All entries for Monday 26 February 2007

Femi Kuti's Concert @ Basingstoke

Over the weekend (24th, Jan) I went to The Anvil at Basingstoke with my missus to get a glimpse of Femi Kuti, Akli D & Ba Cissoko in their African Soul Rebels 2007 tour. I really went out to catch Femi's performance which I must say in all aspects was electrifyingly amusing and entertaining. He was the last performer and indeed the highlight of the evening. His style and sounds from the guitar really make me feel that this is Africa's version of rock 'n' roll - High Life music. 

I must say that | was little upset with the otherwise 'civilised' setting at the Anvil. It was a sit-down arrangement in an auditorium of about 3k people with 2 short 15 minute breaks for drinks.  This is a far cry from his performance at his base - “The New African Shrine” in Ikeja (in Lagos, Nigeria) where dancing, drinking and smoking are part of his show (the official website of the Africa Shrine can be found here but is under construction). 

If you don't know much about Femi Kuti, you could read an interview he had with Alex Hannahford from The Independent (UK).

Here are the images I uploaded on Flickr (thanks to Ryan Prins for the Flickr Slideshow html script):

: 26 Feb 2007 11:28 |  Tags: Afro-Beat Concerts Femi-Kuti Music New-Africa-Shrine |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem