Talk about a game of two halves! The Grand Union Orchestra’s ‘Can’t Chain Up Me Mind’ show is a commemoration of the Atlantic slave trade and the resulting evolution of different musical styles caused by the clash of cultures – composer Tony Haynes writes ‘…this shameful and inhuman practice had the unintended effect of enriching our culture to an unprecedented degree, and creating in turn a more beneficial trade’.

The Orchestra’s eclectic ensemble took us on a journey through black musical history from the past few centuries. However the first half – which was a collection of disjointed and often mournful songs – had no introduction or explanation, leaving the audience unsure of which period or theme we were listening to – the programme acknowledges that the musical patterns can be ‘amazingly complex, often unfathomable to Western ears’.

My guest (we’ll call her Becky, for embarrassment purposes) actually fell asleep at one point, thankfully waking up in time to see her favourite band member – Ghanian saxophonist Tony Kofi – playing a solo, which perked her up a bit. It could have been the large wine beforehand that sent her to land of nod (I of course remained professionally sober) – however her explanation was that she found the performance quite ‘soul-less’.

However, after the interval things improved - the second half in comparison was completely different – Tony Haynes gave lively introductions to most of the songs, and we were treated to a flawless mixture of soca, Cuban-style calypso, reggae and ska, jazz etc – it was lively, flowing and exciting, and got some audience members up dancing in the aisles (yes, we danced too!). The venue was only around half-full which was a shame, and the audience was made up mainly of older white folk, whereas I would have expected a younger, more diverse crowd. Overall, an interesting evening, really enjoyable second half of music, but could especially have done with Tony’s introductions in the more difficult first half so we understood the history of what we were listening to.