In Ghana in the 1950s, Teddy Osei (saxophone), Soloman (Sol) Amarfio (drums), Mamon Shareef, and Farhan Freere (flute) played in a highlife band called The Star Gazers.[2] They left to form the Comets, with Osei’s brother Mac Tontoh on trumpet, and scored a hit in West Africa with their 1958 song “(I Feel) Pata Pata”.[2] In 1962, Osei moved to London to study music on a scholarship from the Ghanaian government. In 1964, he formed Cat’s Paw, an early “world music” band that combined highlife, rock, and soul. In 1969, Osei persuaded Amarfio and Tontoh to join him in London, and Osibisa was born. Joining the three Ghanaians in the first incarnation were Antiguan Wendell (Dell) Richardson (lead guitar and lead vocalist), Nigerian Lasisi Amao (percussionist and tenor saxophone),[2] Grenadian Roger Bedeau also known as Spartacus R (bass) and Trinidadian Robert Bailey (keyboards). Nigerians Mike Odumosu and Fred Coker (bass guitar) were later replacements. The band spent much of the 1970s touring the world, playing to large audiences in Japan, Australasia, India, and Africa. During this time Paul Golly (guitar) and Ghanaians Daku Adams “Potato” and Kiki Gyan were also members of the band. In January 1976, their single, “Sunshine Day”, reached number 17 on the UK Singles Chart. Their next single release, “Dance the Body Music”, peaked at number 31 in the same listing.[3] In 1980, Osibisa performed at a special Zimbabwean independence celebration, and in 1983 were filmed onstage at the Marquee Club in London but by this stage were a distant relative of the original band. Osibisa had an important series of gigs in India in 1981 culminating in the release of the Unleashed – Live in India album. The band engaged in a return to India performing at the November Fest 2010 on 28 November 2010, at the Corporation Kalaiarangam in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Changes in the music industry meant declining sales for the band, and a series of label changes resulted. The band returned to Ghana to set up a recording studio and theatre complex to help younger highlife musicians. n the 1990s, their music was anthologised in many CD collections, with some of them allegedly unauthorised and paying no royalties whatsoever to the band. This has been disputed by Osei however who, along with Amarfio and Tontoh, ran the band from the 1980s onwards. In the early 1990s, Osei regrouped the band, and many of their past releases began coming out properly and legally on CD. This included a remaster series with bonus material and various new releases of hitherto unreleased material and live concerts on the Red Steel / Flying Elephant label collaboration.
