The NTA showed a lot of variety shows in the 1970s and 1980s and many highlife artistes performed on these shows. Some of these shows were hosted by the highlife artistes, while others, like Bandstand, featured a different artiste every week. I am now going to post videos of these artistes performing on those shows.
On this thread there will be videos and details of:
The Bala Miller Show (8pm NTA Network)
The Art Alade Show (Sunday mornings, NTA Channel 10).
The Bobby Benson Show (NTA Channel 10 and later NTA2 Channel 5, Saturday afternoons)
Princess Afi Usuah Show (NTA Network, 8pm, I can't remember what day)
The Stephen Osita Osadebe Show (NTA Channel 10, can't remember what day or time)
The YomYem Show (Sunday mornings, NTA Channel 10).
Contact (6pm on NTA2 Channel 5 and later on the Network Service).
The Bala Miller Show ran from c1982 till c1987 (reruns were shown till the early 1990s). Many of the big stars of the 1980s were guests on the show.
naptu2: The opening sequence was actually in two parts. Everybody will remember the second part, but most might not remember the first part.
1st part.
We see him walk out of a building and get into a white SL Class Mercedes Benz (R107). We follow him as he drives to NTA Kaduna, gets out of the car and goes into the building (the opening credits were rolling all through the journey and the band is playing the instrumental version of his hit song Ikon Allah).
2nd part.
He is on stage in the studio. The spotlight is on him and his band is behind him, in the darkness.
He talks about that day's show, the guests that will be on the show, the theme of the show and some of the songs that they are going to play. He sings or drags out the last word of every sentence and the band punctuates his sentences.
It's slowly building up to the moment that everybody is waiting for. Then it starts:
"Wel-come ev-er-y body (Band: dadada dadadumdum Dadadada dadadumdum)
For you and you and you and you Ati iwo na!
(Band: dadada dadadumdum Dadadada dadadumdum)
For you and you and you and you Ha da kai ma!
The Bala Miller Show.
I wish I could find a video of the episode in which he interviewed Kris Okotie (c1983)
naptu2: This is the origin of the Bala Miller Show signature tune.
This song was a huge hit for Bala Miller and the Musical Pirameeds of Africa in the 1970s. He decided to use it as the signature tune of his TV show in the 1980s.
"Wait a minute", you might say. "That's not Bala Miller!"
Well, Bala Miller isn't the one singing. That's a member of the band called Abdullahi. Bala Miller is at the back (to the left), conducting the band.
Bala Miller and the Musical Pirameeds of Africa - Ikon Allah (performed on the Bala Miller Show in 1984).
naptu2: (And this reminds me of another video that I'm still searching for).
This is a video of the great Bala Milla interviewing Yvonne Maha in 1983.
PLEASE, does anybody have a video of Bala Milla interviewing Kriss Okotie? It was shown in the early 1980s and Kriss Okotie was wearing dark glasses, a very flashy jacket and he looked like a replica of Michael Jackson.
naptu2: I can't believe that I forgot to post this absolutely awesome video on this thread.
From Kaduna, it's the Bala Miller Show (Wel-come every-body!).
Steve Rhodes, Bala Miller and Gloria Rhodes (backed by Bala Miller's band and some members of Steve Rhodes' band) perform a medley of highlife songs including
naptu2: I decided to try my luck and search for the video of Kris Okotie's appearance on the Bala Miller Show. Unfortunately I can't find it (though Bala Miller did mention Kris Okotie in this video below).
I want you to watch Kris Okotie's appearance, because I want you to see what he wore. I can't even remember what he said, but I can never forget what he wore.
Anyway, this is a superstar just before she became a superstar. This is Veno Marioghae's appearance on the Bala Miller Show, but the year is 1984, so this is just before she became incredibly famous, so she's not singing "Nigeria Go Survive" here. She's singing another song.
Bala Miller (1928–2003) was a Nigerian musician who was influential in the development of the highlife music scene in Nigeria.
Life
The son of Rev Miller of Zaria, a missionary who was an early Christian convert from Hausaland. Miller was born in 1928 in Pankshin, Plateau State. He was the last son in a family of five girls and three boys. Miller's upbringing exposed him to music at an early age. He developed interest in music when his father was posted to the Holy Trinity Church in Lokoja, for the first time in his life, he saw various musical instruments within the church and its adjoining school, instruments that were purchased or handed down by the colonial militia. Miller took interest in playing the church's musical instruments, at age nine, he was in the school's band and also sang during church services.
Career
He attended CMS Grammar School, Lagos where he was active in the school's band. While in school, he joined a Calabar Brass Band that played at street corners and in weddings. After graduation, he studied marketing and also played as a part-time member of Samuel Akpabot's band. He worked for Lever Brothers in Lagos and in the evenings played the trumpet or the cornet with Akpabots' band. When Akpabot traveled abroad, Miller formed a band with an hotelier, Laremi Cole called the West End Club after Cole's West End Hotel. However, working for Lever Brothers entailed that Miller traveled a lot, so when he was posted outside of Lagos, Miller introduced Victor Olaiya, a trumpeter and band leader in one of Bobby Benson's bands to join West End Club as band leader. They had a hit with the highlife song, Oni dodo, oni moi moi. Chris Ajilo, a band leader in England and his friend Sammy Lartey also joined the team. They played regularly at the hotel mostly for kicks, however the band was struggling financially. But when Benson later approached Ajilo and another bandmate, Samuel Lartey to form a new band, their exit caused disruption in the band and Miller had to regroup. Luckily, Miller wrote his first major hit Kusimilaya, the song's popularity coincided with the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Nigeria and Miller's song was performed during the queen's visit. He later composed Kusimilaya 2, teaming with Fela Sowande and Steve Rhodes for the arrangement.
In 1956, he joined Nigerian Breweries and was posted to Kaduna, with Victor Olaiya, the leading band member, the band later became known as Victor Olaiya and the Cool Cats.
While in Northern Nigeria, Miller visited a hotel that had three bands playing, one of the bands was called Universal Band, he became a mentor to the band's members. The band later changed their name to Sahara All-Stars, after a visit to the Lagos music scene. Miller worked for different corporations, in 1966, he worked for the Nigeria Port Authority in Lagos, there he formed the company's band, Harbours Dance Band. The new band regularly played at Island Club.
In 1973, he organized the establishment of a music school in Kano. The governor of Kano, Audu Bako was a friend of Miller and had asked Miller for input in solving juvenile delinquency within the state, Miller suggested a musical school to train young adults how to play instruments. When the school opened in 1973, Miller was appointed its first director. In 1977, Miller was involved in the development of the music programme at FESTAC 77, during the festival's preparations, he was inspired to form a new band. In March 1977, after placing ads for players, he formed Bala Miller and the Music Pyrameeds of Africa. Originally a twelve piece band that later grew to become a 28 piece big band. The band was innovative for his use of Hausa lyrics in highlife composition.
In 1985, Miller had a variety show on NTA Network.
The Art Alade Show had many formats. Sometimed he was in the NTA studio with a piano in front of him and he played music and interviewed guests. Sometimes (as in the video below) he was at his nightclub, Art's Place, performing in front of a live audience.
Getting back from church on a Sunday morning. The house is filled with the aroma of delicious food and people are playing football (and sometimes rugby) outside. Sit down to eat breakfast while watching the Art Alade Show.
(It was previously shown at night, I think at 10pm, but I can’t remember what day of the week that was).
Modupe Afolabi Jemi-Alade (December 14, 1937 - June 29, 1993) popularly known as Art Alade was a Nigerian television personality and producer who was the host of The Bar Beach Show a weekly variety show on NBC-TV that aired during the 1970s. He retired from NTA in 1979 as acting Director of Programmes.
After he left NTA, he embarked on a career in music and established a club, Art's Place, where he performed regularly.
Life
Alade was born on December 14, 1937 to the family of Babatunde and Abiodun Jemi-Alade, his father Babatunde Jemi Alade who was the first Yagba man to become a Principal Custom's officer in Lagos in the early 1929s and his mother taught music at a girl's only school, she was a granddaughter of Mohammed Shitta Bey. He was married to Olapeju Olufunmilayo Cole and they had 5 children.
Alade graduated from C.M.S. Grammar School, Lagos and then travelled abroad to attend Devon Technical College and London School of Television Production in the U.K.. Alade began his career as a musician on a cruise line, the Greek Line. By 1964, on his return from U.K., he joined the staff of Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation now known as NTA.
He compered the hugely popular 'Bar Beach Show' and hosted the 'Art Alade Show'- the first Variety Show on Network TV in Africa. In 1979 he established 'Arts Place' an entertainment centre comprising a night club, restaurant and art gallery.
Alade was appointed acting director of Programmes in 1978 and retired a year later.
He is the father of Nigerian multi-platinum selling and award-winning musician, singer-songwriter, and Idol series judge popularly called Darey.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1John.4.20 - If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
1John.4.21 - And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
Prayer: Father please help me to love my brother no matter how difficult it gets in Jesus name. Amen.
