Blog: Our Iron Lung

Tales From The Malian Sahara

Words by Theodora Wakeley. Tinariwen played Koko, London on 25/10/09. "World music" is seemingly a dirty couple of words at my university campus judging by the sheer difficulty I had in persuading anyone to come with me to see Tinariwen at Kokoy. I ventured alone though on a wild London night (I like to think) and saw what could possibly be my favourite gig of the year so far in terms of atmosphere, uninhibited enjoyment, and pure organic music-making. Tinariwen cannot be fully explained without their comprehensive back-story. However it is a long and complicated one [...]