So, the mighty Kanda Bongo Man makes his first appearance on this blog. I have many reasons to be grateful to the existence of the John Peel wiki, it is after all the gateway to the recordings which allow me to make my selections for the metaphorical mixtapes. But one of the main things I’m indebted to it for is that it allows me to pinpoint certain “where were you when JFK was shot” moments on John Peel programmes, particularly in relation to the period when I was driving home from rehearsals listening to Peel on the drive back. Chronologically, we are still 4 or 5 years away from when I started to do that. But I never forgot the circumstances of when I first heard Peel play a Kanda Bongo Man record and thanks to the wiki, I now remember exactly when it happened. It was, in terms of musical taste, a defining date in my life.
Over the week of 7-11 June 1999, I was appearing in a production of One Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the open air Minack Theatre on the clifftops near Lands End. On Wednesday, 9 June we performed a matinee of the play. Towards the end of the performance, it started to rain, which is an occupational hazard when performing in the open air. We got to the end of the play, by which time the rain had got harder. The cast repaired to a nearby pub for a meal between performances, but the weather remained poor. We went back to the theatre to change for the evening performance, but the theatre management decided to cancel the performance for safety reasons. So, I got out of my costume and decided to drive over to Truro to visit my girlfriend for a surprise cup of tea. En route, I had John Peel’s Radio 1 show on. This was during the period when he was back on midweek evenings, but broadcasting between 8:30 and 10:20pm. So, there I was driving along and as always, making mental notes as to tunes that I would and wouldn’t record on a tape. Coming out of a play of Even by Yellow6, Peel made a dedication that would introduce a new favourite artist to me:
About two weeks ago, I was in Sheffield and went to this restaurant in, what I suppose you would have to describe as the student quarter, called UK mama and in addition to being an excellent restaurant, it’s the only restaurant I’ve ever been to in the whole of my life where they were playing a Kanda Bongo Man record over the PA system. So, this is for them really.
And then he played Monie from the LP Zing Zong, released in 1991, and from that point on, Kanda Bongo Man became my go-to name when it came to African music and I was hooked. Maybe it was his name, which brought peals of laughter from loved ones whenever I mentioned it in subsequent days, months and years (My wife still refers to him as Kando Bongo Man). It may have been the manner in which Peel brought him to my attention with the story of his visit to UK mama and his ears pricking up at the sound of them playing a Kanda Bongo Man record, one of those delightful miniature moments in Peel’s everyday life which brought such texture to his programmes..
After playing Monie, he encouraged anyone thinking of paying a visit to UK mama to request that they play their Kanda Bongo Man CDs. If they had a copy of the Le Rendez-Vous des Stades (Stadium Meetings) LP, then I would suggest trying to finish your meal by the time track 4, Bili rolls around, as it’s far too catchy and effervescent to stay seated through the dessert to.
Video courtesy of Pechichon des Concierto.
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