report Night of the Gypsies March 4th

Or how Belgian small-town inhabitants discover Fanfare Ciocarlia!

First we saw Mec Yek, a five-headed band with Katia and Mielka Pohlodkova, two very gifted singers. Their Halgads sung in Romani were quite moving. Looking forward to their concert in KultuurKafee where I can dance on their Cardasses. Unluckilly we were seated on the balcony in the back.
http://www.choux.net/contentENG/mecyek/index.html

Next one up would have been "Gitans de Perpignan" if their name wasn't changed into "Los Rubmeros Catalan" and they wouldn't have come from... Catalonia. There convincing performance had something in between the Gypsy Kings and Ojos de Brujo. So this is how catalan gyspsy wedding music looks like... amazing! However they don't seem to have a proper website...

Anyway, all our memories of the former bands disappeared when Fanfare Ciocarlia came up, just one day after having won the prestigous BBC3 World music Award category "Europe". One by one the artists appeared on stage, each one of them grown with/on/in his instrument, as if each one's character and physical appearance extisted according to his brass peace.
Fist it started slow, but then suddenly.. WHAM! salvos of thrumpets and basses followed by a contagious rhytms were fired onto the public where the senior citizens feld quite uneasy but made the youngsters go nuts on the balcony in the back. Blast after blast it kept comming, including 4 pieces of Bregovic (Bubamara, Duj Sandale, Kalasjnikov and Mesecina), which made the belgian (younger) crowd go absolutely banana! This guy sang most of the songs along, or at least the chorus.
After the last introductions of the band members Fanfare Ciocarlia got a standing ovation, so that they continued their bis numbers. So when some guys couldn't got held back from the stage the band said "well, what the hell" and walked joyfully playing into the crowd, just next to our seats and furher into the foyer. There the dancing and lumpovanje really started, those guys are untamable! Don't believe me? Just watch this video... pffieeew!
I hope these photos can discribe some of the event.