Doors 7pm

Soundspecies (Live) 8pm

Orchestra Baobab 8.50pm

West Africa’s most iconic dance-band are back. Almost half a century since their formation, Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab has returned with a timeless set of classic, swaying tunes  in the group’s trademark style.

Orchestra Baobab has just released Tribute To Ndiouga Dieng (World Circuit), dedicated to one of the band’s original vocalists who sadly died in November 2016. His songs  continue to be sung in the band by his son Alpha. The new album is fresh and yet reassuringly familiar, retaining the ripeness of the sound that made Orchestra Baobab a legend, but interpreted with vigour and vibrancy, and with a few twists that are vital and captivating.

Responsible for some of the world’s most sublime and truly distinctive music, Orchestra Baobab fuse Afro-Cuban rhythm and Portuguese Creole melody with Congolese rumba and high life, which back at their inception in 1970 kick-started a musical renaissance in their native Senegal, turning the capital, Dakar, into one of the world’s most vibrant musical cities. Over the next decade the group dominated the local scene and produced countless hits before disbanding in the mid-80s, but it was their neglected 1982 album, Ken Dou Werente – which included many of their most famous songs, ‘Coumba’, ‘Ledi Njemme Mbodj’ and ‘Utru Horas’ – that became a cult classic, re-released to huge acclaim by World Circuit Records in 1989 under the title Pirate’s Choice.

The band reformed in 2001 with encouragement from Senegalese superstar Youssou N’Dour and the following year released Specialist in All Styles, their first album in nearly 20 years. In 2007 they released Made in Dakar.

‘Old-school Africa at its finest.’ The Observer

‘One of the world’s greatest live acts.’ The Guardian

Support is Soundspecies (live), who explore the territory between traditional rhythmic percussion music and electronic dance music. They will be playing music developed from a collaboration with Ache Meyi at the Manana festival, Cuba. Featuring singer Luzmira Zerpa from Family Atlantica, percussion and guitar.

Age Restriction 16 +