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.

Part of the four day challenge Verma will embark on a 120 mile journey from London’s BBC Centre on 22nd May 2010 to The Mailbox, Birmingham arriving ahead of the public consultation closure 25th May 2010. His protest journey will start on the day of the world’s first ever Bhangra Flashmob! For more details on the Flashmob,click here.

Verma thought of the idea of walking backwards after hearing about Lotan Baba, Indian’s famous ‘Rolling Saint’ who has rolled over 18,000 miles across India in a bid for unity and peace. His belief in penance and the backwards step for BBC’s decision to close BBC Asian Network and 6 Music encouraged Verma to devise this challenge.

Through this Verma hopes to build support for the campaign to ’save BBC Asian Network and 6 Music’.

For more information call Punch on 0121 224 7444.

Check out the short clip added when Punch hit the Birmingham Vaisakhi Mela 2010, click here.

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