Tuesday 11 January 2011

Osibisa - Ojah Awake



Listening to vinyl

Listening to the vinyl copy of this I got recently at an Oxfam shop in Cumbria [see pic of me kneeling in the search - why do they always put vinyl on the bottom shelves for ol' hippies like me?]. They were a fun band and perhaps brought 'world' music to a generation in the early 70s? The title track is wonderful and throughout the whole album there are the familiar funk and jazz elements underpinning their Afro-pop sound.

I saw them at what was the first Reading Festival in 1971. If memory serves they finished the festival on Sunday night. I feel reasonably secure here because I recall being told that we had to be 'quiet' as an audience as there were laws about playing/being noisy after a certain time on a Sunday and the show was running late. We responded by making the most noise possible, everyone being encouraged by Osibisa to yelp and holler and smash together cans or anything else cacophonous and to hand. Superb.

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