Africa

Jon Lilygreen takes the lead on this one, and Aled Evans takes the solo on hammond.

Africa lives on restraint. It is built from small interlocking parts, and the moment anyone plays louder than the arrangement wants it collapses into karaoke, which is how most bands end up doing it. So this take sits back and lets the harmony hold the middle together.

Putting the solo on hammond rather than guitar was the decision that made it work. A guitar solo would have pulled the whole thing somewhere harder and louder than the arrangement could carry, whereas the organ sits inside the texture and swells out of it. In a tiled kitchen with no production on anything, an instrument that fills space without getting louder is worth a lot.

It is the most-watched of the four Kitchen Sessions, and the one that most often comes up in first conversations with couples. Usually the message is some version of “can you do that at our drinks reception”. The answer is yes - this is the sound of the band with the PA off, which is exactly what a ceremony or an early-evening set actually needs.

Jon has sung with The Brotherhood since the early days and features on a good chunk of our catalogue. The other three Kitchen Sessions were cut the same afternoon, in the same room, with the same setup.