It could not have been better — two hours plus of professional non-stop command performance atop a pool stage in the cosy atmosphere of Tribecca; an A-list club located in Victoria Island Lagos. Two-time Grammy nominee Femi Kuti and his band; the Positive Force, thrilled a select assembly of guests last Friday into Saturday morning, strutting the stuff that earned him Grammy nominations and has kept him as the only eligible Afrobeat king after his father’s demise.
The get together was coming thirteen days after the ‘King’ lost out in the Best Contemporary World Music category to Bela Flec at the 2010 edition of the Grammys which held at Staples Centre, Los Angeles. Femi together with his band reeled out hit after hit causing a reminiscence of yester-years teaching the new generation artistes present, the art of stage performance and musicianship.
Guests in attendance at the N10,000 per seat show included Nollywood’s Dakore Egbuson and hubby; Lanre Akande, D’banj, Ikechukwu Asa, Sunday Are and Banky W, who left quite early. Perhaps the happiest attendee at the show was elder sister Yeni Kuti, who raced up and down many times across the pool side in theatrical gestures causing laughter.
As radical yet comical as ever, Femi mounted the stage at exactly 12a.m after his band had warmed up the audience. Using anecdotes on some occasions, he introduced each song stating the year they were first performed or released and the political situations surrounding them.
He didn’t fail to take a swipe at ex-president Obasanjo saying ‘Obasanjo said he didn’t know Yar Adua was sick (scoffs and laughs)’ while punctuating each remark with his traditional shrine slang ‘A ra ra ra ra’ to which the crowd and his band responded ‘O ro ro ro ro’.
Songs like ‘Wonder wonder’, ‘Day by day’, ‘Sorry sorry’ and the NBC banned ‘Bang Bang’ were toasts of the morning. Femi implored guests to patronise the Afrika shrine – where he’s on stage every weekends- for a token of N500 per guest.
It was a morning and money well spent as each guest walked away with a copy of the Grammy rated CD titled ‘Lets Make History’.
Source: Vanguard Nigeria
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