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.

View our brochure online by clicking on the image below:

FAITH47 was one of the key artists we worked with during BASS 2008.

See the blog article and watch the video by clicking here.

The exhibition has been extended until the end of February. The exhibition is open Monday – Saturday from 10am – 6pm at the Sauce Gallery on Gibb Street, Custard Factory.

For more information click here.

For further information on how to apply click here.

A key part of BASS has always been its unique commissions. Here artists, organisations and promoters are individually commissioned to produce an event or new piece of work specifically for the festival.

Commissions  for BASS 2010 are now being accepted. Click here to read all the details and to download the application form and guidance notes.

Punch in partnership with The REP and Soul City Arts are thrilled to announce a new project coming to Birmingham in January 2010 called Writing on the Wall. This new piece of work will see the meeting of minds between a street artist and spoken word artists.

Mohammed Ali is a renowned graffitti artist will work with a group of internaional poets to present this exciting new piece turning the city walls into a story portrayed through spray cans and words. Poets include Amir Sulaiman from the USA and Dreadlock Alien (former Birmingham poet laureate).

Check out the trailer for the project below: