Punch touring is proud to announce the UK tour by a real legend of African music. Tony Allen will be marking his 70th birthday and the 50th anniversary of Nigerian independence with a UK tour this autumn. Kicking off at the mac (Midlands Art Centre)  in Birmingham, the five date tour with his full afrobeat orchestra will play in Leeds, London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Glasgow. Tony Allen, who played at the WOMAD festival in Charlton Park on 23 July 2010, will be promoting his CD Secret Agent and playing a special showcase at London’s Barbican. This will be the third tour produced through Black Routes, the network for touring African and Caribbean music.

Full 2010 tour dates are:
30 September, Birmingham mac

1 October, Glasgow The Aches

2 October, Edinburgh HMV Picture House

3 October, Leeds Wardrobe

6 October, London Barbican Centre

7 October, Bristol Metropolis

Tony Allen’s track Asiko was heavily sampled by J Dilla. Check out the clip below:

Born in August 1940, and a self-taught musician, Tony Allen began to play at the age of eighteen, a fan of American jazz but also fascinated by traditional music and with the percussion work of Ghanaian Guy Warren, who mixed traditional rhythms with the new sounds of American bebop. Invited to audition for a jazz-highlife band by Fela Kuti in 1964, he became an original member of Kuti’s Koola Lobitos highlife-jazz band and started a decades-long musical relationship.

Allen is known as the man who put the beat in Afrobeat, Nigeria’s most influential musical export – a combination of the heavy groove and universal appeal of soul with jazz, highlife, and the polyrhythms of Yoruba music. Allen’s fusion of drum styles perfectly complemented Fela’s new African groove and he recorded over 30 albums with Fela and Africa ’70 – widely regarded as Fela’s best works. He has also worked with Manu Dibango, King Sunny Ade and Ray Lema. While often returning to the Afrobeat template that made his name, in the years since Allen has also worked with a broad range of rock acts, such as Jimi Tenor,  and, to general acclaim, with Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon as the group The Good, The Bad and the Queen.

Punch in partnership with Lozells Recreation Group have recently completed a young people’s participation project called Music is my Heritage and we are thrilled to announce that 9 young people have all achieved their Bronze Arts Award.

The 16 week project explored the rich and diverse musical history of North West Birmingham and each week participants worked with a professional, local musician to workshop different genres of music.

The group explored the genres of grime, hip hop, reggae, bashment, bhangra and MC and lyric writing. They have produced their own short film of the project and even created their own soundtrack! Check out the footage by clicking here.

The group worked towards achieving their Arts Award qualification by capturing the project through film. They used handheld FLIP cameras to film each other during the activities and then worked with a professional film-maker to edit the footage. This footage, along with their project folders, was shown to the Arts Award Assessor who passed all the group with flying colours. The assessor commented that “the young people worked enthusiastically and become really involved in the project. Very well done”.

This is a fantastic achievement for Punch and LRG but mostly for all the young people who worked so hard throughout the project – many congratulations to each of them, they are now the very proud owners of a Bronze Arts Award certificate.

Have a look at some of the pictures taken from the various sessions below:

Peter Williams is globally renowned for the photographic iconic images he produced for the late lamented Straight No Chaser magazine alongside Far Out Records and B&W Music. 

Back in 1988, after studying photography at the Royal College of Art, Williams met up with the Chaser crew. They had just launched a designer fanzine dedicated to what they called the Freedom Principle. A long-standing working relationship developed between the photographer and Paul Bradshaw, Straight No Chasers driving force and editor.

The result of that relationship is Headz! – a powerful exhibition of portraiture that features nu-generation playas like DJ Shadow, Reprazent, Sizzla, Soweto Kinch, Courtney Pine and Cassandra Wilson alongside legends like Don Cherry, McCoy Tyner, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Randy Weston, Steve Reid, Nina Simone and Miles Davis – horn at the ready, floating in the air like an eerie apparition.  

Following on from the hugely successful Swifty Pop Shop which opened at the Sauce gallery at the end of 2009,  have invited Swifty to contribute to Headz!  As the former creative director of Straight No Chaser, Swifty has long worked with Peter Williams imagery.

Scan through the back issues of the magazine and youll be blown away by the radical combinations of typografix and photography. Swifty has taken these classic spreads one step further and included in Headz are a selection of Peter Williams classics that have been specially remixed for the occasion.

Headz! is curated by The Sauce Gallery, Punch and former Straight No Chaser publisher Paul Bradshaw.

Coming to the Sauce Gallery, Gibb St, Custard Factory 10-6pm Mon-Sat from 16 July 2010. Call Punch on 0121 224 7444 for more information.

The exhibition is launching with a fantastic performance by Digby Fairweather, playing live over the Custard Factory Lake, from 1pm on Friday 16 July.

You can also follow Sauce Gallery on Twitter www.twitter.com/saucegallery

Nigeria 50 is a cultural event which will bring the best of Nigerian culture celebrating five decades of music, art, fashion, writing and style from Africa’s most exciting nation.

Nigeria 50 – African Soul, Global Style

On the 1st of October 2010 Nigeria will be celebrating 50 years of independence from colonial rule.

Nigeria 50 is a cultural event which will bring the best of Nigerian culture to fresh and eager audiences worldwide. For the very first time the fruits of five decades of music, art, fashion, writing and style from Africa’s most exciting nation will be on tour together.

This is a tour rich with the unique soul and the vibrant style of Nigeria – the most populous Black nation on earth.

Working with artists such as Tony Allen, Dele Somsimi and Lemi Ghariokwu, the tour will take place in across the UK, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Cape Town and of course Lagos.

You can download more information on the project by clicking on the links below:

Nigeria Next - Generic overview of the festival and broad aims.

Nigeria 50 Timeline - UK programme of events and activities.

If you would like more information, or would like to get involved please call Ammo on 0121 224 7444.