Band battle
Given the opportunity to be a star, asks Salonaz Sami, would you have what it takes?
To highlight local talent, After 8, arguably the most popular dance club in Cairo, held a four-week competition of live concerts, Battle of the Bands (7 February-6 March), which took place on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout the event's duration. The award? A six-month residency at the club, offering an unsurpassed opportunity for exposure.
Sponsored by Nile FM in collaboration with the club's own management, the competition, according to one of the radio channel's presenters, Mohamed Safi, required candidates to submit their own original song in order to be eligible. The target number of competitors was 10, but originality proved so scarce a commodity, Safi regretfully explains, that in the end only five bands competed: "Even the best known six or seven bands declined the offer, because they had nothing original to play. That was very telling."
The theory was to encourage audiences to stop expecting covers and appreciate original music, something, he stresses, "the Egyptian live music scene really needs". Besides which, he points out, it means a lot to musicians not only to perform live but to make reasonable money out of it -- a possibility that very rarely becomes available. Another, added perk was that, with high-end equipment, all concerts were recorded live for replay on the channel; this in turn set off a new voting process that helps assess the viability of the competing bands.
Tareq El-Marsafi, the owner of After 8, explained that the winner was chosen by vote: every night the bands were playing, voting cards were distributed, allowing customers to rate the music on a scale from one to 10. The same competition -- El-Marsafi's brainchild -- was held last year when, though the channel did not sponsor it, it received excellent radio coverage. (Last year's winner, Safi says, was given the opportunity to play live at the station). It was therefore only natural that El-Marsafi should approach Nile FM about sponsoring the competition this year: "They did one hell of a job to promote the Battle in its first round, which spread the word to musicians and listeners who did not know After 8."
The event has proved relevant to many beyond the musicians themselves. Ahmed Essam, a young pilot who regularly spends evenings at After 8, complained that, "nobody takes music seriously in Egypt. The typical perspective is that making music has no future and can't be considered a career. So it's always relegated to the margins, even though it's actually among the most important things, enriching lives and refining sentiments."
Though many Egyptians -- something more evident among the young -- are by nature either talented musicians or connoisseurs, Egyptian musicians have yet to enter the international arena. Bands do not have the necessary backing to "make it", according to Safi: "that said, I must say that I'm happy, excited and very proud that there are many Egyptian bands who can play what I would call world-class music." If they had adequate facilities and marketing, he adds, they would be occupying the space they deserve on the world scene.
El-Marsafi adds to the conditions necessary for world fame: perpetual development, adaptability, charisma and "real passion". Especially with regard to live music, music cannot be treated as just another profitable job -- a view corroborated by Rasha Hussein, an assistant TV director and another regular listener: "If a band is always the same, people will soon get bored of it." A band must have what she calls "sense", the ability to know when to change and what to, both in the space of a single concert and over time.
"The thing about live entertainment," Essam adds, "is that you get to see how music is actually made." This is a whole other perspective than that afforded by recorded music: "in such a competition, you get to see how the roles are distributed, how the music is produced, as this happens. That's why live music is so much more enjoyable." It's why what After 8 and the Cairo Jazz Club offer, as opposed to the DJs at most dance clubs, "is a truly rare thing". Hussein agrees: "It made the competition so much more valuable on so many levels. And your response is always different somehow -- more intense."
Yet finding bands capable of delivering live is almost as difficult as finding bands with original songs, as El-Marsafi explained: "I wanted local bands to come in and take part principally so that the club would have a new, talented band to play live for the rest of the season. And this is why the competition will happen again next year. Besides," he adds, "we are learning from our mistakes -- the mostly logistical miscalculations of this year will all be avoided next year. I can assure you of that."
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