FRIENDS, relations and well wishers were on hand to pay their last respect to David Bull, the late great musician last Friday, April 28, in Bonny, Rivers State. Despite the election fever which gripped the country, the burial was attended by hundreds of sympathisers from all walks of life. A colourful and grand service of songs had been held in his honour on Thursday at his residence in Port Harcourt. The body was then taken to Bonny on Friday to meet the Council of Elders and Chiefs for a valedictory service before he was finally laid to rest at the Commonwealth Cementary, Bonny. The great guitarist, singer, composer and band leader of the Professional Seaguls died at the age of 67.However, one group the family expected would identify with the burial arrangements but failed to show up is the embattled Performing Musicians Association of Nigeria, a body whose functions and roles have deteriorated to an all time low. It is unfortunate that the association has continued to shirk its responsibilities even to itself. It has become a house divided against itself. When I asked Mrs. Sabota Godswill Jombo, the deceaseds senior daughter about the associations involvement, she quipped saying;You know that they are not united. I heard that somebody came from PMAN, but he did not speak to me or my mother. As far as we are concerned they did not come. They did not lift a finger, Notwithstanding, she further said, many musicians came in their own individual capacities from far and near.David Bull blazed into reckoning as a musician when he joined Rex Lawson as a guitarist in 1967at a time the band needed revitalisation, especially at the rhythm section level. David Bull provided this essential requirement and gave the band the boost that it deserved at the time.Actually, Ralph Amarabem who provided the exciting palm wine guitar sounds that took Rex Lawsons band to its peak, had left to form the Pea Cocks Band. Lawson quickly identified Bulls talent on the guitar because, as a foremost band leader, Lawson, had good ear for music. He enlisted David Bull as the replacement that could bring back the stormy palm wine guitar chords and background that the band enjoyed in the days of such hit tunes as Jolly Papa, Tamuno Ibroma, Anate among others.Bull strengthened Rex Lawsons rhythm section in 1967, energising it with a remarkably broad tone that gave the ensemble sound a new lease of life, a refreshing sound identity.Actually, Lawson wanted Bull to play the guitar for his Rivers Men aggregation as a permanent sideman, but Bull who had become individualistic chose to forge his own direction. His meeting with Rex Lawson was as a result of displacement by the civil war. Said he:I started leading my own band, the Gboko All Stars in 1994 in Benue State. When the civil war broke out eventually, I left Gboko even though the management did not want me to go. The band was formed by the late J.S.K. Talka who was greatly in love with my music at the time.But Bull who feared that the war could escalate to a disastrous dimension was bent on relocating to his home town for safety. I managed to escape without their knowledge, Bull recollected, I came to Onitsha where I met trumpet player, Sonny Brown who was also in the same predicament. He had escaped from Kano where he was based. So we both teamed up to form a band that performed at Dolphin Café, Onitsha.We moved down to Enugu eventually where we performed on contract at Loveliest Hotel, Uwani. We were there before the war actually moved to Port Harcourt the same year, 1967. Both of us teamed up with Rex Lawson.When Bull was with Rex Lawson, he had a soul music group which was popular with the youth. Actually highlife was gradually waning and soul music was taking over.I called the group the Seaguls which later developed to become my own personal band, said Bull. I told Rex Lawson to allow me go my separate way much earlier than I did. He would not let me because he had a lot of engagements lined up which he wanted me to help accomplish.According to David Bull, the Professional Seaguls was formed in 1969 and was seen as a state band because of its great musical performance. As a 12-man outfit, the group featured David Bill on guitar, Peace David, drums; Boma Bonny, tenor saxophone; and vocals; Fubara Sikibo, vocals; Victor Uzowulu, bass guitar; James Egone, organ; Ishmael Njoku, trumpet; Honjimn, Oparah, vocals; Cyril Bassey, claves Peace Emen, drums; Anthony Odili, Conga drums; Johnson Opara, bongos; Fomecha Hamilton, maracas.The music was basically in the Rex Lawson tradtion but the rhythm section was greatly emphasised with the configuration of the bands format. Group vocal singing took a different turn, becoming a special feature for the band. These innovations were introduced to give the Seagulls its own stamp and identity.Evidence of this hard- driving highlife sound can be found in the 13 albums David Bull recorded, including Atabala woman, Tamuno Emi, Osu Enuwa, Our Lords prayer, Akawai and Soko Soko, perhaps the most popular hit of the band which says, he who asks questions will not miss his way.The band also recorded Smash hits 77, an album whose every song deserved to be a big smash but suffered from inadequate promotion and marketingA highly influential artiste, David Bill was a great band leader whose great human relations attracted every one to him. Apart from being a great musician, he was a humanist, a rallying point.
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