All very John Peel
There was a benefit gig for Cambridge IndyMedia last night, where we made a million pounds, or something, so we should be able to buy some equipment, which will be very useful (although it would be more useful if there was more stuff going on to be independently reported). We also got to hear the cream of the Cambridge music scene (well, except for the Broken Family Band, who were originally lined up to play, but couldn’t make the date in the end). The first band on were Kassa, playing a marimba, some kind of gourd thing, four bongos; I’m sure you can imagine it. They were alright, I guess, although they only played two tunes. Next up was Dave Crowbar, who I vaguely know; in fact, I think I first met him while being pushed by a line of police at the DSEI arms fair. As you might guess from that, he’s an old-school political singer-songwriter (he performed in an orange boiler suit in solidarity with the Guantanamo detainees), but he’s pretty good.
The nominal top draw, I guess, was Um who is moderately big on the Cambridge scene. He sings along to crazy lo-fi sort of dancey backing tapes. It ends up sounding like Solex, played more obviously for laughs, and it’s pretty entertaining. However, not as entertaining as the headliners, Bandinistas. The started off by playing ‘Guantanamera’ on cornet and ukelele, and just got better and better. ‘Duelling Banjos’ played on the talking drum? A trumpet player in a fez? ‘Ode to joy’ with extra German shouting? All present and correct. As a band to bring on at the end of the night to get everyone dancing, they’re second only to Scottish soukous stars La Boum. Actually, Cafe Afrika generally reminds me of the Bongo Club (where I first encountered La Boum); and there can’t be much higher praise than that.
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