Fofoulah Live

I am now a resident of Frome and I was checking out the lineup for Frome Festival when I saw that there was an African group called Fofoulah playing live and doing a drumming workshop.  This was on a Tuesday evening and I proceeded to listen to their full discography, read up on the group, purchase tickets for the gig, sign up for the drumming workshop and purchase both of their LPs (instant fanboy ha!).  

The next day I went to a local bar and music venue called Bar Lotte and I recognised the drummer as the drummer from Fofoulah, and sure enough he was the drummer and producer from Fofoulah who it turns out is a resident of Frome.  I couldn’t believe it, such a crazy coincidence.  We had a chat about their music, the upcoming festival gig, the drumming workshop, my show and he invited me to play some tunes as support DJ for their festival gig.

On the afternoon of the gig I went to the Silk Mill in Frome for the drumming workshop.  There were eight or so others attending, and the workshop was hosted by Batch Gueye and Dave Smith, both of the band Fofoulah. Batch taught us about the Sabar drum, taught us some tunes, and we played with the band that evening for their first song.  It was my first go on a Sabar drum and my first live drumming performance for a long time.

On that day I took a Zoom hand held recording device on the off chance I could record the gig.  Thankfully the sound guy on the day was very accommodating and provided me a pair of XLR cables direct from the desk to record from so (with permission from the band) I hit record to see what I could get.  The recording clips slightly in some sections, but overall it sounds good and I was able to capture the incredible live performance from Fofoulah that night.  It also capture my warm up and set in the interval.

Batch Gueye is from Senegal where he learned to play the Sabar Drum