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It was a night to
remember for everyone at the ‘Night Out With the Arts’, organised by
the Society of the Performing Arts of Nigeria (SPAN). The event took
place on April 30 at the Coral Reef, Ikoyi, and allowed the audience
the honour of judging the presentations which cut across music, comedy
and dance.

As the curtains
were raised on the monthly show’s second edition, it represented SPAN’s
way of recognising the talents that abound across the city of Lagos.

Cool FM on-air
personalities Manny and Amaka anchored the event, which kicked off with
a rendition by Tee Mac. The flutist and former PMAN president performed
to the accompaniment of a drummer, a guitarist and a pianist.

He preceded his
performance by reeling out statistics about the power of Nigerian
music. “There are about 400,000 professional musicians and about 1.2
million amateur musicians,” he said. “What is missing is the money,
because the talent is already here.”

He took a swipe at
young people’s reactions to his music, just before he got caught in the
rapture of his wind instrument. “Young people call it old school, I
call it good music,” he said. Olufunmi, a gospel musician and Vice
President of SPAN, sang the second verse of our National Anthem. She
also held the audience spellbound with her voice as she sang a popular
gospel tune.

In her welcome
address, president of SPAN, Sarah Boulos, said that the organisation,
in their celebration of the family, provided a bouncing castle for
children at the event. She also mentioned with excitement that the body
was starting a talk show about the talent series on Cool FM.

Night of musical “talents”

Ten acts performed
on stage for only three minutes each, as the programme did not start at
the scheduled time of 7pm. Uche Agbai showed professionalism as he sang
and strummed his guitar backed up by a piano. He sang “Fast Lane,”
which he had composed after losing a friend.

Next up was a
dance by SPAN which reminded the audience of the Fame television series
that was popular in the 80s. The group danced to the Fame theme-song
and a slower-paced track, switching their body movements in time with
the music. Led by Nnamdi ‘Ice’ Nweke, the dance director of SPAN, the
presentation showed an adherence to detail, as they kept in sync with
the music. The evening would, however, come up with a few rough edges.

Hall of shame

The first category
of undiluted torture began with the clarinet-bearing Natural Beekey,
who played the instrument off key, as he struggled to accompany a Sunny
Ade hit track. Next on the list of pain was a trio called Unbreakable
Unit. Following the usual “Naija” swag-induced style, the group mimed
to one of their tracks. The poor production quality made it almost
impossible to hear what the musicians where singing. Cold Flames
rounded up the first round of musical display with a Yoruba rock song,
which had the crowd clapping and whistling in appreciation.

At the end of the
first session, Tee Mac was first to reach for the microphone as he gave
his own verdict. He advised the ‘out of tune’ Natural Beekey to get
more lessons on playing the clarinet. Tee Mac noted that though
Unbreakable Unit had the moves, they lacked the coordination and force
needed to make a successful hip-hop act.

Though the
audience showed appreciation for Cold Flames’ performance, Tee Mac said
the artist used the most basic keys for his performance and needed to
improve on his talent.

The night moved on
with more criticism from the audience after the next three acts. There
was another interlude with Sons of Liberty, a dance group under SPAN
that has made it to the finals of the Malta Guinness Street Dance
Competition. They entertained the crowd with their energetic and
acrobatic dance steps, as they danced to a medley of songs. A group of
comedians tried to crack the ribs of the audience who seemed to slowly
lose interest in what was happening on stage and were already trickling
out of the venue. The comedians did no better than most of the
musicians, who were reminded by Sarah Boulos not to mime their songs to
backing records, but sing with their voices, so as not to camouflage
any musical deficiencies.

Lessons learnt

The exposure could
help improve the evening’s 10 acts, but in keeping the talent show open
without any form of screening, the audience is left to accept whatever
fate brings on stage. The next show holds on the last Friday in May.