WITCH playing first ever UK gigs & Documentary
WITCH playing first ever UK gigs & Documentary on lead singer Emmanuel ‘Jagari’ Chanda enters final stages of production.
Emmanuel ‘Jagari’ Chanda, lead singer and last surviving original member of legendary Zambian Garage Psych Rock band WITCH will be performing at Moth Club in London on September 22nd and at Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia on September 23rd 2017. Joining him onstage to play songs from their 5 album catalog will be Jacco Gardner on bass, Jay Whitefield (Whitefield Brothers, Poets of Rhythm) on lead guitar, Patrick Mwondela (‘Disco’ WITCH) on keys, Nic Mauskoviç (Jacco Gardner Band, Eerie Wanda, The Mauskoviç Dance Band, Altin Gün) on drums and Stefan Lilov (L’Eclair) on rhythm guitar.
This will be Jagari’s first time performing in the UK.
WITCH were the most popular Zambian rock band of the 1970s. Fusing influences that ranged from the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple as well as traditional African rhythms, they spearheaded a new genre dubbed Zamrock. Releasing the first Zambian pop album in 1973, followed by another four until 1978, WITCH dominated the Zambian charts. Largely unknown outside their home country, they finally got the exposure they deserved when Now Again Records reissued their whole catalog in 2012. Jagari has since played outside Africa and began a collaboration with Jacco Gardner in 2016 which will be showcased in this 2017 UK tour.
We Intend To Cause Havoc is a feature length documentary on the life and times of Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda, lead singer of the most popular Zambian rock band of the 1970’s, WITCH.
At the peak of their popularity, the band often needed police to keep fans at bay while Jagari, whose name is an Africanisation of Mick Jagger’s, riled up crowds by stage diving from balconies and dancing manically to the WITCH’s blend of Psychedelic Rock and African rhythms. Today a man in his 60’s, Jagari spends his time mining gemstones in Zambia hoping to strike it rich – until very recently, his music just a nostalgic memory of youth.
The film has been in production for the past 30 months, during which Director Gio Arlotta has visited Zambia three times together with Cinematographer Tim Spreng in order to document Jagari’s life, the country and the Zamrock scene. The film is slated for a 2018 release date and has been a co production between Prague based Pantheon Pictures and IS YOUR CLAM IN A JAM?
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this is my alltime favourite shit… i lived in Sierra Leone (1972 – 1976) from Australia and my mother took me and my 2 sisters to the west side in Wilberforce, Freetown when she split with my dad, who took us there to train the locals to set up the library at Fourah Bay College… there was no other westerners there on the west side,and my mum fought to get us in to the school. when i first approached the local boys, they took my thongs off me and broke them, that was fine, and it was barefoot from then on… we went snake hunting,and stoned chameleons, and teased rabid dogs, (one bit my sister and she had a shot),and ate sweet iceblocks with giant ants inside… we danced and sang in the shanty village ( there was always plenty of cassava stew to stain our mouths, jollof rice, and music) i was 8 years old, my mother was able to record the music from the djs on Hanimex tapes which are old and battered, but i continue to find alot of it thanks to the internet. Bands such as Ofege, OK Jazz, Franklin boukaka, Rokel River boys, Ebeneezer Calendar (Eeza-good! Eeza good!… i wish that song came out when we were kids b'coz my best friend Ebeneezer, who had six fingers and six toes… he could knock a chameleon out of the school tree from 1 hundred paces (dead-eye dick), and won the 1hundred metre sprint by at least 5 lengths… no joke!) Afro-National was my first live band experience, who played in the Freetown square market on Sundays, and we would improvise body moving to the beat (like unstylish breakdancing), dressed in colourful bits of found clothing, imitating the 'Devils' (witch doctors… Mama Para was the most powerful)and demanding a lolly reward and chanting ' i beg, i beg, i beg…. my eye turn so.. if i open my eye… i see some-thing!). Anyway… i wonder who's still alive… the west side boys ( the older kids used that name)seem to have a try at surviving the mayhem that followed (all stories about them recorded in history are lies (White!)). If my sisters Fudiya & Isatu who lived with us, are still alive, i love you and sorry for leaving… people were protesting against shaka stevens… then the bomb went off and we had to leave. We tried to stay… at the first goodbye party when my sister, Ange, got hit by the hearse & flip-flopped head over heals, at least twice and skidded to a stop, and split her head… we got an extra 3 months…. then, at the next goodbye party, and we stole the adults cake( my mum told me when i was older that it was laced with ganja… that's why we were jumping out of the bedroom window on the second floor into the big barrel of water and laughing) & wine… Ange, passed out at the top of the stairs and we watched her flip-flop again… resplitting her skull… another 3 months, but that was it. My favourites were Afronational and Rokel River Boys… but i remember the heavy rock stuff as well … wow… thanks Witch & ngozi, and others… i will never forget that soundtrack of those times. I'm glad i found you again ( all the tapes are broken… and many bands forgotten )That's my story. if anyone remembers my family.. please get in touch… i should be back there…Australia is shit… but i'm used to it now. I was young, but Sierra Leone was beautiful… don't ever forget… everyone was happy unless you were cursed, that's what i think. pulling in the fishing nets at Lumley beach in the twilight… nothing compares. Witch rules!