The good, the exceptional and the downright disastrous: Couleur Cafe

Kooky and credible: the super-talented Janelle Monae

I take it all back. The indifference, the ambivalence, the dismissiveness. All hail Janelle Monae! This girl rocks! Not only does she rock, she does it gracefully, too: artistically, creatively, theatrically, dramatically. Having seen her bring the house down at this year's Couleur Cafe opening night, I'm now a believer, converted by an engaging, consummate performer delivering a stellar show, including her whole band. An hour long set that was a monochrome riot of energy and talent that was matchless on this particular night. I can't wait to see her again in a better setting i.e. where the sound mixers actually work.

Seun Kuti and Egypt 80: taking over from where Fela left off

Seun Kuti played on the same stage as Janelle Monae and gave a good performance. But something was missing. Can't  put my finger on it.  Nothing wrong with it but it didn't compare to his performance at Cargo some years ago, which came on the back of the release of his debut album, the politically potent Many Things. For one thing, he didn't make good use of the stage. You could barely see his dancers, who were hidden away at the back. But that wasn't it. Perhaps it was the lack of connection with the audience or jet-lag, who knows? The highlight of the set, though, was a rendition of a song called Rise, taken from his latest offering, the wonderfully-titled From Africa With Fury. Definitely one to download.

Purveyors of true hip-hop: I Am

The other day I told my multilingual colleague how lucky he was to be able to enjoy music from around the world whereas us monolingual English speakers are confined by laziness to consuming the commercialism that the industry inflicts upon us. What prompted this comment was the Couleur Cafe line-up. I knew a few of the artists but not nearly as many as the non-British seemed to know. And everybody else was raving about seeing one group in particular. Now I know why. I'd never heard of I Am until a few days before the festival and now I'll be joining the masses in singing their praises. I Am delivered a tight hip-hop set that combined a tight, lyrical flow over heavy street beats with consummate professionalism. These guys are veterans and ground breakers on the French rap scene and, though they've been around since the 1990's they haven't lost any of their fire. Unlike these two...

Legends dishing out old rope: Method Man and Redman

Method Man and Redman were supposed to be the highlight of our night. The 10.30pm billing was testament to that. But I'll leave it to my equally bemused friend to sum up their 'performance': 'This is like a parody of a hip-hop show. I've invested my life in this music and they're pissing on my memories.'

Nuff said!

Antwerpen Centraal Station: A magnificent destination

This is hilarious!

Lisboa (June 2011)

Lisboa (June 2011), a set on Flickr.

One Strong Belief

I believe that where there is no way, make your own. Too often, we are discouraged by what we perceive as lack of opportunity but opportunity exists wherever you create it. Sometimes the psychological barriers to success are as insurmountable, if not more so, than the physical ones. I believe what inspires me most in my thinking on this particular subject is the experience and example of my own parents. They arrived in the UK with not much to their name, but more than some, and built for themselves a life that benefitted not only themselves but their family and the community. They had aspirations that were modest but worked and pursued them as if they were big. And, in fact, for the time, for people of their background being first generation immigrants, they were pioneers in their own little way.

The will to succeed for myself and the world is inherent in me. It comes from always being conscious of my heritage. It comes from knowing that there were those before me who died for the opportunities that we waste today, failing even to recognise them as such because we have too much as a result of having done little. Thanks to our ancestors, whether they perished crossing the Middle Passage or in the trenches of the Somme or on the cotton fields of America, we live better than ever before. It’s time we recognise that and take up the revolutionary mantle.

Opportunity is where you take it or make it. This is my belief. So when one door closes, which it inevitably will, carve out a nook and keep on chipping away until there’s nothing left standing between you and the other side.  

Today

Today is better than yesterday but not as good as tomorrow.