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| Fela lives on |
Every year in October, Felabrations commemorate the memory of Fela Anikulapo Kuti for a whole week. This edition has been widely celebrated in several places in town. Obviously the biggest part of it was taking place at the New Afrika Shrine in Alausa. Freedom Park, in Lagos Island, has also had its fair share of Afrobeat celebration every night of the week. And for the VIPs, a function was organised at the Federal Palace hotel under a properly air-conditioned tent used for up-market weddings. Large VIP areas had been demarcated for the occasion, furnished with minimalist white sofas and a few fancy looking chairs and high tables towards the front of the stage. The line-up was great: Bez, Nnekka, Seun Kuti and Femi Kuti. One could have thought that it was worth going to only this event because of the great artist line-up and the fact that it was much more comfortable going there than all the way down to the New Africa Shrine which offers a somewhat rough environment and only white plastic chairs to seat on.
The evening was sponsored by Glenfiddish which was, so to speak, the only drink on offer besides water and Coca-cola. The stage had been elaborately decorated with a huge print of Fela's face as background.
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| Bez, the man with the red shoes |
As always, start-up time of 8PM meant that not much would happen before 9.30PM. It is when a musical on Fela (locally made) was interpreted on stage as warm-up. Bez was the first to come on stage, around 11PM, with a few songs and already a terrible sound.
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| Nneka after warm-up |
Nnekka started probably an hour later. She also had to suffer the same quality of sound. I had to struggle to feel the same emotions that I had listening to her on a couple of occasions prior to this one. She is usually quite temperamental about the sound but it seems she did not make a point of it this time round.
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| Seun Kuti: one print from head to toes |
It was obvious that Seun Kuti would not come on stage before 1AM as he is notorious for his late appearances at the New Afrika Shrine. He looked visibly pleased to play at home as he greeted the crowd with a smile. It was certainly something dear to him in the middle of his tours around the globe and a lot of time spent in the US. He started with a song from Fela as homage to his father and the following one was to pay his respect to the ancestors as a protest against monotheist religions who pretty much obliterated ancient beliefs in traditional gods. Seun was wearing clothes made of a single African print (a shirt, slim trousers faithfully espousing the shape of his muscles and assorted shoes). He played several of his own songs and encouraged people to come to the Shrine where he promised to offer his full show. His daughter was brought on stage to dance with her mother, who is one of the dancers (family tradition?). The young girl wasn't thoroughly enjoying the whole thing, judging by her repeated yawns. Her mother had to take her in her arms and dance with her. The sound is very bad, you should ask for a ticket refund from the organisers, Seun apologised, as he was leaving the stage.
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| Femi Kuti: the elder brother |
Femi Kuti, came last around 2.30AM, as the elder brother, and played his usual set until nearly 4AM. He had five dancers to accompany him besides the regular musicians and of course his inseparable Hammond B1 keyboard. His first piece had obviously the colour of Afrobeat and the same time the energy of dancefloor beats which entranced the audience. He was wearing a purple silk robe with green embroidery which looked somewhat asiatic.
It was a pity that the sound of the horn section was so poor, if you are a serious music lover you may, after all, want to make it all the way to the New Afrika Shrine!
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