KillahPriest: I was almost taken in by the name also and the sensationalism for clicks via false news is why I always have a problem with Nigerian bloggers. Nice move by seun, common sense must return to Nairaland by force
I don't want to post its username, because it's banned, but if you can find its profile you'll see the number of hidden posts on it.
1) The name of the blog is similar to PM News newspaper, but they are not PM News. It can easily deceive people.
2) They have sometimes published sensational news that's not true and the mods have moved the threads to the front page because they thought that it was published by PM News newspaper.
Excellent thread as usual, however I am surprised that you failed to mention the BAR BEACH SHOW on NTA channel 10 in the late 70s and early 80s. The Bar beach show was the precursor of all the shows you have mentioned here. The Bar beach show was hosted by the late John Chukwu and former Miss Nigeria Rosemary Anieze Adams and was a regular musical show on which musicians and bands of the day were invited to play popular songs for a live audience,who were invited to the open floor to dance to the music played.
Once again, excellent thread.
The Bar Beach Show was in the late 1960s and 1970s (it's mentioned in the post about Art Alade). This thread is about 1980s shows.
Good work getting this info here naptu2 but if this is the Jamaican Eddy Grant, then this isn't true completely.
Eddy Grant did come to Nigeria in the late 70's, I can't remember the label that invited him, and he stayed for between 1 and 3 months.
He cut and album or two and played in a lot of Lagos clubs during that period. He even did a track in Yoruba sef which was incredibly brave of him.
The "many years" part of the stuff in Wikipedia I am definitely sure didn't happen. I guess Eddy Grant might have returned to Nigeria once in a while but still an exaggeration to say many years.
I think they got that from the fact that he did return to Nigeria many times. (He's actually from Guyana).
Exactly! Sesame street, Steptoe and sons, Sanford and sons, Different strokes, Good times, Get Smart, Tomorrow people, famous 5, Sweeny, Joe 90, Knight Rider, Big foot, The incredible hulk, Then later in the 90s the cosby show, Family matters, MacGyver all i can remember now. These are the ones i can relate with. All those in his post are just kinda left-handed except for "contact" and Frank Olise'sNews Line, at 9pm don't think i remember anyone because NTA has always been a very boring channel
naptu2: Note: This thread is about variety shows. It's a specific type of show that features live music, interview with artistes, live comedy, etc.
joseph1832: Bobby Benson bought a car back in yhe day? One would have thought music back in the day isn't profitable like it is today.
Yes, he bought a Mercedes Benz stretch limousine.
Many Nigerian musicians made a lot of money back in the day. What mattered was if you had a deal with a major international record company that could distribute your songs around the world and if you were able to get royalties for the songs.
Musicians that were able to get the conditions above made a lot of money, but those who couldn't didn't make much money.
For example, Christy Essien-Igbokwe's record company gave her the stretch Cadillac limousine below when she sold a certain number of records. King Sunny Ade also had a stretch Cadillac.
However, there were also many musicians who couldn't distribute their work abroad and whose sales in Nigeria were affected by piracy. Back then the NTA also made musicians to sign a contract that meant that NTA could play the music without paying the musicians. Remember that the NTA was a monopoly and the fastest way to become famous was to have your video on the NTA.
Having a poll to select the best moderator will never work. This is the best method.
Yes, it's true, I enjoyed the selection process back in the day when we had polls to select the best poster in each section. The best moderator was selected by a vote in the hidden moderator section and then the thread was made public for all to see.
Unfortunately there are many people that are on Nairaland just to cause trouble and these people usually have numerous accounts.
I remember what happened in 2009 when Becomrich was elected the politics section poster of the year, then the admin annulled the election (because Becomrich was a frequent rule breaker) and then he was reinstated and then then the election was cancelled again and then he was reinstated again.
I also remember what happened in 2012 when Chinua Achebe was voted into the Nairaland Politics Section Hall of Shame and then the election was cancelled and the moderators resigned.
The moderators were appointed by the admin and he gave them a target and instructions on what to do. He is the best person to decide who has met those targets and followed the instructions. If you have a poll, troublemakers will use their numerous accounts to vote for somebody that has done the opposite.
Contact was like a mixture of a variety show and a talk show. It had many famous hosts, but the two that I remember are Onyeka Onwenu and Patrick Oke.
They discussed serious topics as well as entertainment and they sometimed had a guest musician that performed songs.
The NTA celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018 and they showed some of their old programmes again. This video is an advert for two of those programmes. First there is a documentary and then Contact, hosted by Onyeka Onwenu.
Contact was shown on NTA2 Channel 5 and then on the Network Service c1986 and 1987.
There were also many shows like Bandstand and Celebrities which did not have a single host but featured a different musician every week.
naptu2: I guess I can console myself with this, since I can't find Otanjele.
This was the way that I watched the great man decades ago. There were many of these, what I call "Band Stand Shows" on Saturday and Sunday afternoons back in the day and that's where I usually watched him.
Unfortunately the tape had deteriorated before it was digitised and so the colour is gone and the picture is no longer stable, but you can see the Obi of Trumpet, Eddy Okonta, performing.
Bobby Benson's hotel was also known as Caban Bamboo (I'm sure you know that). Caban Bamboo was the name of the nightclub that he established (If I remember correctly, there's a nightclub in Monaco with a similar name) and later, when he built the hotel, people also called the hotel Caban Bamboo.
Wole Soyinka's theatre group practiced there during the daytime and then Bobby Benson would chase them away in the evenings.
I remember Caban Bambo very well because it was the venue for his TV show, The Bobby Benson Show, which was shown on Saturday afternoons.
Unfortunately his children fought over ownership of the giant hotel (which was on Ikorodu Road) after his death. The hotel was abandoned and left to decay. Area boys, armed robbers and drug dealers made the structure their home. Governor Babatunde Fashola decided that it had become a security risk and therefore his government demolished the structure.
This seems to be a good week, because I found the intro to the Bala Miller Show yesterday and now I've found a little clip of the Bobby Benson Show (after searching for it for many years).
The Bobby Benson Show featured music, magic tricks, guest stars, etc.
Here is Bobby Benson singing at Caban Bamboo (Hotel Bobby) in 1980.
naptu2: I was really hurt when this man died. He was an all round entertainer. A musician, magician, tv show host, night club host, hotel owner, etc. I loved watching the funny magic that he performed on his tv show.
Bernard Olabinjo "Bobby" Benson (11 April 1922 – 14 May 1983) was an entertainer and musician who had considerable influence on the Nigerian music scene, introducing big band and Caribbean idioms to the Highlife style of popular West African music.
Life
Bernard Olabinjo Benson was born on 11 April 1921 in Ikorodu, Lagos State, into an aristocratic family. His older brother T. O. S. Benson (1917–2008) would become a successful politician. While at secondary school he also learned tailoring, but after leaving school he became a boxer for a brief period, and then a sailor in the Merchant Navy. In 1944, he left his ship in London, where he made his entertainment debut with the Negro Ballet, touring several European capitals. He met his wife, Cassandra (half-Scottish and half-Caribbean in origin), while in Britain, and on return to Nigeria in 1947 they established the Bobby Benson and Cassandra Theatrical Party.
Their performances included serious music, where he played guitar and saxophone while his wife danced. Based on the popularity of his music, he formed the Bobby Benson Jam Session, a dance band that played swing, jive, sambas and calypsos. In the 1950s, he expanded his band to 11 members, including a trumpet section, and began playing in the popular highlife style. Their first big hit was "Taxi Driver", followed by several others.
Benson was an entertainer and a comedian as well as a singer, a great performer. He had a show on NTA in the 1970s, where he performed as a stand-up comedian and magician, as well as playing and singing. He became a friend of B.B. King and Hugh Masekela. Benson established the Caban Bamboo, a popular nightclub later converted into the Hotel Bobby. He had several wives, and 10 children. Benson died in Lagos on Saturday, 14 May 1983.
Music
Bobby Benson started by playing standard big-band music, but later introduced African themes, as a pioneer of Highlife music in Nigeria. His song "Taxi Driver" became a classic hit in West Africa, covered by several other musicians, blending Caribbean and jazz styles. Other hits were "Gentleman Bobby" and "Iyawo se wo lose mi", "Mafe", "Nylon Dress" and "Niger Mambo".
Legacy
Various prominent musicians started out playing in Benson's band, including Roy Chicago, Sir Victor Uwaifo, Bayo Martins and Zeal Onyia. Victor Olaiya started as a trumpeter with Bobby Benson's band, and became one of the first Nigerian musicians to play highlife with his group the "Cool Cats". Another player with Benson's band who moved into highlife was Eddie Okonta, with his "Lido Band". Benson's innovations in musical style also influenced the evolution of popular Jùjú music.
"Taxi Driver", his biggest hit, and "Niger Mambo", an African melody with the Latin beat, were covered with different interpretations by American artists such as Stanley Turrentine and Jackie McLean. Randy Weston covered "Niger Mambo" in a solo performance on his 1978 album Rhythms-Sounds Piano, describing the piece as representing exactly what is called "high life style" in West Africa.
Benson also had musical collaborations with the internationally acclaimed and musical legend Eddy Grant, who stayed in Lagos and performed at the Hotel Bobby for many years. This collaboration lasted for many years, allowing Grant to be able to acclimatise himself to the Nigerian culture. Consequently, Grant was able to speak and record many successful songs and albums in Yoruba and Pidgin English.
NTA Channel 10 convinced Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe to have his own weekly television show in the 1980s. It was basically like a live concert. There were no guests, no magic tricks, no interviews, just Osita Osadebe and his band performing songs.
Osondi Owendi live on the Stephen Osita Osadebe Show.
(March 17, 1936[1] – May 11, 2007), often referred to as just Osita Osadebe, was a Nigerian highlife musician from Atani. During his career spanning over four decades, he became one of the best known musicians of Igbo highlife. His best-known hit was the 1984 single "Osondi Owendi", which established him as a leader in the highlife genre and was one of Nigeria's most popular records ever.
Biography
Osadebe was born in March 17, 1936, in the Igbo town of Atani in Southeastern Nigeria. He came from a line of singers and dancers in Igboland. His genre, Highlife, encompassed Igbo and traditional musical elements. Along with this, calypso, Samba, bolero, rumba, Jazz and waltz were also present in Osadebe's musical style. It was in his high school years in Onitsha, a major commercial city near Atani, that Osadebe grew interested in music.
Career
Osadebe started his career singing at nightclubs in Lagos in the southwestern region of Nigeria. He had been a part of The Empire Rhythm Orchestra, led by E. C. Arinze in which he had learned much of his music skills. A prolific composer, Osadebe released his first album in 1958, and went on to write over 500 songs; half of which were released commercially. After stints with the Stephen Amache Band and the Central Dance Band in around 1964, Osadebe struck out as a bandleader with his group the Sound Makers.
As he became better established, Osadebe's style matured to include social commentary, similar to, but not as confrontational as Fela Kuti. Personal trials and tribulations were usually the main topics of his commentaries. He sang in English, pidgin English and Igbo. Osadebe often extended his tracks for his audience's enjoyment, allowing room for 'people on the dance floor' to indulge in the songs. He earned the nickname "the Doctor of Hypertension" in reference to "the healing powers of his music".
Osadebe succeeded in breaking away from the conventional big band format established by the pioneers of the music, a format that favored melodic progressions that were in the common meter, church hymnal tradition. He succeeded in completely transforming highlife into the call-and-response pattern of African music.
Following the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s, the massive exodus of the eastern peoples of Nigeria (especially the Igbo) out of western Nigeria had caused the death of the Highlife's prominence in the then capital, Lagos. During the war and after the war Osadebe maintained his scheduled live performances. Jùjú music and later Afrobeat took precedence in Lagos, and in the 1970s James Brown and various other music forms became popular in the city. In this same decade, Osadebe's career had reached its zenith. After turning 50 in 1986, Osadebe started to give priority to fatherhood and gave more of his time to his son Obiora and his other children from his wives. One of Osita Osadebe's last albums is Kedu America.
Osita Osadebe died in St. Mary's Hospital Waterbury, Connecticut on 11 May 2007 after suffering from severe respiratory difficulties.
Career / Re: Must I Study Medicine Or Pharmacology In Order To Sell Drugs In Nigeria? by naptu2: 1:40pm On Jan 29
