Eric (Showboy) Akaeze And His Royal Ericos

There we go with another Afro beat classic that did not really leave Nigeria back in the day it was released. Therefore we canonly guess the value among collectors but some reliable sources tell us that even not so mint original copies go for up to $600. The Afrodisia sublabel of Decca Music is responsible for quite a few awesome Afro beat gems that have only recently beenrediscovered by never sleeping music lovers such as the folks behind Everland Music from The Netherlands and here we gowith the first ever official reissue of Eric Showboy Akaeze's second album with His Royal Ericos. Eric Showboy Akaeze wasformer bigband leader who was hip on the Nigerian scene, which mostly happened around the main city of Lagos in the '60s andespecially '70s after the military junta took over the reign and was keen to bring in more indegenious elements to the peoples allday lives and a new style of music emerged, Afro beat, mixing western rock and funk, rocksteady and soul with rhythms and melodies that clearly had an African heritage. He was nicknamed Ikoto, which is the Nigerian word for a spinner, the child's toy, due to his dancing style where he was spinning around like mad during shows. He was an extraordinary dancer and showman and what mostly interests us, he was a wonderful bandleader and musician. When Fela Kuti became the rising star on the scene and soon the musician most hated by the regime, Akaeze soon fell into Kuti's shadow but he maintained his musical activities until his untimely death in 2002 and with this, his second masterpiece 'Ikoto Rock', referring to his nickname and his own style Akaeze created from this, his legacy was carved in rock. What kind of music shall we now expect from this 1974 release? The original holds 4 lengthy, groovy compositions with a jammy, nearly improvised feeling in some parts, for the reissue Everland Music dragged out the utterly scarce 7" 'Akalaka' from 1975 (even beat up copies go for $700) and added both tracks to the A and B side of the album respectively. It...