Vocal is Lekka

An elderly man, suited and booted in white, stalks onto the stage and winks flirtatiously at the audience before performing ‘It must be Love,’ giving a virtuoso air trumpet and then, with a little wiggle of his hips, prowling off. The audience is bemused but amused. A state in which it stays for much of the time during the South African a capella group’s performance. The band speak only Afrikaans. What they say must be pretty funny  – one person keeps  guffawing loudly. That in itself has its comic side, of course, and Vocal is Lekka do prove themselves able to mine the communication gap for humour.  As it happens, it’s the upbeat Afrikaans songs which are the most enjoyable. In the future it could be an idea to focus more on these songs when performing in the UK.

The group are done a disservice by the time and venue of their act—4.55pm in the large 1920s night club-style space of Elegance in The Assembly at George Square—meaning the audience sits in daylight while a heavily-miked Vocal is Lekka perform on a stage lit in dark moody blues. The aesthetic is appropriate for a large, boozy audience late at night, and not for a sunny tent populated by a dozen odd stone cold sober festival-goers in the mid-afternoon.

But this quibble is one of mechanics, and although the act still has a long way to go—especially in terms of choreography and staging—their vocal range makes for a pleasingly harmonious blend.