adminIf you were at the recently ended Hifa, you probably found tangible energy circulating in the air throughout Harare. And at the pith of the week’s artistic beauty was the magnificent Noisettes featuring our one and only Shingai Shoniwa.
Absolutely fantastic! That is my opinion of the Shingai Shoniwa and Dan Smith/Noisettes performance at Hifa last Thursday night.
I had been looking forward to seeing more of Shingai’s bass playing antics, but to my surprise she spent more time on the microphone. With the Noisettes she has become one of those guys who plays guitar more than she doesn’t.
The Noisettes have found someone else to do the bass to allow Shingai to concentrate on the vocals. She is full of energy and she can sing. She eventually played the bass towards the end in a Thomas Mapfumo cover version of “Shumba” where she invited Hope Masike, Chiwoniso Maraire and Tariro neGitare to join in.
In this song, her right hand’s fingernails have thickened and grown for the sole purpose of flicking strings with precision and authority. She indeed commanded her throat-rattling bass instrument without hesitation as she struck up her intricate fretwork, leaving behind a lone smile.
It turns out, as I found out last Thursday, that Shingai Shoniwa was the bearer of aggressive, politically charged punk rock and the Noisettes’ own distinctive hybrid of soul music.
Don’t get me wrong, her lyrical barbs were as gruff, impassioned, and precise when she belted out tunes such as “Don’t Give Up” and “Atticus” which she dedicated to Zimbabweans for their resilience in times of difficulties.
She went on to churn out several poignant verses on “Wild Young Hearts”, “Iwe” and “Every Now and Then” before doing a cover version of Miram Makeba’s “Kilimanjaro”, a song which saw Shingai through costume change as she prepared for more daring antics.
I was particularly moved by the acappella tune entitled “Rag Top Car” which brought about perfect harmonies from the Noisettes.
This tune offered the most diversity of the evening and this bare-bones approach gave Shingai’s music a directness and coherency that could only be achieved without distracting bells and whistles.
Choosing to air on the side of obscure, it wasn’t until the final 15 minutes of the set that she hit the fans with “Never Forget You” as she climbed up the lighting post on the stage and sang the whole tune clinging onto the steps of the post.
At that juncture she declared that she was indeed following the spirit of her Soko (monkey) totem and called herself “branch manager” due to the monkey’s tree climbing antics.
As if that was not enough she called out to the audience: “Any strong man out there?” Danny, a DJ from Zimbabwe’s Zi-FM radio station, went on stage and Shingai asked him to carry her on his shoulders while she moved into the crowd with a trail of security personnel behind. The crowd loved it and they warmed up to that act with immense intensity.
The show would not have come to a conclusion if she had not sung her popular tunes such as ‘Don’t Upset the Rhythm’, “Let the Music Play”, “That Girl” and “Every Now and Then”.
Shingai Elizabeth Maria Shoniwa was born on September 22 1981. Today she is best known as the vocalist and bass player for the UK-based rock band, The Noisettes.
She was born in London and grew up in South London. Her father, who was a politician, died when she was 11, leaving her to a single mother, Leoba, who remarried Dr Kureya, a Zimbabwean who was a Cambridge University medical student at the time. Shoniwa’s twin sister, Shorai Shoniwa, is a TV presenter in the UK. Shingai first wanted to be an actress, and for a while joined the Lost Vagueness crew as a burlesque performer.
She studied circus skills at a London youth club as a teenager. That probably explains the climbing up the lighting post last Thursday. When she graduated, she attended art school and dabbled in local theatre.
Her classmate and friend, Dan Smith, the wicked guitarist who accompanied the Noisettes last week, would hold what she called “ridiculous jam sessions” — following in the footsteps of Syd Barrett. (Syd Barrett is the founder member of Pink Floyd).
With encouragement from her mother, Leoba, she then went on to study at the British School of Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon, South London. One day she joined Dan Smith singing, and the two quickly formed a group called the Noisettes.
Critical response to Shoniwa’s performance has largely been positive. Rolling Stone magazine said that “Shoniwa is a living, breathing manifestation of the rock & roll spirit, with a voice that is equal in parts to Iggy Pop and Billie Holiday.” In her stage persona, Shoniwa looks like what the New Yorker called “an African supermodel”, and she frequently performs in bare feet while wearing face paint or fur hats on stage.
Shingai Shoniwa has provided backing vocals for different artistes. Among them Annie Lennox of the Eurhythmics fame. The track they recorded together, which was about the fight against HIV and Aids, included 22 other renowned female artistes such as Madonna, Melissa Etheridge, Gladys Knight and Celine Dion.
Shoniwa, along with Patti Smith and Julliette Lewis helped celebrate Jack Daniel’s (Jack Daniels is the owner of America’s biggest whiskey distillery) birthday in Lynchburg, Tennessee, US, on October 13 2007. The three were joined by The New Silver Cornet Band for the show, which took place at the company’s distillery.
The event was part of the 157th birthday celebrations for Jack Daniel, who was born in September 1850. The Birthday JD Set opened to specially invited guests and competition winners only.
I spoke to Shingai backstage after her Hifa performance and this is what she had to say: “It was overwhelming. It’s really a dream come true to come back home to my roots and to such a wonderful audience. I feel good.”
I asked members of the audience how they felt about Shingai’s performance. “Absolutely brilliant!” seemed to be the outcry from everyone.
On a different note, I think next time Hifa must train their security staff in public relations. After the concert, as people were going out, an enthusiastic big burly bouncer called Johnathan (J.J.) started an unnecessary congestion by asking people going home to show their arm bands before he let them out of the small gate he was manning.
Ridiculous! On being asked why he was doing that, his response was “I am only carrying out my duties. No one wants to get hassled after having a good time. I am sure the organisers did not ask him to stop people from going back home.
Someone with common sense should have been given this responsibility. If I was on the management board of Hifa would not consider such people for employment in future. They discourage future attendance. On the whole, Hifa as usual was well organised.
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