Africa Express

Middlesbrough Town Hall

IT'S not every night you see a host of multi-million-selling artists on your front doorstep. But one unforgettable night in Middlesbrough saw that happen.

The Africa Express – a 1970s locomotive with African-style liveried rolling stock – rocked into Middlesbrough on Monday, bringing with it a host of stars from all over the world.

Billed as a largely improvised show, the leader of the pack was Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who was joined on stage for a four-hour show by Rizzle Kicks, Maximo Park, The Temper Trap, Carl Barat from The Libertines, members of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Magic Numbers as well as African stars Baaba Maal, Malian duo Amadou & Mariam, Rokia Traore, Congolese singer Baloji, previous Albarn collaborators Jupiter & Okwess International, Malian songstress Fatoumata Diawara, and many more.

At times, the show resembled organised chaos. Soundchecks were done largely on the fly, microphones were kept moving about the stage, the crew spent the whole night on the stage keeping everything moving about.

At one point there were four different sets of drums on the stage, three guitarists, a bass player, three keyboards – one of them Albarn himself – a DJ in the corner as well as a horn section. The amount of sound going through the mixing desk was phenomenal. And I was surprised the Town Hall's electrics could handle it.

The North-East's Maximo Park set the tone with By The Monument and Undercurrents given an African flavour, while acts drifted on and off the stage, picking up whatever instruments they could find and ending with all 80 on stage at one time, whipping the appreciative crowd into a frenzy.

An earlier highlight was Libertines guitarist Barat with Rizzle Kicks playing Don't Look Back Into The Sun, while Albarn's collaboration with Traore for Melancholy Hill was an understated work of art.

I had previously been quick to write off Rizzle Kicks, the Brighton hip-hop duo, who had collaborated with the likes of Olly Murs in the past. But on stage they showed their true talents, the ability to improvise and to create unforgettable moments.

Monday's was the first show of the week-long tour. Albarn said at the start: “In many ways, you're lucky this is the first, but you're also unlucky because we're still trying stuff out.”

Middlesbrough was the only North-East stop-off on the tour. It cannot be emphasised enough that a show of this quality and stature was a real coup for the town – let's hope they come back again.

Promoters Ten Feet Tall deserve all the plaudits coming their way for pulling it off.

Africa Express stopped off at Glasgow last night, and goes on to Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol before returning to London on Saturday.