Dambala

[fadel diagne]

hi alvin
always a pleasure to see that you were out there and i really believe that what you did as a collective cannot go to waste.i really live with the hope that someday,no matter the bad blood you have been to,you willcome together and mend the rift between you,for the whole is always better than the some of its parts.it reminds me of the senegalese afro-cuban band called"baobab orchestra"which came together thaks to producer nick gold who used to come to senegal in the 70's and saw them perform and has decided to sign them to his world circuit label after they disbanded for more than 20 years.
i loved merger whom i dicovered through"amarggideon time"before i came across"exiles in babylon".i discoverd later thanllorin adetokumbo performed on the very first aswad album"back to africa"and on georges oban solo album motion.
yes it's high time with a little hindsight that we considered the good work that vintage reggae bands did in the pst and give them a break.i hope that it's really amazing that 25 years that the work of dambala,talisman,merger,capital letters,matumbi and regulars still are refered to as landmark recordings and groups

[roms77]

Hi Alvin
don't worry good vibes will never die !!!
this post will be forever here and our children will put their notes to express what they feel about your vibes !!! lol
i m trying to finish my collection of your old tracks, i m waiting answers of the channel 4 for the opening track "black in british".

i ve been reading posts of the forum since a long time , so i think this is the bigger post and may be the more interesting

thanks to all

[roms77]

everyone has news about Dambala ? what is the hardest track to find ? i m trying to find more about them

[ruff]

could that show be "The London Weekend Show" the one where they played the theme tune? i have heard about a show before where Black Roots played the them tune around the same time, are we getting mixed up here.
Alvin could u confirm that Dambala did play a theme tune for a C4 show?

[roms77]

Yes ruff !! you right
i heard one day that black roots also sung for this tv serie about black people in UK on channel 4

[roms77]

but whats the name of the serie tv show ?

[bwoy ruff]

not sure, i clearly remember hearing about black roots playing the theme tune though, thats why i thought maybe someone getting mixed up as they are similar sounding bands.
The only show i can think of from the late 70's doing this kinda thing was The London Weekend Show, hosted by Janet Street Porter i think. Would be nice to find the original thread about black roots, im sure it was either on here or b+f, are u sure about the dates of the show? if it was early 80's then i have alot more possible shows it could have been.

[Alvin Christie]

Hi Guys, we definately did a TV show about Black people in England, and as a matter of fact I just found the track that we did, it's called "Black on Black" and as far as I know was released 78/79 before the band split. Still can't remember if it was C4 or London Weekend, but it was def youth orientated and I can't remember anything about Janet Street Porter, it was actually a series with about 8 episodes and we were filmed at Whitworth St studios in Soho and that was used as the opening credits. Give me a day or so to digitize it and clean it up a bit (its a copy of an old tape), and if anyone is interested I will make it available...ok...

[roms77]

yes alvin
i m interested by it !
bless

[Alvin Christie]

Hi roms77. I am working on it now, the tape I have was "Dolby encoded" and I don't have a Dolby cassette player so it is amazingly "hissy" I can take some hiss of but the effect is to lose the hi hats a bit, but is it still listenable...I remember around the time that it was released we did a large "Rock Against Racism" gig at Alexandra Palace in Muswell hill (London)so if anyone can find out what that date was we will know the approximate dates...