By JOWIT SALUSEKI –

RENOWNED Kalindula outfit the Oliya Band last Friday captivated the audience when they resurfaced at Lusaka’s UTH Club to unleash their best tunes on the night much to the satisfaction of revellers.
The band which was one of dominant force in the late 1980’s when their music was the danceable of the bygone days, proved their worthy when they offloaded memorable tunes with patrons singing along.
With Fred Chisenga as the only surviving lead vocalist and guitarist, there was no shortage of fun as numbers such as Clementina, Chenda Mundeke, Banjoni, Aliyo wele and Ane nikula were offloaded.
Whoever thought kalindula belongs to the archive of music history would have been proven wrong, as the ensemble were a darling not only to the old folks but also the young generation who besieged the joint.
Some University of Zambia (UNZA) Ridgeway campus students who sneaked out to have a good time, left the place a satisfied lot owing to the music dosage which they received on the night.
“These guys are superb and second to none … this for sure is what one can truly call live music and not the cheap stuff that we have been subjected to by some musicians who don’t even know how to play musical instruments”, observed Abraham Mufaya, a second year Biomedical student.
In their hay-days, the Oliya Band was credited for perfecting four albums. The band was originally called the Young Shalawambe because they spent a lot of time with Dolenzy Kabwe’s Shalawambe.
However, in 1988, the band broke off from the main outfit and proceeded to form the famous Oliya Band with Chisenga taking charge as the lead guitar.
The band also assisted in putting together Shawalambe’s debut album Samora which had an assemblage of tracks such as Ba Mulemena, a tribute to the folk maestro, Emmanuel Mulemena and the former Mozambican President Samora Michael.
In 1989, the Oliya Band recorded Pantanda Pashupa, which had songs such as Chenda Mundeke and Banjoni Balabila.
This album was followed by Sodoma and Gomorrah, with their third studio project simply titled Roda.
This collection had such hits such as Ane Nikula, life Yamana and Aliyo Wele.
The last project under the ‘original’ Oliya band was Ichipasho.
However, with new recruits in the likes of Mabvuto Banda on bass, Webster Mabumba on drums and Patrick Manda on rhythm, the band last weekend proved that they can still manage to wow its die-hard patrons.