Johnny Kalsi in Southall

Folk on Foot

Matthew Bannister

Music Interviews, Performing Arts, Music, Nature, Arts, Science

4.8 • 526 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The drummer Johnny Kalsi (The Dhol Foundation, Transglobal Underground, Afro Celt Sound System, Imagined Village) takes us for a walk round Southall - an area of West London known as “Little India”. We visit a Sikh temple, marvel at the sumptuous fabrics and glittering jewellery in the bridal shops on the High Street and drop in to his favourite restaurant for “food like you’ve never tasted before”. But above all we head to two music shops where Johnny gives a bravura demonstration of how to play his beloved dhol drums.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I've got a feeling that this is going to be a rather different episode of Focomfoot.
0:08.8	We're in the area of Southall in West London, not far from Heathrow Airport,
0:14.8	which is sometimes known as Little India or Little Punjab, because a lot of families from South Asia came and settled here in the
0:23.1	1950s and 60s and it still has a very strong flavour of that community.
0:28.5	And we're here to meet our very first drummer.
0:31.6	And it's not any old drummer.
0:32.8	This is Johnny Kelsey, famous for his collaboration with trans-global underground, with the Imagine Village, with the Afro-Celt sound system, and with his own doll drumming foundation.
0:44.3	And Johnny's going to take us for a tour of this area, dropping in on a couple of music shops and a restaurant, and telling us why this area makes such an impact on him and his music. I'm I'm I'm
1:11.6	I'm
1:13.6	I'm
1:15.6	I'm Matthew.
1:41.3	Really nice to meet you. Thanks for coming. This is Natalie. Where are you going to take us today? Oh, I'm going to take you to two music shops and then we're going to eat. What are we going to eat? We're eating some stuff that you've never tried in your life. An explosion of flavours, Let's just put it that way. Fantastic.
2:01.8	Oh, that's brilliant.
2:03.1	Well, let's set off.
2:04.5	Yeah, let's do it.
2:05.2	Let's go.
2:27.3	Right, so here we are, we're in the heart of Southall and this is Sing Sabah Gurdwara, which is like a Sikh temple, one of about four or five Sikh temples in Southall and basically we're going to pay our respects to our holy book.
2:35.0	What do we have to do when we go in there?
2:38.0	Basically the two main things you do is cover your head and take your shoes off
2:42.0	and then wash your hands. That's all you have to do.
2:44.0	And not be intoxicated.
2:45.0	Right, well I'm not intoxicated. Will they give me a head covering to wear?
	...

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