Come Thursday 22 September,
this year, the music legend, Otunba Anthony Sunday Ishola Adeniyi Adegeye,
known worldwide as King Sunny Ade, will be 70 years old. In the spate of five
decades of his music career, this music monarch has established himself
globally.
KSA was born on September
22, 1946 in Osogbo to the family of Pa Samuel Adeniyi Adegeye an Ondo Prince
and Madam Mariam Adegeye.
In this special birthday
anniversary write up, Femi Abulude, the Publisher goes down memory lane to
celebrate his former boss. Abulude was employed by King Sunny Ade from Prime
Publications Nigeria Limited as his Image maker in 1992. He became the band
manager of the African Beats, the Administrative manager of KSA Holdings and the
General Manager of SIGMA Disc Nigeria Limited. He was also the co-author of Hooked to music a book written on the
music icon to mark his 50th birthday in 1996.
GROWING UP:
I started my primary school
at the African Primary School, Isale-Ijebu in Osogbo in 1954. I had to switch
to Methodist Primary School, Isale Aro, also in Osogbo because of my interest
in music. Methodist had a musical band then, courtesy of the Boys Brigade unit;
2nd Osogbo unit they called it. I joined this club immediately and
became a functional member as a drummer.
At school, I was rascally,
but loved to read and wanted to know everything. I wanted to play football,
play tennis, participate in athletics and even drive vehicles. I played for the
school Team, was part of the school relay team, and was made the school
prefect. I was noted for neatness.
As I grew older, my interest
in music increased. At that early age, I loved dancing, real dancing. I also
had this love for people playing instruments and whatever music they churned
out. I always wanted to be part of them. I derived a lot of joy in dancing, and
became a good dancer such that people appreciated and clapped whenever I
danced.
Before I finished primary
school, I have joined Sunday Ariyo’s band and later Idowu Owoeye’s band, both
in Osogbo. Even as a student of Saint Charles Grammar School, Oshogbo, I was a
full-time member of Idowu Owoeye’s band; it was with the band that event which
turned me into a professional musician took place.
We were in Abeokuta for the
coronation of Oba Gbadebo II as the Alake of Egba-Land. Coronations of such
first class rulers were big event running into weeks, and we had thought that we
would make enough money from Alake’s coronation. It was holiday time, so there
was no cause for both my mother and the school authority to disallow me from embarking
on the trip.
But we did not make money,
and we were stranded in Abeokuta for more than three weeks. The lorry we hired
left us in the town since we could not pay. It was a terrible experience. One
of us, late Ayo Oyeleye told me of his intention to go to Lagos and joined
Moses Olaiya’s band. He eventually left for Lagos, leaving us in Abeokuta.
As the youngest member of
the band, my total share of our income in Abeokuta was three shillings. I had
this on me and lived on crumbs from errands I ran for older members of the
group. Now, with just three shillings, I could not go back to Osogbo.
I remembered Brother Oyeleye
who has left us some two weeks earlier and must have been playing with Moses
Olaiya’s Group.
Perhaps, if a got him in
Lagos, I could raise enough money for my journey back to Osogbo. Therefore, I
left for Lagos, after roaming the streets of Lagos from Cappa to Obalende back
to Cappa, I later found an help who took me to Odi-Oro where I saw the bill board of Moses
Olaiya’s group.
The leader, Moses Olaiya,
had gone to work at the Public Works Department, and I met Brother Oyeleye
sleeping. He advised me not to go back to Osogbo and introduced me to Moses
Olaiya who took me immediately like a son. I had no option than to join him,
more for the way he treated me like his own son than any initial intention to
stay in Lagos. At Osogbo the family was worried about me. My mother,
expectedly, was down, terribly down over my whereabouts. What later served as a
comfort was the lie I sent home that I had enrolled in school. It would be more
disastrous to confess that I had become a full-time musician, an apprentice
musician for that matter.
FORMATION OF HIS BAND
Very much against familiar
stories about the formation of other musician groups, juju music groups in
particular, the formation of my band was as peculiar as it was accidental.
My boss, Moses Olaiya, held
another job at the Lagos Town council and was therefore, this particular day,
unable to lead the band at its regular joint, the Palace Hotel, Breadfruit Street,
Lagos where we played every Wednesday. Although I was very young in age
compared to other members of the Moses Olaiya’s band, and was rather known on
the Conga drums, the leadership fell on me that night.
It was a night of real
surprise, accidental but very glorious surprise. Unknown to many of our fans, I
had taught myself how to play the guitar, and was in fact very much on the
brighter side. A rare opportunity, it was, therefore to play my heart out to
the surprise of everybody. Chief Tunde Amuwo, the leader of the High Society
Band, who was a close friend of my boss, Moses Olaiya was particularly
impressed.
He was damn too amazed to
hide his feelings and shouted; “So you can play guitar? I will tell your boss.
You don’t mean it? So you can play like this? I have instruments, are you
interested?
The following Wednesday, he
saw me on my regular drums, the conga and he called my boss to inform him of
his interest to provide his instruments for my use. After inspecting the
instruments at the Westend Coliseum,
Moses Olaiya said I should go and form my own band assuring me that “I will be
a sort of monitor.”
I didn’t believe my boss and
had to frantically explain to him of my innocence in the whole episode so as to
erase any impression that I particularly went to Chief Amuwo for the
instruments. But Olaiya was, and I believe he is still, a man of immense
kindness, He gave me three months vacation from his band to research towards
the formation of my group.
HOW I GOT MY BAND
I only knew of Tunde Michael Babalola my close friend,
who was playing with another band. I invited him, and he also went in search of
some friends but no luck. Anyway, I was able to get eight boys together. That
marked the formation of Sunny Adex and his High Society Band, which later
became Sunny Ade and his Green Spot band and much later to Sunny Ade and His
African beats.
JUJU CROWN
The Sketch, Newspaper
conducted an opinion poll in 1977 for people to say who their musician of the
year was. I came top and it was the Alaafin of Oyo, His Royal Majesty. Oba
Lamidi Adeyemi, who crowned me as the
king.
HONOURS AND AWARDS
KSA has been accorded
several recognitions both here in Nigeria and abroad. His offices and home are
adorned with various plagues, shields and chieftaincy memorabilia. Among these
awards are: Grand Star of Nigerian music, KORA Award, Honorary doctorate
awards, etc. KSA is also a holder of MFR: the highest national honours receive
by any musician in Nigeria to date.
The
affection team congratulates King Sunny Ade and wishes him many happy returns.
