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Black Arm Band should be big

By Jane Cornwell

Archie Roach and Shane Howard

27 June 2008 - Evening Standard UK - Part Aboriginal soul revue, part civil rights statement, The Black Arm Band have been a huge hit in Australia, where this year's official apology to Indigenous people felt long overdue. Organisers took a huge risk bringing this sprawling 28-piece collective to London. Last night, it paid off.

Backed by strings, horns and piano, before a backdrop of often poignant film images, a wealth of Aboriginal talent sound-tracked contemporary Aboriginal life - and revealed the other side of the Lucky Country.

Here were national treasures such as bluesman Archie Roach and his wife, the deep-voiced Ruby Hunter, singer/songwriter Joey Geia, rockreggae icon Bart Willoughby and honorary blackfella Shane Howard reprising his 1982 hit Solid Rock - Aboriginal Australia's first mainstream political anthem. And didgeridoo player Mark Atkins, circular-breathing the sound of the oldest culture on earth.

Here was new, vital talent: Dan Sultan, bashing a tambourine and leaping from growl to falsetto, and Shellie Morris, singing up the stolen generation on the glorious Swept Away.

Traditionally-painted lawman Gapanbulu Yunupingu - dancing and clapping sticks on a cover of Yothu Yindi's Treaty - underlined the spirit of reconciliation in this creative outpouring.

As Australia's Motown - and its conscience - The Black Arm Band should soon be very big indeed.

Source: The Evening Standard UK

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