This 14 track selection comes from the original famous stable of The Victoria Kings.
In the early 1970s a young technician named Phares Oluoch Kanindo, who was working with the Kenya News Agency, and then more latterly The Voice of Kenya, picked up on the new BENGA music that was the rage amongst the new ‘start-up bands’ back in his home district of Western Kenya.
Basic BENGA had links with Congolese and Tanzanian rumba, but was much more strident, and was and still is, the dance music of the time. You could dance singularly, as a group, twos and threes breaking away and ‘doing their thing’. Total abandon! Many of the lyrics dealt with everyday life, stories of love, life and death, but for the most part the songs were in praise of people of high standing, especially within Western Kenya.
Here are 14 of Victoria Kings best. Regrettably the band was split into Victoria A, B, C & D to capitalise on the name. You would have all four bands playing at different venues on the same night. Every venue laying claim to the ‘Original Victoria Kings’. The name did the trick, fans flocked everywhere and anywhere they could find Victoria Kings, but the originals were the best.