Africa On Your Street Launch Party 2004

Ade Daramy reviews the official Africa on your Street launch party which was held on 20 April 2004 and featured live music, DJs, food and lots of networking and fun.

On 20 April 2004 we held our official Africa on your Street launch party at Strawberry Moons in London. Ade Daramy sent us this review which he wrote for his magazine Mano Vision :

For Africans in London, on the evening of Tuesday, 20 April 2004, there was only one place to be. That was at the launch party for the BBC's website 'Africa On Your Street', or AOYS. The website, which had been 'live' for three months prior to the official launch party, is a celebration of African culture and music and aims to be the place to find out about everything to do with African music in the UK.

Already the site is looking very good. It encourages a lot of participation from its audience and even asks folks to send in photos of African events to be published on the site. AOYS is also a project that aims to raise the profile of African music and culture by encouraging other BBC programs to feature more African culture in their diets.

If there is a better party in London this year, I want to be there. Getting the hold of the hottest ticket in town, meant all roads led to the Strawberry Moon club, off Regent's Street, in London's West End. And what a night it turned out to be. DJ Rita Ray (of Mambo Inn fame, all those years ago), probably the foremost World Music DJ, kept the crowd entertained with a diverse selection of tracks ahead of the live acts scheduled to perform.

This gave the audience time to mingle and it was a delight to see. In many venues around the UK, communities from the various African countries tend to gather by themselves, to have fun. At this event, there were folks from almost every African country mingling, chatting and networking. This could not have been in the plans of the organizers but what a delightful accident it was. There was food and drink aplenty to keep anyone from complaining of hunger or thirst.

Shaheera Asante , who has been a guest presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction (a world music show), was the compere for the evening. The first act to take the stage was Koko Kanyinda Mukala and Kumbele Soukous . What a revelation they were. Not many people in the audience seemed to have heard of them, but, boy, did they love them. From the first bars of the first song, the seven-piece band had the audience eating out of the palms of their hands. Resistance was futile; in the space of one song, they had won over the entire crowd.

And it just got better. Here, was the cliché about music being the universal language being proved true. At the front of the stage, a large and friendly Somalian contingent waving their national flag were demonstrating that they could feel the rhythm and move to it as well as any diehard soukous fanatic. When their dancer Naomi Mami hit the stage, the temperatures of the men hit critical level. Talk about in your face! She gyrated in the way that only those ladies in the Mapouka videos seem able to. The audience was a sea of joyous faces as song after song had the whole place rocking. After six numbers the band left the stage to great applause.

After a brief interlude from Rita on the decks, the next act were ready to come on. After the storming set by the first act, you felt sorry for whoever had to follow them. Shaheera announced JJC (also known as Skillz of Big Brovaz) & 419 Squad . JJC is also one of the rotating 'hosts' on the website (rather in the manner of a DJ). If the audience thought they had hit the heights of energy with the previous lot, they were to find reserves they never imagined they had. This group raised the temperature even higher.

It was a performance of consummate skill and endless energy. If you only know them by their recorded work (the superb CD ' Atide '), then you haven't heard anything yet. Live, they are better than most American rap groups that I have seen. The Americans tend to have the edge in recorded work but live seem to believe that shouting loudly is all that is needed to perform live. On this occasion you could hear all the lyrics and a goodly portion of the audience seemed to know all the words to all of the songs. The group performed to a varied musical and lyrical palette; one minute R&B-influenced, the next a touch of ragga and in the next song, some salsa, with lyrics sung in English, Yoruba, or Jamaican patois.

The group displayed skill and star quality and proved that they are not a one-man show. Metaphorically, they tore the roof off the place. Reluctantly, the audience let them go. If this group stays together, they could go far. They have taken African rap to another level and set a standard that will be hard to equal, let alone surpass.

It was then the turn of Koko Kanyinda and his group to return to the stage. They picked up the energy level and performed another storming set of hot soukous to leave the audience exhausted. For a seven-person group, they made a powerful and varied sound. Lots of people left taking a note of the name. We prepared to make our way out of the venue, then DJ Ify took over the decks; the first record he played was the across-the-continent hit ' Premier Gaou' . Before we could draw breath, he mixed in Awilo Logomba 's own cross-continental smash ' Coupe Bibamba '. Thoughts of leaving were put on hold as everyone stayed on the dance floor for the next hour.

The website has a lot to live up to after this - what a party, what a night.

Check out the party photogallery