Category : Groupe

Tony Allen obituary

Masterful drummer and co-creator of Afrobeat, the fusion of funk, jazz and African types that he pioneered with Fela KutiOn 12 and 13 March there were two live shows in the Church of Sound collection at St James the Great Church in Clapton, east Lond...

Tony Allen: the Afrobeat maverick who blazed a trail across the globe

The Nigerian musician was a restless creator who embraced the physicality of drumming and innovated till the top Tony Allen’s 10 best tracksNews report: Afrobeat co-founder Tony Allen dies aged 79Few musicians can claim to have invented a revolutiona...

Tony Allen: the Afrobeat pioneer's 10 finest recordings

From simmering dancefloor fillers to defiant resistance anthems, we decide one of the best of the legendary drummer’s tracksNews report: Tony Allen, Afrobeat co-founder, dies aged 79Take heed to a playlist of Ammar’s alternatives: Related: Tony Allen...

Gorillaz: Reject False Icons review – a swing through Damon Albarn's circus

Denholm Hewlett’s documentary is a quick scrapbook of behind-the-scenes moments captured on the band’s recording periods and on a world tourIt’s shocking, given the virtual pop-band conceit, that there wasn’t a full-length animated Gorillaz film year...

Live Forever: The Oasis Musical – we reveal the leaked script

Noel Gallagher has claimed an Oasis musical is ‘inevitable’ – we imagine a supersonic script that’s already prepared for the stage Scene 1Int. Burnage. Terrace front-room set recycled from Shameless. LIAM sits on a sunken couch consuming lasagne, pau...

Africa Express: Egoli review – an end-to-end party album

(Africa Categorical)Five albums in, and Africa Express – Damon Albarn’s cross-cultural collaboration engine – has pitched up in Johannesburg, often known as Egoli in Xhosa. It might be the most effective iteration but of this speed-dating pop writer’...

Africa Express presents EGOLI review – a collaboration to stir the senses

(Africa Categorical)Damon Albarn’s collective decamp to Johannesburg for a wealthy and rewarding reminder of the eclecticism of non-western popNow 13 years in the tooth, Damon Albarn’s Africa Express is a pleasant concept, an try and create a degree...

Africa Express: The Circus review – Albarn's multi-artist Brexit show has stop-start feel

Wanstead Flats, LondonSome great performances - including a surprise look by Blur - are marred by too long watching roadies milling roundDamon Albarn’s Brexit technique was putting. The Africa Categorical co-founder had deliberate to mark the UK lurc...

Damon Albarn joins call for citizens' assembly to break Brexit deadlock

In a letter to the Guardian, outstanding figures demand members of public be given probability to finish stalemateGorillaz frontman Damon Albarn and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams are amongst outstanding public figures calling for a r...

A citizens’ assembly could break the politicians’ Brexit deadlock | Letter

Rowan Williams, Damon Albarn, Ruth Lister, Laura Janner-Klausner, Jonathan Coe, Ian McEwan, Caitlin Moran, Neal Lawson and 13 others suggest a method aheadOur politics and our parliament is in impasse over Brexit. But if we select to study from other...

The Good, the Bad & the Queen: Merrie Land review – almost-anthems for England’s dreaming

Damon Albarn’s eclectic supergroup confront national myths on an formidable album of Brexit-era Anglicana“This is not rhetoric, it comes from my heart,” sings Damon Albarn on the title track of this newest album by the Good, the Dangerous & the Q...

The Good, the Bad & the Queen: Merrie Land review – Damon Albarn's scattergun sketch of Britain

(Studio 13)In line with the official bumf accompanying the second album from Damon Albarn’s multigenerational supergroup, Merrie Land is “an attractive and hopeful paean to the England of at this time”. Drummer Tony Allen told the Guardian last week...

Mari Wilson: Neasden’s very own queen of soul | Brief letters

Laurence Binyon | Margaret Bondfield | Neasden | Damon Albarn’s attire | Standard Brexit informationStephen Grove (Letters, 12 November) says Laurence Binyon makes use of the phrase “contemn” in For the Fallen. I've inherited a 1939 edition of the Ox...

Let Woakes join Stokes and Foakes | Brief letters

The Arts, Disability and Change

I really enjoyed chairing a panel this morning at Breaking Down the Barriers at The Garage in Norwich. My co panellists have been a very impressive bunch, virtually fizzing with power and enthusiasm. They included Actor, director and campaigner Jami...