The Cavemen
Royal Albert Hall
Still coming down from the high of Anoushka Shankar's prom earlier in the evening, I retire to bedlam and switch on the bedside radio. The atmosphere at the Albert Hall is going to be maintained, and arguably revved up even more, with this late night prom.
Tonight it is 'Nigerian sensations', Kingsley Okorie and Benjamin James. The music starts and I am not sure how to categorise it. It's got a slight calypso feel? [Side note: I wonder if calypso has ever been experimented at the proms - a stage of steel drums would surely be divine?!].
It turns out that the genre I'm actually looking for is 'Highlife'. Nigerian highlife, to be precise. It's a new one on me! I will be looking this up in more depth when I get chance.
There's lead guitar lines (always a good thing) that sound very Santana, and there's audience participation, with the whole hall chanting to one of the songs (I think it was called Chameleon).
The music turns to a more meditative sound at the end, and - in the nicest possible way - I struggle to stay awake. But awake I do stay, right up until we are handed from the Royal Albert Hall, back to broadcasting house.
