Songhoy Blues

Birmingham Promoters present:
SONGHOY BLUES + BYRON HARE
£8adv • Ages 16+
http://birminghampromoters.com/

——————-

Songhoy Blues

Hailing from the heart of old Gao, Oumar Toure and Aliou Toure were, like most kids growing up in the ancient city, obsessed with hip-hop, R&B and bands like The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. By their early 20s, having met young guitarist Garba Toure (son of Oumar Toure, long term percussionist in Ali Farka Toure’s band), they began to make music while at university in Bamako.

Their deep attachment to the home grown songs and dances of the Songhoy, both traditional styles and the modern guitar based sounds popularised by the likes of Baba Salah and above all Ali Farka Toure, was helping shape their nascent music which sought to blend the trad and the modern, the homegrown and the foreign, the youthful and the ancient. The growing unrest in the north of Mali saw Oumar, Aliou, Garba and many of their family take refuge down south in Bamako as hostilities worsened in early 2012 and Songhoy Blues were born from this adversity.

All those old ‘world music’ prejudices have no place here. Songhoy Blues are four talented, hungry, sharp and outward-looking young men from a part of the world that has had more than it’s share and pain and conflict in recent years. But it has given far more than its share of music and joy to the world in return over the past four decades. That place may seem strange, alien and ‘exotic’ to some but deep down, Songhoy Blues are a familiar proposition: four young men, guitar, drums, bass and vocals, driving rhythms, big hearts and a story to tell.

Songhoy Blues’ debut album, Music In Exile, is released on Transgressive Records on Monday 23rd February 2015. They support Damon Albarn at The Royal Festival Hall this autumn, before heading out on a UK tour in February.

——————-

Byron Hare

Hotly-tipped Redditch six-piece Byron Hare released their debut EP Sleep On The Fire in October 2014.

Sleep On The Fire becomes the first EP release from the independent record label Death Or Glory Records, run by shop and brand owner Steve Hadley. The label aims to promote the best in Redditch talent through local live shows and releases.

The band’s soulful electro-tinted pop has already notched up a number of Radio One plays, and the band appeared on Huw Stephens’ Radio One show back in November to talk about music in Redditch and their exciting-looking future.