EntertainmentNewsPeoplePulseTotnes Town

Band Meeting – The Kudu Band

Hello you guys… First of all the name of the Band – Kudu – what is that?

The Kudu is a large majestic antelope from Southern Africa. We wanted a name with an African connection as our music has a lot of African influences.

There’s 5 of you? Shall we get introduced?

Larry the bass player and Aaron the drummer both come from Zimbabwe. Larry started his musical career playing in the beer halls on the sugar estates in Chiredzi before moving to Cape Town. Aaron is Larry’s son and African drumming is his specialty! Wendy sang for many years in afro Cornish band Zambula, singing a lot of the time in Swahili and she also worked with musicians from Congo, Tanzania, Uganda and Cameroon so we all have a deep love of African music and listen to it a lot at home.
Kudu, July 2012, © Gerhard Huber,
Kudu, July 2012, © Gerhard Huber,

How did you find each other?

Wendy and Larry met when Larry joined Zambula soon after he moved to the UK. They have continued to play together in other bands like Makiwa and Wendy and the Coconuts which also incorporated their love of reggae.

The style is distinctly Reggae-Ska-Dub and your previous iterations – Wendy & the Coconuts, Makiwa were in the same vein, what draws you to this style? 

We like to think we have created a unique combination of African and reggae music! The Kudu Band is our latest musical venture, starting with just Larry, Wendy and Aaron. Aaron pulled in his old friend Paul Biggs on rhythm guitar who has done a great job picking up the African rhythms and melodies. Our latest addition is Bill Birks. African music usually has 2 guitars that interweave so we had been looking for a while to find our second guitarist and were very happy when we realised that our old friend Bill had just what we were looking for and he was very happy to take on the challenge as its not the style of music he has played before.

So I’m guessing you like to get your crowd animated ?

Yes we love to get people dancing . Afro reggae music is guaranteed to get you moving. It’s good time feel good music. Plus catchy melodies with upbeat positive lyrics. Great for audience participation!

I have no idea why but I’m under the impression you hail from Dartmoor is that right?

Yes we are based on Dartmoor. We run a small yurt holiday business.

Ah, we love a yurt… Have you had a chance to put together recordings or is it purely live for you?

We haven’t put together any recordings yet with the Kudu band but we plan to record an album in the summer so if you want to hear our music now you need to come to our gig at the Barrelhouse!

Kudu Barrel HouseChallenge accepted! Who does the writing/creating – is it solo, a band effort or a combination?

Wendy and Larry write most of the songs together.
Either Larry comes up with the bass line and Wendy adds the melody and lyrics or the other way round! We have also included some of Wendy’s songs that she wrote on her own over the years.

You’re coming to the Barrel House, is this the first visit? 

We’ve played at the Barrelhouse several times before but never with the Kudu Band. We’re really excited to play there with this new line up. We used to live in Totnes so we have a strong connection with the place and people and the Barrelhouse is a great music venue. We are also lucky to be joined by DJ Emma the Artist who plays a great mix of African and reggae dance music.

Get your tickets from here…

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x