Olaoluwa Akintobi (born 1946) popularly known as Laolu Akins is a Nigerian music producer who has worked with artists such as

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, Mike Okri and

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. He was the producer of Shina Peter's ''Ace'' and ''Shinamania'' "Dancing Time" " Experience" albums and Adewale Ayuba's ''Bubble'' album as well as being the supervising producer of the maiden recording of P-Square titled "Where were you last night" .

Biography

Early career

Akintobi acquired basic drums training at a Lagos City Social Centre financed by the then Fed. Min. Of Youth & Sports in Alago Meji- Yaba, Lagos. In his adolescence, he played regularly with a number of friends from high school,in groups like Oscars, Clusters along with the Akinrele Brothers, Seinde Sapara Ade Jolaoso before teaming with Berkley Ike Jones and Mike Gbenga Odumosu. The trio were influenced by British and American rock groups and soul music, Akins joined with colleagues and experimented with rock music. Soon, Akins and his friends combined with the

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to start a group called Afro-Collection with Tee Mac Iseli. When

Ginger Baker Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (19 August 1939 – 6 October 2019) was an English drummer. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer", for a style that melded jazz and Music of Africa, Africa ...

moved to Nigeria in 1971, he organized a band, ''Salt'' with Laolu Akins as drummer, Salt played in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

clubs and later went on a European and American tour with Ginger Baker.

Blo

Upon their return, Laolu co-founded a group called Blo (standing for 'Berkeley, Laolu & Odumosu'), the band recorded some

afro-rock Afro rock is a style of rock music with West African influences. Afro rock bands and artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s included Osibisa, Assagai and Lafayette Afro Rock Band. Style The style relies on the use of rock string instruments ...

songs such as ''Preacher Man'' and ''Native doctor''. Blo recorded their first album ''Chapter One'', a

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

record under EMI label. Sales of the album did not meet EMI's expectations and the band eventually left

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

to record their next album with Decca on their Afrodisia Label. Between 1974 and 1976 the band released three more records, ''Phase II'', ''Step Three'' and ''Phase IV''. Odumosu left to join OsibiIn after they recording of Phase II album In summer of 1976, BLO moved over to UK under the management of Cliff Cooper and Velvet Music and was based there till late 1982 when they returned home to Nigeria. On return to Nigeria BLO now with Lemmy Out Jackson as new 'O' of BLO recorded a Maxi single " Back In Time" However, sales of the album were not encouraging, and after''. Akin traveled to England and learned the craft of music production at Orange Production Centre.

Later life

BLO productions was co-founded by Laolu Akintobi, the business went in to produce records for a number of successful artists such as Christy Essien Igbokwe, Kris Okotie and Onyeka Onwenu. Between 1989 and 1998, Akins worked with Sony Music Entertainment as A&R controller. He owns a studio in Ikeja with the name Excel Studio which he now uses as a mentoring pad for upcoming artists and training of young talented producers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akins, Laolu Nigerian record producers 1946 births Living people