Gomni!

Old, old favourites. Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate playing together. I discovered them both thanks to Peter Gabriel and Real World records back in the 1990's. In those days before Amazon I had to really hunt through all the record shops I came across in the UK and Denmark and even then I was lucky to find what I was after. So much of my music collection is based on compromise and what was availabe on the shelf, or what could be found in the store computer. Today I just type in the names in You Tube and then order on Amazon. I suppose its better now, but I miss the days when I'd listen to the Andy Kershaw show late nights on the BBC, one finger always ready to press the record button. Those days were good. Mette and I lived in Liverpool, both attending the Liverpool School of Art, at John Moores University and most of our time was taken up with studying and making 'art'. I was studying Graphic Design/Illustration and Mette was studying Fashion.

Liverpool was quite depressing, so on a slow evening I might lie on the sofa, listen to 'world music' and maybe smoke a joint if it was 1996 (I'd given up marijuana by 1997). In the end we left Liverpool and moved to Rochester which was a far nicer place to live. Sunnier, friendlier and nicer to look at. Andy Kershaw lost his slot on the BBC and life switched gears on us. I still had my tapes though, (I still do but they packed down in a box somewhere) but I'd bought a portable Cd player and I was never able to find any of the World Music Kershaw had featured on his show. I did however have a few Cd's by Real World Music and I used them as a reference point to find more.