Just before the fall of last tattered piece of the purple poster signalling the Grahamstown tour by the English dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.
LKJ concert poster
As sights, sounds and flavour brought by this odd concert by the well travelled poet dwindle into the world of forgotten.
LKJ and Dennis Bovell Band in Grahamstown
I feel the need to add one more line to this story already told to highlight a crucial role played by local bands and the audiences in this concert.
I could not believe my eyes as I saw Grahamstown listed amongst metropolitan venues like Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
In these tough times of global recession, job losses and high rate of unemployment, the promoters showed their confidence in Grahamstown as a cultural destination and the locals never failed them.
LKJ fan
Locals defied chilly early winter weather and light rain to embrace this occasion. It is not every day that you get big names like LKJ in the local shores and they took him seriously.
Junior the MC and Ras Mau
Local bands and artists took this opportunity to curtain raise for almost four and a half hours with nonstop performance by the popular local group Nia, with original band members (Injairu Kulunda, Sebastian Jameson, Katlego Gabashane, Lawrence Sisitka, Elijah Madiba, Zenzo Simbao and Hilton Burerwe).
Vibrafarians trio held on the riddim
The trio of the Vibrafarians with only two guitarists and a drummer held the ‘riddim’ to a halt mixing reggae dub with isiXhosa verses.
Nia and X Nasty on stage
Xolile Madinda (aka X Nasty) gave the isiXhosa language more prominence on the stage through rap collaboration with Nia and Siya’s band.
Lucy Kruger proved her talent and skills on the guitar and vocals.
A surprise came when a new local reggae band, Psalm 87 lit up the dance floor. Led by with Siya “Lava” Masinda and “Junior” Mahluli, two local Rasta brethrens scorched up the scene with a ragamuffin flavour.
Accompanied by a full local band with three brass players, a drummer and percussionist, lead, bass and backing vocals they gave a taste of their potential.
Lava and Psaml 87
As for LKJ, he disappointingly cut an aloof gentleman’s figure a distance away from the local audiences, off and on stage. He really had nothing to say to the people.
A simple stage interaction like, “how are you feeling” was missing throughout LKJ’s performance. This was a bit unsettling as some of us were hoping to interact with the man of higher social standing, share a word or two or get some words of encouragement or message to the people. LKJ had no time for something like that at all.
LKJ on stage
He had his story to tell as simple as,
“Hi everyone, I am LKJ from London and this is what I have been doing to fight racism and police brutality in my time.”
Save for his solitary and odd utterance in the middle of one of his songs which was rather abrupt and shocking to some members of the audience.
“Stop, switch off that light, you are disturbing me”, said Mr. Johnson to a camera person in the audience.
LKJ was disappointing but I got the value for my money from the local bands, his band and its leader Dennis Bovell. The local media chose to concentrate all their coverage solely to LKJ, much to the disadvantage of the local bands who performed so splendidly, excluding their names as if they were not there.
Grocotts’ Mail, Herald and Daily Dispatch reports failed the local bands and audiences who dug deep (R200 a ticket) into their pockets, braced the chilly evening, to dance the night away with LKJ.
For more photographs of locals at this concert visit my http://www.flickr.com/photos/30767225@N06/
