Saturday, May 26, 2018

Transglobal Underground at Stamford Bridge

Transglobal Underground don't play much in the UK so I couldn't miss this gig. I've seen Dubulah's other bands- most of them- from The Simonics (a band made up entirely of Simons and Nicks, who recorded at Elephant Studios in Wapping where the engineers were called Simon and Nick), through the Red River Mountain Boys (an old timey band with stick-on moustaches), Temple of Sound (with Maori singers and dancers), and Dub Colossus (one time in Edinburgh with African musicians, another in Hackney with Mykaell Riley on vocals, a horn section, Winston Blissett and Dubulah both on bass and I can't remember what else, and another at Passing Clouds so late that I had to go home before they played), and of course the occasional gig with me (Lucie's Lounge). I've got at least two Temple of Sound albums, and the band Flavel Bambi Septet, made up of Tim Whelan, Hamid Mantu and God only know who else, came up to the Edinburgh fringe to be the house band for Dr Calamari's Music Hall of the Macabre, way back in the 1980, with Lester Square as the MC.
Too many names?
A bit Old Testament, I confess; maybe you have to be 'in the know', but you didn't need to be to appreciate the music at this gig, which was pure positive dancing energy all the way through. It was great to hear Natacha Atlas sing live, and hear Hamid play again; the percussionist Goldfinger was particularly bouncy, describing the music as 'multiclectic' and at one point, exasperated by the lack of bounce of some members of the audience, shouting 'I'm older than you!! Come on!!'
There, in the background was Dubulah, swopping between bass and guitar, quietly watching one of many teams of musicians he has created music with over the years. We are all survivors of what life throws at us, and we must celebrate the lives we live now: that's the message of this band, multicultural, positive and energising.
The show finished quite early, but early nights are the new late nights, I hear. It was nice to see Dave Jago in the crowd, up from Southend. We have a Helen and the Horns gig in Brighton in August. Yet more names: we all seem to have worked with at least one of us, at one time or another.
Or something.




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