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Africa Exprez jammin'

Stars collaborate for Albarn's gig

07 March 2008 - A star studded line up including Franz Ferdinand, members of Gorillaz, Magic Numbers, Roots, Hard Fi, and the Reverend and the Makers all joined forces at the Olympia in Liverpool last night (Thursday 6 March) to recreate Damon Albarn's Africa Exprez.

Albarn's idea for the project grew out of years of visiting and making contacts with musicians from all over the African continent - many of whom were flown in especially for the gig.

The project involves British musicians collaborating on stage with African musicians for live spontaneous jam performances. It’s only the second time the event has taken place in the UK - the first was at Glastonbury last summer - and considering the line-up, this was an intimate gig performed in front of a lively 500 strong crowd.

Speaking to 6 Music during the performance, Damon Albarn hinted that the event was about changing people’s perceptions of live music and breaking down cultural barriers:

“Its something that has snowballed over the years,” He said.

“But tonight there are Muslim girls at the front with the headscarves on and that’s a new image for me at a gig. So I’ve learnt something already.

"I’ve learnt that to think girls with headscarves on don’t come to gigs with guitars is wrong. And that’s exactly the sort of thing we’re hoping to achieve.”

"Muslim girls at the front with the headscarves on"
Damon Albarn

Franz Ferdinand took time out of recording their third album in Glasgow to come to Liverpool for the day especially for the event. They played towards the end of the gig, which went on for over 5 hours.

Their set featured a version of Take Me Out with a guest performance from legendary African singer Baaba Maal and a new song from their forthcoming album which they told 6 Music might be called Can’t You Let Me Stay Tonight.

They claimed they had only finished writing it that same afternoon and that wasn’t the only thing about their performance that was last minute, as Kapranos explained to 6 Music just before the gig:

"This seems so different from anything we've done before, the opportunity to play in this way doesn't come along very often so we're playing a few songs - a couple of old ones and a couple of new ones.

"The stage is there and if people want to come and join in then they can. I don’t care whether it’s the Revered and the Makers or Tony Allen.”

More Collaborations

Other collaborations throughout the night included members of the Gorillaz including Damon Albarn for a rendition of Dare.

The Reverend and the Makers were joined on stage by a sitar player and a hip hop MC duo, Hard Fi duetted with Baaba Maal and the Magic Numbers teamed up with Leeds Beatbox king Shlomo.

Magic Numbers front man Romeo Stodart told 6 Music:

“The beauty of it is that you get up there and you don’t know what is going to happen. It’s great to do something different. You learn a lot because that’s how music evolves."

He also let slip just how informal the event was, admitting that most of the musicians didn’t seem to know what was happening before they got on stage:

“We were on the train with 100 different musicians today coming up from London,” he explained.

“Everyone was like ‘what are we going to do when we get there’. Then we arrived and we were like, ‘nice venue but what are we going to play.’ The atmosphere is like Festival Express. If this was a tour I’d be on it. I’d play tambourine!”

You can hear a full review of the Africa Exprez gig on The Music Weekon 9 March from 1pm.

Elizabeth Alker

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Comments so far

Alex
Good site, admin.

U-CEF, LONDON
GREAT REVIEW... AND THAT SHOULD SET NEW STANDARDS.

ray, Liverpool
This was a magnificent evening, but Hard-fi duetted with Rachid Taha, god of Rai, on a superb version of Killing an Arab and the magic numbers duetted with the equally great Mariam and Amadou.Have to agree with Tessa's comments re the basic duty of finding out who was playing. Thanks to everyone for turning up, that was an unforgettable event, the only gig in 30 years to make me write something

Huda, Liverpool
The evening was defiantly a night to remember. It was an absolute treat to be able to listen to the collaborations live and to become acquainted with different forms of music. Events such as this should be encouraged more , what better way to introduce to people different cultures than through music, especially now. It is important that every effort is made to create balance and harmony amongst ourselves and others. The problem today is our ignorance to other ways of living, when you don't know something you can never fully appreciate or understand it, this gave the opportunity to achieve just that. I was encouraged to attend with an assurance that this wasn't about publicity or making money, I respect what Albarn is aiming to achieve and came to support that, it was wonderful to watch him on stage enjoying every aspect of the show, then getting a mention just by being there as a Muslim, brilliant! :)

Steve, Liverpool
awesome gig, best I've ever been at. I have just been searching the reviews to pick up a few of the musicians names as there were so many and so much talent on show. I can not believe a review for a collective that was created in the light of live 8's snubbing of african artists can only refer to the British acts on show. I was linked to this article through the the world music section of the BBC web site!

Mike McG, Wirral
I was so looking forward to this - I'm a fan of lots of different African music & enjoyed Damon A's 'Mali Music' a few years back. I tried to get into this gig by dancing my socks off, but a few things meant that for me it wasn't the culture capital gig of the year it should've been.The volume was painful, coupled with appalling sound mixing/mic-ing, the subtlety of some players was lost, especially acoustic instruments. Some of the western bands seemed to make no effort to collaborate towards the mood & rhythms of Africa. Exciting & odd as it was to see Senegalese legend Baba Maal sing with Franz Ferdinand, he wasn't given any freedom to be himself.Good African blues, acoustic glimpses & funky dubby crossover were the few highlights amongst the overlong, dull rap posturing & mismatches of confident African musicianship & self-important amateurish Westerners. The loose, improv cool nature of the proceedings sounds great, but the reality was ramshackle. The atmosphere was good, with young fans of FranzFerdinand, etc nearing incontinence at the closeness & friendliness of their idols. Such a shame that it didn't live up to the promise.

John, Wakefield.
Was there last night and honestly it was one of the best gigs I've ever seen. I could not believe that 120 musicians, and famous ones at that, could come together, from around the world, to put this on for a small and appreciative crowd in Liverpool. Kudos to Damon & those involved in bringing this together. A rare treat, and one that will we will always be glad we witnessed. Thank you everyone that performed.

Tessa, London
Do African musicians have names? Or are they only 'An African singer and guitar duet' or 'African drummers'? Next time please take the time to find out who the African musicians are, not just the British acts. This article is insulting and does nothing to 'break down cultural barriers' as the project is supposed to be doing.

marcus in Horsham
I was at the Glasto Africa Exprez and the audience there couldn't have been much more than the Liverpool gig. It was on the new Park stage and it clashed wit all the big haeadliners so nobody bothered going. By the last 20 minutes there might just have been about a 1000 - I must have texted about 20 people to come - but that was only because Iggy had finally ended. Having said that, AE at Glasto was probably one of the best gigs I've been to in the last 30 years, crowd or no crowd.