Gary Barlow: On Her Majesty's Service Page #5

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How great was Ayub?

Who'd had ever thought we'd have got

that instrument on this record?

And Lydia. I mean,

what a star she was.

Some words they can't be spoken

Only sung.

It's sweet, really nice.

Now I need to find some percussion

to give the track its backbone.

My search brings me to Kibera.

Just three miles outside Nairobi,

it's one of the biggest slums

in Africa.

Nobody knows how many

hundreds of thousands of people

are crammed in here.

This is hard to describe. Real

poverty at its lowest, lowest level.

It's pretty hard to take it in,

I've got to be honest.

It's pretty hard to take it in.

And yet, from this poverty

springs a remarkable group

of percussionists

who call themselves

the Slum Drummers.

Where did these instruments come

from? Have you made them yourselves?

These are scrap metals. I see.

These are plastics that

street children collect and sell.

So all of these instruments,

it was just rubbish,

it was about to be thrown away?

Everything you have around you,

it has music in it.

It has the potential

to be an instrument.

It has the potential of music in it.

Whose invention was this?

Who knew this could make this noise?

We ourselves, we invented it,

because we just took a big, big pipe,

a very long pipe - we just hit.

You hit the end?

Yes, we hit at the end, and we heard

that that can produce sound.

Goosebumps have happened

for the first time

when they started to play.

Music is their lives.

This is their escape from where they

live, how they've been brought up.

Yeah, I love music.

Music is in me.

Though everyone here loves music.

It's like a passion we have.

Michael's a sad story.

I didn't actually realise

when I first went to meet them all

he was blind.

I guess he's needed music,

more so now than ever before.

I was looking round as they were

playing and he was lost.

He'd escaped somewhere

for those few minutes.

And, yeah, good on him.

No matter what you go through,

no matter what difficulties

you have,

you still have to stay strong.

You don't have to break down

and give up on everything.

You need to keep your head up

and keep focusing

on what you want to do.

You're reminded, wow, this is

a language we all speak, this is.

How much fun did I have?!

You know, a drum-off! It was great.

Really, I loved it. Loved it.

I think I'll remember that,

actually, for the rest of my life.

It was a beautiful moment,

to be somewhere like this

which is so far removed

from how and where I live.

That connection of music.

I'm taking it home with me.

Woooo!

Oh, yeah! Well done! Well done!

I think the problem is this.

That's the problem!

Well done. Amazing. Amazing.

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