The Elcados: Stars shining together again

Tony Nosika: We should start from the beginning, when we were known as The Elcados, we rocked the town then as the Moonrakers. We started back in Zaria and that was in the late 60s, later we changed the name to The Elcados. Steve Black was the lead singer, Frank, the leader of the band […]

Tony Nosika: We should start from the beginning, when we were known as The Elcados, we rocked the town then as the Moonrakers. We started back in Zaria and that was in the late 60s, later we changed the name to The Elcados. Steve Black was the lead singer, Frank, the leader of the band was a guitarist, and Tony played base. The Elcados rocked the whole northern states and beyond. We did one single and two albums, after which Frank left for Europe, while Steve went to play with Clusters in Lagos and Tony, continued with The Elcados for a while before forming a band which supplied back-up music for Onyeka Onwenu.

 

The band later moved to Benin which saw the production of some albums. In between all these, Frank came and went to the US and Tony followed suit.

Steve Black: Frank came back from England again and after some time around, he played with the Mandators before returning to the US. Steve was playing regularly, while Tony has a recording studio, which helps some of our artists in the States. We are back in Nigeria and are thinking of setting up something here like a recording studio that can be used to help our young upcoming artists since as a group we have acquired a wealth of experience. We think it’s high time we came back and developed the music industry here.

Are you back finally or temporarily?

Frank Martins: Temporarily. We just came back to look around and see where we can start from, meet some few friends, see what we can do and also where we can pitch our tents maybe Abuja or Lagos.

How is it that you settled in the north and not Lagos or somewhere down south to build your career at that time?

Tony Nosika: Actually, we started in Lagos, I was born in Lagos and I went to school in Ijebu-Ode. In search of greener pastures and not knowing anybody there, Frank travelled to Zaria. He has always been like that; exploring the country wanting to see what is on the other side. He just moved to Zaria, the train took him, he was just going, when he got to Zaria, then he stopped. But because he is a very good guitarist, he showed off his talent and what he can do, you all know music is universal. He said if I get to Zaria, I know I will succeed in my career. I think Frank can continue from here.

Steve Black: Let me just cut in there a little bit, amongst our school mates were the former Governor of Lagos State, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, Remi Abdul and some other big guys, that was the Muslim College, Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State.

Frank Martins: We all went to the same high school and I used to play in the school then. In fact, Tony and I grew up together. After secondary school in Lagos then, it was so difficult to find a job and I needed to succeed. With no godfather to link me up with the Big Boys then, I went up north on hearing about the place and how lucrative music was there. My friends kept putting fear in me so I may be discouraged, but my mind was made up after all, there was nothing left for me.

I packed my bags with just enough to pay for a train ticket to the north. At the station, I showed the lady my money and asked her to give me a ticket that would carry me as far as the money could cover and she said it would take me to Zaria. That’s how I ended up there and spent three nights sleeping at the station after I arrived. I had no money for food or even tour the city. One morning as I stood outside the station, a woman beckoned on me speaking Hausa, but I didn’t understand what she was saying not until she asked me to follow her.

I was so scared but I had nothing to lose because I was so hungry, so I went with her and she took me to Biodun Bakare’s house but he was in Lagos recruiting band members. She introduced me to a Yoruba woman and the lady spoke to me in Yoruba asking me if I was a musician, and I said ‘yes’, she also said this lady, her husband sent a message from Ibadan that he was sending some musicians down to Zaria and that was why she went to the rail station to see if any of the guys are around, then she saw me and thought I was one of the guys.

I eventually met the band-owner Biodun Bakare and impressed him with my guitar skills. We rehearsed together for some days and I was given a contract to play in Moonshine Hotel, Zaria.

We later had problem about salaries, and I also had problems with the band leader, who also played the guitar because whenever people made special song requests, they come to me instead of him. Soon the band stopped playing at the hotel and the owner approached me to head a new band.

He sent me to Lagos to get some musicians, so I went to fetch my old friends. I met Don Bruce who was a musician then in Lagos. He was leading a band called The Cute, and my plan was to bring him up to Zaria to lead the band. Since they needed drummer and another guitar player, I brought in Tony. A day to our departure Don Bruce said he wasn’t going so I was left with only Tony and the drummer Gordy.

Tony Nosika: We started to build the music and that time, with an ambition to go places. We were very young and good and we were into foreign stuffs connecting with the Beetles. Before us another northern-based group, The Supreme was already making waves, so the man told us that if we can play half to what those boys sing, he would take us places. They were a sight on TV and in their BMW convertibles. Be knew we could do better than they were.

When we started playing in Zaria, the city became too small for us because the people like Adamu Augie will come and watch us. They were all young then, they would come all the way from Kaduna with their friends. Since Zaria is the centre for education in the north, most of all these boys from A.B.U or Civil Aviation will come down, and because what was happening in Zaria was too big for Zaria, especially as the people were more used to the local musicians, we set a standard that needed more than Zaria to absorb.

How did you come by the name Elcados?

Steve Black: A friend of ours did after we split from the Kano group as Moonrakers. We still don’t know what it means but everybody liked the sound of it so it stuck.

What major concerts did you have?

Steve Black: A lot. We were the rave of the moment. We were so famous that we were all over the north from Jos, to Kaduna, Zaria, Kano and even at events like Miss New Nigeria with Khalifa Baba-Ahmed. We went on to doing TV shows. The likes of Idi Farouk (DG, National Orientation Agency) and (current Vice President), Namadi Sambo, whose nickname at the time was ‘Escape’ used to come from school to watch us perform.

How would you rate Nigerian musicians today compared to your time?

Frank Martins: Nigerian musicians are lazy now. They don’t play anything and don’t rehearse. They are not time conscious or disciplined. We used to stay long during rehearsal hours until we got it right. We didn’t look at the time because our aim was perfection.  They don’t care to learn to play instruments whereas that was priority for us. Today they sample sounds and produce their music with technology helping to improve the bad sounding ones. In our time everything was live.

Is technology in that light not a plus to the industry?

Steve Black: It is a good thing. It improves you but here they are not improved by it. Abroad, technology is there but the musicians still work very hard. Here they are dependent on the technology picking from each other with everyone sounding alike. In our time each band had its own unique sounds. If you want to make money you have to be good. Money does not just drop from the tree. You have to pay your dues. Today artistes want the success very fast without climbing the ladder. We had the passion and wanted to pursue careers. Initially, local music was the other of the day, but we started building up pop music and took it to a level where it cut across. Radio stations preferred foreign music, but we kept the fight and others joined in and the pop culture started growing in Nigeria. Today everybody is listening to Nigerian music.

Still Nigerian musicians lack the will to become excellent. Demos are produced on keyboards. No real work goes into producing music. All these have led to a drop in our musicianship. That is why when most of them go to play, they use their soundtrack. In Europe and America, the Beyoncés play live.

Do you think local Nigerian music still has a place in the Nigerian society?

Tony Nosika: Particularly in the Third World we are being influenced every day by what we see on TV and of the West. Our children want to emulate these. Fela upon his return from England refined our local songs and sold them to the West.  We don’t research into our own local instruments and even folk songs. It is very good that they embellish their songs with our local languages. This is how they were able to break the boundaries.  Also, the masters failed to groom people to take over from them. So very soon the style of Mamman Shata, Dan Mariya and Fela will fade.

What do you think of the crises up North, especially in those towns that were once home to you?

Frank Martins: It is very sad. We went to see the Costain Club from where we started. It is such a shadow of what it used to be. In our days, we didn’t know where the other came from. We didn’t identify ourselves by ethnicity or religion. We were, simply, Nigerians. Muslims were as many as the Christians who came to watch our shows. I don’t think that will happen today.