Africa Vive III - by Theo Berry

I tried pleading tiredness first, then tried selflessness, then appeals to logic, then dangling carrots, but nothing worked. Try as I might I couldn't persuade Kate to leave me in charge of Rosie and go to Africa Vive. So I had to go. Life is hard sometimes....

Now in its third year the Africa Vive concert is the culmination of two months worth of events aiming (or so it seems to me) to present a more positive view of Africa. You know, to show that the continent isn't just about corruption, famine and war, but is also able to create great art, literature and music, and thus joy and life.

My old University flatmate Harry is currently visiting (Friday to Monday) and so after dinner we headed up to the University on the metro, arriving late - the event started at 7pm, we got there about 9pm. Being in Spain for over 2 years has obviously taken its toll on my time-keeping! We immediately met up with Aboubacar - a Senegalese friend Kate and I made at Spanish class - and then were joined by Ayesha and Onno.

Ayesha, who lives in London, and Onno, who lives in Amsterdam, had been in Madrid since Wednesday, and we had already seen them for lunch on Thursday and dinner on Friday, but amazingly they weren't yet bored of our company so still decided to come along! The event was, after all, free and we're all music fans (we first met Ayesha at the legendary Rocket Festival).

We made a happy and enthusiastic group dancing away to firstly Takeifa, from Senegal, playing some lively Afro-pop with some very hooky beats. Following them came Babeloued Sound, an awesome Ska band that was pretty much like every other Ska band, except better and louder and with rap in Arabic and French (they were really more French than African - a couple of the 9 piece came from Morocco). Finally, Femi Kuti (son of Fela) blazed on, surrounded by colour and noise, acting like a coke-head in hurricane, all non-stop motion and hubristic hand waving. We left about half-way through his set, keen to make the last metro and avoid the rush. Femi was good, but not that good. However, although his messianic posturings were got tiring quickly, he was a great ambassador for the exuberance and joy that Africans are capable of and, as such, was probably the ideal ambassador for another excellent edition of Africa Vive.

Yann Tiersen by Theo

One of the great things about our jobs is that we finish work at 9pm, whereas at my old job I finished at 10pm thus ruling out midweek musical fun. Even so, we still had to jump in a taxi to make it across town in time to catch Yann Tiersen at the Riveria, arriving too late for Matt Elliot's support slot. Never mind, as he was on stage playing with Yann anyway, along with two chums of ours from Bristol: Robin Allender and Dave Collingwood (formerly of Gravenhurst). It's a small world! Familiar as we are with seeing them play in front of 200 or 300 people (at most) it was a bit strange having them appear as blobs on the stage in front of a sold out crowd numbering well into the thousands as part of tour that has already taken in Beiruit, Athens and Barcelona.
Yann Tiersen is probably best known for his soundtrack to the hit film Amelie, but anyone turning up hoping to hear folksy, accordion led instrumentals would have been bitterly disappointed (especially as tickets were €22!) Instead their largely instrumental set was more post-rock than anything else, though pigeon-holing their sound really does it an injustice as there was way more to it than that. A solo violin piece from Yann was particularly captivating as well as some of the slow-build choral numbers involving the whole band on vocals. As the set consisted of unfamiliar tracks to us, we weren't quite as into it as some of the more enthusiastic members of the crowd but it was really enjoyable and never dull.

Despite the best efforts of the ruthlessly efficient security guards who were trying to herd everyone out as quickly as possibly we managed to get Dave's attention and Robin came out to rustle us back stage. They'd had a hell of a day, with their bus breaking down in Barcelona and having to catch last minute flights, but it was great to see them both. We spent an hour or so backstage, managed a few rusty French phrases, bewitched them with Kate's bump before we all piled in taxis to head our separate ways. The next day they were due to head off to Santiago and then back to France, whistle-stop visits seeing the insides of hotels, service stations and gig venues. It used to be my life. While I had a little twinge of nostalgia last night, I don't miss it!