UNITED KINGDOM: Staff Benda Bilili brings Congolese street rythms on European tour and win top music prize

Record ID: 561765

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Staff Benda Bilili brings Congolese street rythms on European tour and win top music prize
  • Date: 7th November 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF STAFF BENDA BILILI PERFORMING ON STAGE
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAE23R0L6XZRTOXIOYL06H8DZCS
  • Story Text: As the cold weather set in on London, Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili blew the winter chills away on Tuesday night (November 10) for audience members attending their concert at the Barbican music hall.
    Their foot-tapping, hand clapping and full-on dancing performance had audiences cheering in an electric atmosphere.
    Despite the physical handicaps of five out of the eight members of the band, the energy on stage ensured their disabilities were soon forgotten.
    "I really, really wanted to get up on my chair and dance, which was brilliant when everyone at the end just got up and danced and I wish that we'd all done that a little earlier. But they were brilliant," said one audience member.
    "I'm paralysed from the waist down, but my toes were tapping. They're really brilliant and seriously, I would get married just to invite them to the reception. They are amazing," added another.
    The band are on a gruelling European tour and recently released their first album, Tres Tres Fort which has already won them the prestigious World Music Expo (WOMEX) Best Artist Award for World Music.
    The road has not been an easy one for Staff, but they have a determination and work ethic combined with eternal optimism, that they believe has got them to where they are today.
    And despite their new-found stardom, they remain humble and modest in their ambition.
    "Our dreams for the future (with the money we make) is first of all to build houses for ourselves and then to ensure the future of our children," singer Theo Nsituvuidi told Reuters.
    "Our hope is that this band will do a world tour, on demand by everyone and to earn a living - that's the dream of the stars," added the band's drummer, Montana Kinunu Ntunu.
    Staff started practising in 2003 in the grounds of Kinshasa's zoo and a year later were spotted by film makers Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye, known as La Belle Kinoise, who have been making a documentary of the bands' steady progress.
    While this year has seen a huge rise to fame for the band, their manager, Michel Winter is careful not to over-expose the group, some of whose members are in delicate health, and the front-men in their 50s.
    "And they said, 'don't loose time by complaining, just go ahead and you will succeed, if you know what you want to do just do it. If your mind is ok and your head is working, you can go everywhere,'" Winter told us when he had asked the band their philosophy.
    "They deserve at least the same success as Buena Vista Social Club for example," added Winter.
    Nothing goes unsaid in Staff Benda Bilili's lyrics - polio, homelessness, the neglect of the state to take care of people with physical disabilities and what it feels to be black are all themes to their songs - but while the subjects may be sombre, the beats and melodies of their music forces audiences not just to listen, but actively join in.
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