Members of Staff Bilili! pose with their home-made instruments and guitar. - Photo courtesy of Sisu Productions

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The Vogue Theatre will be rocking with Congolese street music on September 19.

Vancouver will never be the same after the Staff Benda Bilili concert hits it.

Street music in Kinshasa, Congo is supplied by the handicapped, and a few years ago Florent de la Tullaye and Renaud Barret, two French film-makers exploring the urban jungle, were introduced to a group of polio victims, who played and performed on their motor tricycles.

These handicapped men were surrounded by some 40,000 shégés, (street youth) who they adopted and encouraged. Barret and de la Tullaye found the music to be hot, catchy and happy. It was wild music about daily living, and the musicians – like other Congolese street musicians – danced, and made their motored tricycles dance.

The resulting documentary Benda Bilili!, which will be screened at VIFF and was a big hit at Cannes last year because of the amazing musicians and what they have accomplished in the six years since their discovery. The dance comes in because Djunana Tanga Suele, has a tendency to dance on his hands.

The film-makers call him the choreographer…and his big hit, Avramandole “inflames the crowds” says de la Tullaye.

“We didn’t dare to translate it into French… Ricky Makodou and Coco Yakala, the band leaders, have also created dances for the handicapped,” says de la Tullaye.

The biggest break for the group came when the film-makers introduced them to a Belgian music producer; their first album, ‘Très très fort’ was an instant hit, and tours and music offers poured in, first from Europe in 2009, then from Montreal and Quebec last year.

The songs are mostly in Lingala, the major language of the Congo, and are played on home-made instruments. The refrains are in French and they are funny, catchy and most audiences have started dancing along with the music.

Another big boost to their success came when the Africa Express group of musicians visited the Congo in 2007; the musicians acknowledged Bob Marley, James Brown and Massive Attack as influences.

This tour brought them to the attention of the world wide Rotary movement, whose major ongoing campaign is polio eradication through vaccination. Rotary International is a major sponsor of their North American tour, and one of the Vancouver Rotaries is in touch with Kinshasa Rotary.

“Their Polio song is about this virus which affects hundreds of thousands of Africans” says Florent. “Their message is to the mommies, to have children vaccinated.

Moto Moido calls Africans to wake up and take their destiny in their hands, but they don’t sing about politics.

“They are always very creative, with lots of new songs on stage for the next album,” says Florent. “They are observers of the street scene, their messages are for street people. They are always singing to people who have nothing in the world, they have never forgotten who they are and what they have been; they also sing about their love lives…they are still always surrounded by street kids.”

One of them, Roger Landu, adopted by Ricky Madodou, invented his own one-string instrument, the satongé; hence, more songs and more dances.

Polio victims? Or, brave men and true musicians, who laugh at polio? The choice is clear.

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Info: www.thefestival.bc.ca.

 Tickets $35 at www.voguetheatre.com or 604.602-9798