Gary Barlow: On Her Majesty's Service Page #2

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I've spent 20 years recording things

in dark studios with no light.

We're in Africa.

Look where we are,

look at the landscape.

If I was to imagine African music,

I think of those choirs singing

with their hands in the air.

That's it, that's what we want.

This is what we've come for.

Oh, yeah!

Wooo!

Wow. Hi!

Hi.

- How are you?

- We're fine, thank you.

Good. Do you do

everything at the same time?

Yes.

Your singing's amazing!

Thank you.

It really is, it's beautiful.

Do you know about the Queen?

Eunice?

She was born in 1926,

and also she made her first speech

when she was 14 years old.

Eunice, how do you know that?

Where did you learn this?

School. At school?

She likes dogs and horses.

She definitely likes dogs

and horses.

Yes, you? She's a great swimmer.

She's a great swimmer?

Do you know that for sure?

Questions for me? Yes. That's not

the deal, I ask the questions!

Are you in the band and

at the same time you are singing?

Exactly, I'm in a band.

There's four of us, sometimes five.

That could get confusing,

so I won't explain that one!

I'm actually here today

listening out for voices

hopefully to put on my record, so

would you guys be up for trying out

some harmonies and some melodies?

Yes.

'This is why

I wanted to do this trip, '

I wanted to be set up in the middle

of nowhere on a desk,

with all our fantastic technology,

battling against the elements.

Because we've had a horrible,

windy day, there's dust

in all our equipment.

Perfect. That's exactly how

I wanted it to be!

'This is the most glamorous studio

I've ever been to.'

You move in here. OK.

Now you guys at the back,

you come and fill the gaps in

between their shoulders now.

The first line of the song

I want you to sing

is the title of the song - Sing.

That's all you say - Sing.

But there's a melody.

The melody goes like this.

Si-i-i-i-ing.

So the end of the line

each time goes down

and the second time goes up.

With a one, two, three!

Just si-i-i-i-ing

Just si-i-i-i-ing

Just si-i-i-i-ing.

'It's the feeling you get

when you listen to them,

'because music's all about emotion.

'And the emotion that they gave me

today was I just feel great.

'I feel great.'

It's good, sounds beautiful.

All of a sudden, I thought,

wouldn't it be amazing

to get one of these kids

to start the track?

Make sure you stay nice and close

to the mic. That's it, here we go.

Some words...

Some words

they can't be spoken

Only sung

'When Lydia started to sing

I got really excited.

'Beautiful voice,

really innocent, as well.

'And the little bit of pronunciation

that tells you she's not American, '

she's not British,

she's from somewhere else.

'And that's the flavour.

'We know we've got the Commonwealth

now on this track.'

So hear a thousand voices

Shouting love.

Gorgeous, absolutely beautiful.

'Today we've started the record.

That's what's happened.'

All of a sudden, we have symmetry

in our track and the Queen's life.

She started her reign here

and our song's going to start here.

It's beautiful.

We've made a good start

but I've got many challenges ahead

to make a record fit for the Queen.

I'm off now to the Great Rift Valley

to visit a Maasai tribe.

This may sound stupid,

but I'm a little bit nervous.

They're actually quite daunting,

physically and the way they dress.

Wow!

Hello! Nice to meet you.

You're so very welcome.

Daniel, how old are you?

I'm 27 years old.

And do you get married here?

About the marriage, my father

and the father of the girl

will arrange the marriage.

You'll pay 10 cows or 15 cows

for one wife.

And if I want to get a second wife,

the second wife will be

chosen by my first wife.

Hang on, wait one second.

So you've got one wife? Yeah.

Your father chooses you

another wife?

No, my second wife will be chosen

by my first wife.

OK.

Imagine if we could all have

three wives who builds our houses

and milks our goats.

It's job done, innit?

Who's to say right or wrong?

They're all happy.

It's been amazing

to tiptoe into this.

The tribe were keen

to be on the record,

so now it was time for them

to show me what they could do.

I felt slightly intimidated, just

because I didn't know what to do.

To try and describe the sound...

It was like a battle

between the men and the women.

This was not going to be

straightforward.

I want to record

just a few different things. Yeah.

Hopefully we can try and play it

into the song somewhere.

It's very difficult to hear, though,

because everybody sings at one time.

One, two.

He-ey-ya.

You sing.

He-ey-ya.

Yeah, so here we go.

One, two...

He-ey-ya.

He-ey-ya.

Ready? Wait. One, two...

I've no idea at all how

I can use any of that in the record.

'It was just all too much for me

to take in.'

It's been lovely,

been great seeing this lifestyle

but I'm not on holiday here,

I'm trying to make record.

So these next few days are critical

for the record itself.

The Maasai have made me realise

just how much of a challenge

I've taken on.

There's music everywhere in Africa,

and I'm determined to find a way

to make it work on our record.

I want there to be people who've

never played on a record on here

but I also want

some professionals.

I want people who are well known,

and when I researched Kenyan music

Ayub was one of the most successful

musicians in this country.

So I'm looking forward to seeing

what comes of this session today.

Oh, I loved his track. I loved it.

I could have listened to that

for hours.

The only thing missing was

I could have got a nice massage

as he was playing it.

That would've been spot on, then.

Hi.

I really hate interrupting you

making music.

I'm so intrigued

about your instrument.

The good old nyatiti. It's, er...

What's it called again? Nyatiti.

Nyatiti?

Nyatiti, which translates

into "daughter of the clan". OK.

Have you spent some time in the UK?

I busked for about four years

in London. Did you really?

It was great for me

because it gave me

four years to work through

my instrument and perfect myself.

'It's a wacky old instrument'

but we've got to get it

on this track.

'I play Ayub the piano melody,

'hoping he can add

something special.'

Working with Gary

was actually surprisingly easy.

He's very easy going, he's precise

and he knows what he wants.

It flowed smoothly.

I think the word is "save"

at this point.

'Back in my hotel, and a chance

to listen to what I've recorded.'

How great was Ayub?

Who'd had ever thought we'd have got

that instrument on this record?

And Lydia. I mean,

what a star she was.

Some words they can't be spoken

Only sung.

It's sweet, really nice.

Now I need to find some percussion

to give the track its backbone.

My search brings me to Kibera.

Just three miles outside Nairobi,

it's one of the biggest slums

in Africa.

Nobody knows how many

hundreds of thousands of people

are crammed in here.

This is hard to describe. Real

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