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Kept Guests On Their Feet For 8Hrs Non-Stop
It was the New Year Party of the members of The Table Tennis section of the Lagos Country Club last Sunday 14th January, 2024 as exotic cars and landcruiser jeeps filled up the newly refurbished parking lot of the club and many vehicles parked outside.
It was a colourful party as members of the section, their spouses and guests trooped out in large numbers to unwind by listening to the music of KSA.
It was a well organised party that had sumptous dishes for the asking and a wide range of drinks.
And music was superlative. Of course, what else do you expect from KSA who is also a long standing member of this great club. He wore a deep blue long sleeve traditional attire with his native Ondo aso-oke shawl hanging on his neck. KSA is from Ondo.
Some of the guests had assumed that KSA was only coming to play a few old tunes and leave. Those who thought that way were in for a BIG surprise. They were shocked at the sterling performance the King of World Beat offered.
Once KSA walked into the hall, he decided to do sound check and test run the instruments he and his 15 band members were going to use.
He tested sound checked the sound of each band boy from the keyboardist, to the drummers (about 6 of them) to the singers. He also got his Engineer to do the needful.
KSA does not compromise when it comes to the quality of sound he has to offer.
For about 45 minutes he directed the operations back stage, as he dished out instruments left and rigjht. All his technicians and engineers kept running around to make sure that the Chairman, KSA got the top quality output he needed. It was a form of mini-Rehearsal as he busied himself making sure that all his boys were properly prepared for the shows that evening.
When he got everything in tune he steppec forward and took position in the middle of 4 of his boys who are back up singers, ready to take off. It was like a pilot who taxied to the point where his aircraft was to take off.
Once he was ready, KSA started singing one of his evergreen songs. IT was a slow pace tune accompanying it. As he likes to do at the start of his show, he began to crack jokes with his boys, making fun of all his band boys, one by one, and they in return engaged him in a drammatic way, as they played slowly. It was his opening performance which allowed him tune to correct all the flaws he had noticed.
That afforded him the opportunity to left the sound of each instrument. From his countenance he wasn’t still satisfied. He constantly whispered into the ears of a few of the band boys, telling them what he wanted from each person.
Once KSA was satisfied with the sound coming out, he looked left, looked right, turned back (making eye contacts with everybody the band) suddenly came alive and stepped up their performance, with the Chairman taking charge, directing his boys.
Even at that, he still wasn’t okay with the sound he has getting and using eye control he sent messages to those concerned. He did not let the Technicians rest as they kept running helter-sketter to get the right tune.
After going fast tempo for a little while, he stepped down the beat a little to allow him crew to do all that was needed to be done.
Surprisingly the tempo changed again, and everyone in the hall felt the improvement in the sound as it began to hit guests on their chairs.
Again, once KSA realised that he had achieved 90% perfection he again changed the beat and in quick succession, he hit the guests with 4 fast tempo hot numbers that charged up the hall.
The icing on the cake was when KSA and his 4 backup singers began to dance in a well choregraphed manner.
Many guests in low tones began to command KSA. Give it to KSA, he is a great entertainer. Not only does he sing sweet songs, he dances, he also loves to cut with his boys on stage.
For a few minutes every one sat to watch KSA display his stage craft. As he was doing this, one of the valued members of the club who is well known to KSA came on stage to quickly spray King Sunny Ade some money. KSA of course quickly composed a song to praise him. And with all sense of humility, he collected the dollar and naira notes. When the spraying stopped and the man went back to his seat, KSA began to neatly arranged the money.
He separated the dollar notes from the naira notes, kept the dollar in his breast pocket and began to share the N1,000 naira bills among his band boys.
By the time the 30 minutes drama was over, KSA launched into a full side musical extravaganza and worked the whole hall into a frenzy. Suddenly, the number of those on their feet dancing was more than those sitted.
That was the beginning of KSA’s 7 hour stellar performance.
It was non-stop as KSA began to move from one evergreen song to another and his drummers laced the performance with appropriate drum beats.
As a master of the game of many years standing KSA understands how to keep his audience on their feet. KSA was at his best, as he danced and entertained the over 500 good quality guests in the hall that evening.
At some point, everybody stood up to dance and began to mingle, moving from table to table. Both the young and old, the male and female respectively responded to KSA’s tantalising musical beat.
As this was going on delicious, food was being served and all sorts of exotic drinks flowed. The servers meandered though the tables to take more orders for food and drinks. And the Chairman of the Table Tennis section and his members moved round to ensure that no one was left unserved.
By the time the performance reached its peak and KSA was already at an all time high, musicially, many of the big boys who came loaded gravitated towards KSA on the stage to appreciate him. As they began to offload, paying homage to the King who had become fully charged, KSA began to hit even harder with a mix of the old and relatively know tunes.
At a point, there was a queue around KSA on stage made up of people who were loaded and ready to spray KSA.
KSA also has mastered the game as he dished out different songs for each and everyone of them to usher them on stage. And there are some that he has created anthems for.
Many were shocked KSA kept playing for so long non-stop. Members had great fun. Guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
And the Chairman Lawal was happy that everything went well, as planned.
KSA himself was happy because he was the cynosure of all-eyes. All eyes were on him. By the time KSA ended his performance at about 10.30pm, many of the guests were still asking for more. And the DJ also had been waiting in the wing to take took over.
He also got KSA to dance to some of Asake’s songs and KSA regaled everyone with the latest dance steps of the Genzy generation.
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