verra ça and Africa 78, although receiving great critical acclaim retrospectively, did not prove successful. The group lost money on the trip and returned to Senegal. They recorded two albums, released by Musicafrique: Ndeleng Ndeleng and Une nuit au Jandeer. Club closure and new recordings: 1979-82 By the end of the 1970s, the band concluded its residency at the Baobab Club, which closed its doors in 1979. At this point, they were Senegal's biggest band, "commanding fees of about $4,500 for a single show." In the early 1980s, with the advent of the cassette, the group began releasing albums in this format. Their 1981 albums Mouhamadou Bamba and Sibou odia extended their success into the new decade, helped by their hit "Autorail", composed by Medoune Diallo. In 1982, they recorded enough material for several cassettes (Vol. 1: Senegambie, Vol. 2: Ngalam), as well as an LP, Ken dow werente. Among the songs recorded for these sessions was "Utru horas", which was included in the various artists compilation Panorama du Senegal. Decline and disbandment: 1983-87 As the 1980s progressed, competition from mbalax, a new funk-inspired genre spearheaded by Youssou N'Dour's Super Étoile de Dakar, overwhelmed Orchestra Baobab. Although bandleader Balla Sidibé tried to make some changes in the mid-1980s by including two female singers in their lineup and getting Rudy Gomis back as lead singer, their popularity had been significantly reduced. Their 1986 cassette releases did not have the impact of previous albums and in 1987 the band effectively broke up. Many of the members formed or joined other groups, and Barthélémy Attisso returned to Togo to practice law and stopped playing his instrument. European reissues: 1989-99 By the end of the 1980s, world music had become one of the newest trends in the European and American music industry, with albums such as Paul Simon's Graceland selling millions of copies. This prompted specialized music labels to seek African recordings and reissue them on CD. One of such labels, World Circuit, run from London by Nick Gold, released Orchestra Baobab's 1982 sessions in 1989 under the title Pirate's Choice, a reference to the many bootleg releases of such songs. In 1992, World Circuit reissued the 1978 Paris sessions on one CD, and in 1993 Stern's Music, another London-based world music label, released Bamba, a compilation of the band's 1981 albums. In 1998, the band's debut album, along with several bonus tracks recorded