Sylford Walker & Prince Alla meet Asham Band: Magicians at Magiq!

Early birds were able to enjoy spiritual Nyahbinghi vibes in the early afternoon when a free gathering was put together by Ras Feel and Ras Pablo in honour of Haile Selassie's earthday. An event for which brethren from The Netherlands and Germany came over.

Because of the sultry summer weather, it proved difficult to lure the crowd into the Magiq mirror tent (despite the creditable audience warm-ups by Roots Pressure and Heartical), yet around half past ten the double concert in honour of Haile Selassie's earthday was able to commence.

Sylford Walker started with 'Burn Babylon', one of the first songs he recorded in his career and still one of his greatest hits. During the remainder of his rather short set, Walker mainly drew inspiration from his iconic 'Lambsbread' album (at the time recorded for producer Glen Brown), so we were able to enjoy a whole range of hits such as ' Lamb's Bread', 'Chant Down Babylon', 'Cleansiness' and 'Golden Pen' during which it became once again clear how unified the Asham Band sounds these days. The band could even count on one extra musician as Ras Feel took care of the percussion like a veritable Skully Simms.

In our opinion, Sylford Walker's set should have lasted a bit longer, but there was little time to lament this fact since no sooner had the man cleared the stage than Prince Alla took the floor.
Alla was clearly ready and keen and started with 'Funeral', a song recorded for Joe Gibs, which together with 'Bosrah' (the second song from his set list in the mirror tent) is featured on the recently released 'Songs from The Royal Throne Room' by Kingston Sounds but originally featured on 'Heaven is my Roof' from 1978. Afterwards Alla mainly drew on the Blood & Fire-compilation 'Only Love Can Conquer 1976-1979' with songs such as 'Their Reward' (ending in long solos on saxophone, trombone and percussion), 'Lot's Wife' and 'City With No Pitty', many of which ended in fantastic dub versions. Asham sounded as if they were actually in the recording room with Alla at that time which didn't remain unnoticed to the singer. Alla thanked them by saying: "I never rehearsed with this band and listen how they play; these guys are magicians!".

We could have continued all through the night, but round midnight Alla completed an amazing sizzling hot evening with his hit song 'Stone'. To both the veterans Walker and Alla and Asham Band we have only one thing to say: Respect!