Drummers are always on the lookout for new sounds. One of the world’s oldest types of drum enlivened the Henley Festival at the weekend — and was completely new to me. An ensemble of Torres Strait Islanders played their “warups” to accompany the dancing of the Purple Spider Dance Group (above).
The Purple people were not only dancing for the first time in the UK, but for the first time outside their homeland.
The Torres Strait Islands are between Australia and Papua New Guinea, and are part of Queensland; their people have a culture that is relatively untouched by outside influence.
And their drums, one of which I was honoured to have a go on, had a wonderful power. About four feet long and fashioned from a hollow log, the drums are topped off with an interesting head — made from iguana skin. Not something you can get down the Charing Cross Road.
But the really eccentric and clever bit is the fact that blobs of beeswax are fixed to the centre of the head to give an extra resonance and vibration — a bit like an antipodean snare drum.
I did have misgivings about whacking a waxed iguana... but it’s a hell of a sound.
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