Brothers of the Baladi
Doncaster 23 July 2010
by Trish
When we formed Sadaaqah, one of our aims was to bring live music to the area. The chance to dance with live musicians is not something that we normally get to do unless we can travel, but it is something that we all felt was an important part of our dance education. Many of us in this area have had the chance to dance with drummers, courtesy of Asif and Andraste, but that doesn’t always appeal, and of course its unplanned, and rarely a solo opportunity. When Siobhan heard that The Brothers of the Baladi were coming to the UK again, she asked us if we thought it would be a good idea to book them, and we agreed it would be. The Brothers are from Portland, Oregon (Mark used to live there apparently) and have been going for a number of years. They play a wide variety of music, anything from Arabic standards to the Rolling Stones, via Armenian and Turkish folk songs. There are a number of CD’s of their music available, personally I like Heart of the Beast and Further Journeys best, although I am being sidetracked by Michaels solo album Hands of a Thousand Dances at the moment. They were booked to be in the UK for 2 weeks, and a number of venues, mostly in the south of the country booked them for this tour. The venues within striking distance of us were Cambridge and Manchester, neither totally out of the question, but both a long old drive, so it seemed sensible to book them to play locally. Doncaster it was then. Nice and handy for Siobhan who was doing the organising, and accessible for the Lincolnshire girls. We were disappointed at the turnout, and with ticket sales prior to the event, but fortunately we did make enough on the door to pay the band if nothing else!
The venue we had booked was fairly large, and we thought that the few people who had booked would rattle round a bit, so Siobhan decided to break out one of the tents. (http://www.babas-arabian-tents.co.uk) It’s an immense amount of work to get these up and decorated, but the result is worth it, they look so stunning! A fantastic photo opportunity enjoyed by many of those there. Speaking of photos; as well as our usual photographers, Mark, Phil and Unal, we also had a chappie from the local camera club (the one wearing the jacket for those who were there. I didn’t catch his name, but we met him the previous week at the Doncaster Cultural Festival) so we are hoping to see some more lovely photos in addition to those already posted by Mark and Anne Kingston. As well as boosting ticket sales, we also wanted to offer a chance to see dancers who don’t often come our way, so we also invited some guest dancers: Sabrina and Anna from Banat Eshourouk who also brought Adam (Rhythmic Ginger) along with them; Anne Kingston; Egyptian Gold and Boomshanka just for a bit of difference. We were very glad we did, thank you for coming along! And a big thank you to Colin the Camel. (alright, Shiv and Hayley)
The band duly arrived at the venue, and while they were setting up Michael (Beach, the band leader) checked with the dancers whether anyone wanted any changes made and if anyone wanted a drum solo. (Do you know, when he said that, they all looked at me! I wonder why. ) We figured out how to work the lights and the CD player and warned the guys about the sound limiter, put the last touches to the tent, lit all the candles, shut the curtains, and then people started to arrive. The room looked lovely, candle lanterns and pretty table covers, the fabulous tent and everyone had dressed up, it was wonderful. And so were the band. They were so friendly and put all the performers at their ease (well as much as you can be!) and played some fabulous music and gave it their all. When the sound limiter cut in during the second set, they just picked up their drums and came down onto the floor to play for us till the equipment sorted itself out. They very kindly invited Adam to join them, and he had a jolly good time. Most of our guest dancers took the opportunity to dance to the Brothers playing live, and that was so much fun, not just to watch, but to do. I had a ball! There was a break during which we had performances to recorded music, as well as a bit of boogie. The best part of the whole night though was seeing people just getting up and dancing while the guys played. That was what we had wanted to see and it was just great that people took the opportunity and ran with it. We also took the opportunity to talk Sabrina and her fabulous hair into doing some Khaleegi as well as her planned solo spot, and she and the guys gave us a wonderful show. There was band merchandise (Hands up who got a tour T-shirt! A tour T-shirt with Doncaster on, who’d have thought?) and CD’s to buy as well as the gorgeous tent for photo opps, dancing, live music, more dancing and a camel. What more could you want? Well, food maybe, but that’s on the list for next time.
Oh yes, despite all the stress and panic and money worries we are SO doing this again, so watch the listings for our next musical offering, and sign up to the Brothers page on Facebook. We’re booking them next time they come to the UK, so if you missed them this time, catch the next tour!
Thank you to everyone who came along, to all our guest dancers, and of course the Brothers of the Baladi for giving us a wonderful evenings entertainment. We had a fabulous time and can’t wait to do it again! And finally Massive, Huge, Ginormous thanks to Siobhan for organising all this; we’ll see you right lass, see if we don’t!
Trish (on behalf of Sadaaqah) July 26th 2010
To see photos of this event click here
Doncaster 23 July 2010
by Trish
When we formed Sadaaqah, one of our aims was to bring live music to the area. The chance to dance with live musicians is not something that we normally get to do unless we can travel, but it is something that we all felt was an important part of our dance education. Many of us in this area have had the chance to dance with drummers, courtesy of Asif and Andraste, but that doesn’t always appeal, and of course its unplanned, and rarely a solo opportunity. When Siobhan heard that The Brothers of the Baladi were coming to the UK again, she asked us if we thought it would be a good idea to book them, and we agreed it would be. The Brothers are from Portland, Oregon (Mark used to live there apparently) and have been going for a number of years. They play a wide variety of music, anything from Arabic standards to the Rolling Stones, via Armenian and Turkish folk songs. There are a number of CD’s of their music available, personally I like Heart of the Beast and Further Journeys best, although I am being sidetracked by Michaels solo album Hands of a Thousand Dances at the moment. They were booked to be in the UK for 2 weeks, and a number of venues, mostly in the south of the country booked them for this tour. The venues within striking distance of us were Cambridge and Manchester, neither totally out of the question, but both a long old drive, so it seemed sensible to book them to play locally. Doncaster it was then. Nice and handy for Siobhan who was doing the organising, and accessible for the Lincolnshire girls. We were disappointed at the turnout, and with ticket sales prior to the event, but fortunately we did make enough on the door to pay the band if nothing else!
The venue we had booked was fairly large, and we thought that the few people who had booked would rattle round a bit, so Siobhan decided to break out one of the tents. (http://www.babas-arabian-tents.co.uk) It’s an immense amount of work to get these up and decorated, but the result is worth it, they look so stunning! A fantastic photo opportunity enjoyed by many of those there. Speaking of photos; as well as our usual photographers, Mark, Phil and Unal, we also had a chappie from the local camera club (the one wearing the jacket for those who were there. I didn’t catch his name, but we met him the previous week at the Doncaster Cultural Festival) so we are hoping to see some more lovely photos in addition to those already posted by Mark and Anne Kingston. As well as boosting ticket sales, we also wanted to offer a chance to see dancers who don’t often come our way, so we also invited some guest dancers: Sabrina and Anna from Banat Eshourouk who also brought Adam (Rhythmic Ginger) along with them; Anne Kingston; Egyptian Gold and Boomshanka just for a bit of difference. We were very glad we did, thank you for coming along! And a big thank you to Colin the Camel. (alright, Shiv and Hayley)
The band duly arrived at the venue, and while they were setting up Michael (Beach, the band leader) checked with the dancers whether anyone wanted any changes made and if anyone wanted a drum solo. (Do you know, when he said that, they all looked at me! I wonder why. ) We figured out how to work the lights and the CD player and warned the guys about the sound limiter, put the last touches to the tent, lit all the candles, shut the curtains, and then people started to arrive. The room looked lovely, candle lanterns and pretty table covers, the fabulous tent and everyone had dressed up, it was wonderful. And so were the band. They were so friendly and put all the performers at their ease (well as much as you can be!) and played some fabulous music and gave it their all. When the sound limiter cut in during the second set, they just picked up their drums and came down onto the floor to play for us till the equipment sorted itself out. They very kindly invited Adam to join them, and he had a jolly good time. Most of our guest dancers took the opportunity to dance to the Brothers playing live, and that was so much fun, not just to watch, but to do. I had a ball! There was a break during which we had performances to recorded music, as well as a bit of boogie. The best part of the whole night though was seeing people just getting up and dancing while the guys played. That was what we had wanted to see and it was just great that people took the opportunity and ran with it. We also took the opportunity to talk Sabrina and her fabulous hair into doing some Khaleegi as well as her planned solo spot, and she and the guys gave us a wonderful show. There was band merchandise (Hands up who got a tour T-shirt! A tour T-shirt with Doncaster on, who’d have thought?) and CD’s to buy as well as the gorgeous tent for photo opps, dancing, live music, more dancing and a camel. What more could you want? Well, food maybe, but that’s on the list for next time.
Oh yes, despite all the stress and panic and money worries we are SO doing this again, so watch the listings for our next musical offering, and sign up to the Brothers page on Facebook. We’re booking them next time they come to the UK, so if you missed them this time, catch the next tour!
Thank you to everyone who came along, to all our guest dancers, and of course the Brothers of the Baladi for giving us a wonderful evenings entertainment. We had a fabulous time and can’t wait to do it again! And finally Massive, Huge, Ginormous thanks to Siobhan for organising all this; we’ll see you right lass, see if we don’t!
Trish (on behalf of Sadaaqah) July 26th 2010
To see photos of this event click here
