Chameleon comes to town

We heard there was a big act coming to town and that it would be a night to remember. Yes, Uganda’s number 1 musician was playing a gig at our local recreation centre. Dr. Jose Chameleon and his “crew” were coming to Wakiso. We just had to be involved.

Selling our village abode as a “weekend retreat from the bustling Kampala” we soon had four other volunteers coming to the gig and a night at Jo and Liam’s. There was the obligatory few drinks with dinner before we went out which consisted of several waragi (local gin) and sprites (and several more at the gig – I don’t think that’s just fanta you’re drinking is it?).

Our local recreation centre is a big expanse with football pitch, swimming pool and night club. The perfect place to host Uganda’s top artist. Doors opened at 9pm and on came the support acts. Interesting bunch of acts to say the least. Lot’s of miming along to Ugandan tracks and a few comedy sketches. The comedy was in Lugandan so we weren’t sure what was going on but from the actions it all looked a little like you’d see at an 18-30’s night out – funny for a culture that doesn't like shows of affection in public.

Just as we’re waiting for the main man to arrive we are (well Jo mainly) accosted by Angel. A very drunk Ugandan lady who insists that we “need to be free”. We are not dancing like crazy fools so are not free. At one point Jo is lifted in the air by Angel but as you can see from the photo found it all hilarious.

Luckily she’s a mate of our local swim coach and soon we are surrounded by friendly (if quite drunk) Ugandans. Liam even gets to try some of their special liquor which apparently tastes like an ashtray – yum!

At about midnight Chameleon gets on stage and the crowd go wild. He’s joined by his crew – there’s about 30 of them – who all dance and wave flags around him. Unlike many of the other acts he actually sings live and gives us a rendition of all his famous tunes. He’s a bit pop, reggae, raga. We dance along at least and it’s not half bad or maybe that’s the waragi….

He finishes his set and is then whisked off to some secret location – no hope of meeting the star at the bar later unfortunately. So we find our pre-arranged lift and all 6 of us squeeze into his sedan for the journey home. We wake with slightly sore heads the next day but happy that although it wasn’t U2 at Wembly it was still a pretty fun gig.