MUSIC – AMADOU AND MARIAM, ROUNDHOUSE
by James Cooper
Amadou and Marian
There can’t be anything more depressing if you’re a musician than to be described as ‘big in country x’. It implies that you’re not ‘big’ in the places you probably want to be big in.
Well tonight’s warm up act, Charlie Winston, is apparently ‘massive in France’.
Judging from the 1.5 songs of his we overheard while buying beer, he’s not likely to make it in the UK any time soon. After all, if Jamie Liddell didn’t get famous with all his talent, Charlie, with his crappy beat boxing and gentle strumming, isn’t going to trouble the charts any time soon.
Besides, most people aren’t at the Roundhouse for the support act. They’re here for Mali’s biggest musical export – the blind, married Afro-blues outfit Amadou & Mariam. After steadily building support for the best part of 20 years, the duo made it big when Manu Chao produce Dimanche à Bamako in 2005
Having been helped on stage, the pair and their enthusiastic backing group launched into a session heavy with hits from the breakthrough album. While at time the set descended into jam session territory, the pair’s palpable love of music carried the crowd along and Amadou’s repeated shouts of “Do you feel alive?” were curiously endearing.
They might not have played recent hit Sabali, which was a bit of a shame, but there was enough in the hour-plus set to keep even the World Music haters out there happy.
