that's the goal of lots of polyrhythms. It doesn't have to be obvious. In the second song they're basically playing the same beat, with differences in how they hit the hats, and what they do as fills--one is playing an open hi hat every two measures, the other is doing something on the floor tom that you can't hear because it's not mic'ed correctly. But it still gives a way richer sound than one drummer would. I think there should be 4 or 5 of everything, myself!

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

@@mrpollo3470 Add in Atomic Bomb's, a talking drum, our feet...

worst copy ever! learn to write about music history instead of just some name-dropping mainstream bullshit. "prototype LCD Soundsystem" seriously?? they are not even relatable. William Onyeabar and his synth playing are hidden gems known and beloved by djs and the underground for years. That's great the world is appreciating it now, but write about it with some accurate historical context. William Oneyeabar is a kin to Fela Kuti, Herbie Hancock, Sun Ra, Curtis Mayfield, Electric Lucifer by Bruce Haack.

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

The guff was from the pre-performance blurb, when nobody knew who'd be able to make it - some of the gang where straight off taxis from Heathrow, it was that tight. Speaking personally, I was part of the team at Loughborough which launched Kraftwerk to Radio One, and I was in the Choir, frontlining because I knew HighLife from the 1950s, so there is connectivity. - and that's just a small bit I can talk of because it's mine. Many many other performers have much greater links. You miss the entire message of the end, so listen again, and again, and again. That way you might begin to understand, this isn't about the history, it's about where it goes next.

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

Perhaps you'll allow Alexis Taylor to explain: www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/19/hot-chip-alexis-taylor-william-onyeabor . So yes, seriously.

@franky9fingers

5 жыл бұрын

Why so angry?

Amadou played a killer solo and we didn't listen anything.

They should have had electronic drums. these are so loud in the mix and have no character.

I adore Onyeabor's work, and yet much of this, especially the rendition of Atomic Bomb, is uninspired. The vocalists lack the swagger and wit of Onyeabor, the band lacks punch, and it sounds like it was all purposely toned down for adult contemporary radio. In the end this sounds like a mediocre cover band you'd see at some vacation resort night club, and not an homage to the wonderful musician who was William Onyeabor.

@JelMain

11 ай бұрын

In some ways, that's Southbank's admin for you. Their usual Summer Meltdown series is curated by a star performer, and this was just the umpteenth of the same to them. The choir was more at home with Beethoven 9 or one of the other warhorses, I was very much on the experimental edge, doing a shanty for the London Literary Festival's continuous reading of Moby Dick, for example, about a decade back. The family's RN, so I'd been with a crew in the EFDSS choir. Anyway, the Curator, David, gets to do his own gig as thanks, and that's about as much as we knew in the Choir. To turn up and find the quality of the band was a shock, and switched me into my old Producer mode, adding the shuffle dance at the last moment.

Who gave the Alexis Taylor a mike when he can't sing... Clearly out of his depth vocally... But he wasn't the only one... IMO lame vocals from most of the singers made this a pretty lame performance which is a shame cos all the instrumentalists nailed it!

@JelMain

6 жыл бұрын

It was too difficult to get everyone together to rehearse, the core band had been travelling for some time, but the guests and choir only came together on the night. But that's the essence of HighLife, it's not over-rehearsed, it was a form of folk and still keeps that spontaneity, so it's a performance and not a recording played live.

i'm sorry but this is a full-on abomination.

@TunnelJumper

Жыл бұрын

William Onyeabor is dancing in his grave😈