((Banner: Going to the Go-Go: Chuck Brown))
((Reporter/Camera: Gabrielle Weiss))
((Map: Washington, D.C., Prince Georges County, Maryland))
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
Say hello. My crew. This is my gang, you know. That’s my crew, man. This is where we do our cookouts at. The band’s going to perform up there this summer, BBQ going. It’s going to be really nice and it’s going to end the next day. So, my neighbor’s got to just give me a high-five on this one.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
I’m Anwan Ralph Genghis Glover, the lead mic of The Backyard Band out of Washington, DC, conductor, the one who calls all the shots on stage.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
I wake up Go-Go in the morning. I started the band, I was about maybe 13, and I just kept knocking at it, kept knocking at it, and we started getting our spark, like, in Lincoln Junior High. And, you know, those were the days, man, like those were the day days. ((NATS)) Well, Go-Go is unique to D.C. because you have a mixture of the congas, the cungas, the bass drum, the snare and the cymbals. That unique sound, which you can create the pocket, the open high hat, and the list goes on. ((NATS)) Nobody has that sound, but, the nation’s capital.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
It’s amazing, man. Practice is amazing. We got that good gel, like peanut butter and jelly.
((NATS))
What’s going on?
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
Keeping the band together. It’s the love of it, because I’m in love with the Go-Go.
((NATS))
What, what do we have new, to practice for tomorrow?
((Eric “EB” Britt, Keyboard, The Backyard Band))
Bruno, Bruno Mars and Cardi B too.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
Let’s practice, practice, practice.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
There was a guy who used to pick us up and we used to get on the back of that, that truck and perform and just go around, banging on the buckets, and banging on the snare drum and the bass drum, and go around all the neighborhoods and be like, hey, we playing. And people would come and form crowds and just watch us play in the alleyway. But we could never play in a club. Nobody would ever let us play. You know, we’d just be playing in Pigeon Park on 14th Street.
((Photo Courtesy: Backyard Band))
((NATS))
((Paul “Buggy” Edwards, Percussion, The Backyard Band))
It’s based off of drums and congos. The percussion. It’s driven. It’s a percussion driven music and it don’t stop. That’s one of the reasons why it’s called Go-Go because it continues on. The beat continues on. We could play 10 different beats but we’re not going to stop playing.
((NATS))
((Paul “Buggy” Edwards, Percussion, The Backyard Band))
And I don’t care who it is. Your biggest artist in the world can’t perform in their own hometown, six, seven nights a week, and have a consistent crowd of 500 people or more, to come see you at night. No other genre of music does it.
((NATS))
((Keith “Sauce” Robinson, Percussion, The Backyard Band))
When I’m up here, I could have a bad day at home. I don’t have too many of those but once I play right here, I’m feeling good. And seeing the reaction of the people out there, I’m loving it.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
The fans, our fans, they make me.
((Leroy “Weensey” Brandon, Frontline, The Backyard Band))
My fans, they keep me motivated. They’re the reason I do it. I mean, I feel as long as they feel can touch you, that’s what they love. They want to be a part of it.
((NATS))
((Paul “Buggy” Edwards, Percussion, The Backyard Band))
It’s the people we touch. Go-Go’s very personal, always have been.
((Keith “Sauce” Robinson, Percussion, The Backyard Band))
Intimate, yup.
((Paul “Buggy” Edwards, Percussion, The Backyard Band))
Always have been. I couldn’t touch Michael Jackson, but I could talk to Chuck Brown, the godfather of Go-Go. I could talk to him and he would talk back to me, and we used to open up for Chuck Brown.
((Photo Credit: AP/Nick Wass))
When I first joined the band, we used to open up for Chuck Brown. We weren’t even old enough to be in the club at that time.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
Parties going to see Chuck back then were crazy. I was a little kid,
((Video from YouTube: YouTube Bug))
((Courtesy: David N. Rubin))
like, just getting in the mix of it. You know what I mean? And, DC was really Chocolate City. Gentrification wasn’t in yet. Go-Go, that was it. That was our city, that was the love, the sound. But Chuck Brown actually first gave us our first big gig, and once Chuck gave us that show, that was it. And there was just this wave, “Who is Backyard….” and then it was over. We just started, like, raising the bar.
((Photo Courtesy: Backyard Band))
((NATS))
((Michael “Mike” Dunklin, Keyboard, The Backyard Band))
The band pretty much saved a lot of our lives. You know, just being involved in some positive stuff when a lot of things bad was going on in the neighborhoods that we left to go to shows or to go to rehearsals. We were in the streets.
((NATS))
((Eric “EB” Britt, Keyboard, The Backyard Band))
He was a walking pharmacist.
((Michael “Mike” Dunklin, Keyboard, The Backyard Band))
The band got us away from bad situations, I would say that.
((Carlos “Los” Chavels, Frontline, The Backyard Band))
I remember when we would walk home with equipment, like, three in the morning, had to go to school the next day. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it a lot of those mornings after that. Report cards sometimes weren’t so great, and I’d get punished, and what I would do was, I’d take the pillows and I used to watch Disney movies, afterschool specials. So, I got an idea. I’m throw the pillows under the sheets, like they do, and I’m gonna see if that work, and I was jumping out the window.
((Eric “EB” Britt, Keyboard, The Backyard Band))
Actually, I really didn’t have to jump out the window. My mom, she kicked my butt out the house. She wanted me to get out the house. ‘Boy, get your black butt out this house and go do something.’ Like my mom kicked me out of the house because you know why? I used to get on her nerves on purpose so I couldn’t stay in the house. His mom was different.
((Carlos “Los” Chavels. Frontline, The Backyard Band))
Report cards, we’ll talk about that later, man. If you got a number two pencil, I can teach how to make the grades look good. D’s turn into B minuses easy.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
Yeah, we’re heading into the city, getting ready to go to the Chuck Brown Memorial Park. This is one of the sides where you don’t really see too much re-gentrification yet. This is the Northeast Channing neighborhood area, where Power Nightclub used to be, Breeze’s-Deno’s Metro Club. Good, good part of the city, man, you know. We’re here now. Let’s come check it out, baby. Chuck baby don’t give a, that ain’t true.
((NATS))
((Anwan “Big G” Glover, Singer/Bandleader, The Backyard Band))
I’ll never forget, one year, I was arrested for a weapon. So, Chuck gave me a call and he was like, you got to really take care of this music but being a fool is the first thing you can’t do. He said, you want to be successful or you want to be a big dummy? He gave me the business that day. Walking pretty straight since then.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Children in Limbo
((SOT))
((Vahdat Yeganeh, Director, Boston Experimental Theatre))
The whole purpose of doing this production was raising awareness and letting more people know about the tragedy of what these children are going through.
