AFRICAN SOUL REBELS - POOLE LIGHTHOUSE REVIEWED | FLY

Tinariwen kicked off with their guitar oriented desert blues. It's a scary sight of four of the seven musicians on stage with guitars in hand for the first number. But they settle down to just the three for the rest of the set. With the band dressed in traditional costumes, the headdresses come in handy for the drummer and bassist to mask their faces as they were closest to the imitation smoke machine.

Mid-way through, Adallah Ag Alhousseini says 'Welcome to the desert' as if they bring the desert with them to the South coast. Tinariwen have starred at the Festival in the Desert and are 'THE' African sound of the year (being BBC Radio 3's Africa World Music 2005 award winners). On one song, there's a hint of the guitar phrasing of The Doors' classic 'The End', Morrison himself being an all-round rebel fighting his own mental fears of the desert.

One of the problems of being a rebel is that some get far more media attention than they deserve. For example lame non-entity Pete Doherty's self-abuse 'rebel' lifestyle is in all the media at the moment. Compare with Songlines' feature on Tinariwen in the current issue March/April, well worth the cover price of £3.95. By the end of the set, unlikely as it'd seemed at the start, Hassan Ag Touhami roused the crowd with spirited dancing and join along hand clapping. Excellent and a good warm up for the very different following act.

The Senegalese hip hop trio of Daara J were not going let anyone in the concert hall sit comfortably in their seats. Starting out with a clarion call of 'If you live by the mic, you die by the mic' they got the crowd on their feet and they managed to keep the momentum going in a non-stop attack. Backed with a French DJ pumpin' and scratchin' out the beats on his Pioneer CD, the title track off the album 'Boomerang' was a highlight. Rap is boomeranging it's way back from the USA to Africa they explain. The girls liked 'Paris Dakar'. 'Exodus' and the following song had a reggae feel mixed in (you'll have to wait for the next album for that one) and personally worked best for me. Really good live act with great singing, rapping and an ability to jump like lions (this crowd will have to practice the lion jumping exercises for next time).

Finally, Rachid Taha comes on stage very rock star; beret, shades, leather trousers, fluffy jacket thing (!) with Rod Stewart microphone stand posing. But we quickly overlook this as this band is rockin'. The band have got a surprise hit on their hands with their Arabic version of The Clash's crossover hit of 1982, 'Rock El Casbah'. To their immense credit, they didn't save this for the encore but played it mid-set. They didn't have to as they were excellent throughout.

It's all fairly high tempo and we get a fair share of rock guitar. On one number, the guitarist squeezes in a bit of a Hey! Bo Diddley riff and Rachid extols us to do 'The Twist'. But there are also Spanish flavoured songs; a head nodding ethnic drum and bass orientated tune and the encore, 'Yah Rayah'. By then, Rachid was reaching for his crotch in a Mr. Jackson style thus proving he's no surly rebel but a strangely lovable one. He's been at this for some time and after the house remixing of ten years ago (System 7/ Steve Hillage), perhaps this band's time has come. A mutant mix of Les Negresses Vertes and the Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster?. And why not? Joe Strummer would have loved it.

If you're hesitating about seeing this line up at any of the remaining gigs on this tour, don't. A Hectic recommended great night out.

Links
See Lydia Martin's tour preview on Fly.
Tinariwen (Womad 2004)
Daara J (Womad 2004)
Rachid Taha (Offical Home Page)
Guardian piece on the tour - also discusses Rachid Taha's rare form of muscular distrophy, Tinariwen's rebel past and Daara J's role in the 2000 elections in Senegal

Current Albums
Rachid Taha - 'Tekitoi' (Wrasse - WRASS 126X)
Daara J - 'Boomerang' (Wrasse 105)
Tinariwen - Amassakoul (IRL 014) [with sound clips]

I was lucky enough to catch the London leg of the tour as it came to its finale at Shepherds Bush Empire. The queues were literally round the block and this wasn’t just the usual ‘world music’ crowd either. Many people in the crowd would normally consider themselves indie/rock fans looking for something a bit different but with attitude and boy we got both of those qualities in abundance.

Tinariwen, as good as they are on record, really shine live. The massed guitars, the insistent beats, the Touareg look and tonight something different than the last time I saw them (at WOMAD) — they were having a great time. Maybe it was the relief of ending a tour of freezing cold Britain or maybe it was the chance to play to such a huge and new crowd, but they were loving it and it was infectious.

Daara J were their usual bouncy infectious selves. Personally, I love the hip hop they do more than the reggae but they have the talent to pull off any genre they want and they do. One thing they might consider though is their African drum hand movement they got the audience to do — it created a sea of something very simillar to Hitler salutes… maybe not such a good idea!

Rachid Taha is so rock and f**king roll. After an oddly low key start (playing in the dark with one of his least engaging songs), they kicked it solidly through to the end. The place went mad when ‘Rock the Casbah’ came on. Nothing like a good old fashioned sing along to end the night.

I talked to Ian Ashridge from Wrasse Records, one of the masterminds of the tour. He and Andy Morgan had cooked it up early one morning while in an airport lounge. Based on the old ska and Motown tours of the UK, the idea was to get a strong multiple bill together and draw in a whole new crowd. Job done. “This is how we are going to do ‘world’ music tours from now on”, he stated. Believe.