Well this is all very exciting! African Night Fever & Easy Skankin’ have secured the services of Transglobal Underground on Wednesday 27th November and the full band will be performing live in Sussex at the Brighton Dome Studio Theatre.
Built in 1935 on the site of Maria Fitzherbert’s stables, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre was first used as a supper room and became a theatre soon afterwards. Its unique architectural features have been carefully cleaned and repaired to its former glory with the same high-end interior specifications as the larger Corn Exchange. It now affords new retractable seating with a capacity of circa 250.
Before Transglobal Underground there was new wave post punk outfit Furniture, famed for ‘Brilliant Mind’. The band was formed in 1979 in the Ealing area of London by Tim Whelan, Hamilton Lee and Jim Irvin. The trio remained in the band until they folded in 1991. While with Furniture, Whelan and Lee had demonstrated an interest in world music by bringing in more culturally-diverse instrumentation to what was originally a fairly conventional rock band line up.
Transglobal Underground was first formed when Whelan and Lee teamed up with a third musician, Nick Page. All three took on pseudonyms for the project, which they have determinedly maintained (albeit with variations) up until the present day. Transglobal Underground are pioneers in the mixing of club culture with world music, their first single ‘Temple Head’ went Top 30 and was later used in a Coca-Cola advertising campaign for the 1996 Olympic Games. Their debut album, ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ laid down the foundation of their music template and their seventh album ‘Moonshout’ picked up a BBC World Music award.
Transglobal Underground grew out of a mutual love for dance, avant-garde, Arabic, and world music and draws on each member’s listening tastes and cultural backgrounds. Many albums followed 1993’s ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ with ‘International Times’ in 1994, ‘Interplanetary Meltdown’ in 1995, and ‘Psychic Karaoke’ (1996). ‘Rejoice, Rejoice’ followed two years later and ‘Yes Boss Food Corner’ appeared in spring 2001. Since then another seven albums have dropped ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ (2004), ‘Moonshout’ (2007), ‘A Gathering Of Strangers’ (2010), ‘The Stone Turntable’ (2011), ‘Kabatronics’ (2013), ‘Walls Have Ears’ (2020) and ‘A Gathering Of Strangers 2021’ (2021).
Emerging into a new post-Covid, post-Brexit world, the group blew audiences away around the UK in 2022 and 2023. The current lineup is based around original members Hamid Mantu and Tim Whelan and features the UKs best known sitarist Sheema Mukherjee (also of Cornershop, Imagined Village, TUUP, a major figure on the UK storytelling scene), and Rav Neiyyar (Bollywood Band). All appeared on the collective’s most recent release Walls Have Ears, along with other regular members of the TGU family, notably original vocalist Natacha Atlas, who still performs with the band on occasion.
Tickets for Transglobal Underground’s Brighton Dome Studio Theatre concert are on sale from HERE.
About African Night Fever:
In 2003, Ebou Touray from the Gambia and David Sijale from Tanzania, launched a monthly music night at the Babylon Lounge in Hove, showcasing the music and culture of Africa and the African diaspora.
African Night Fever became a hub for local talent as people flocked to the nights in order to dance, mingle and experience a mix of Live bands and DJ sets. From that, sprang friendships, sharing and genuine community spirit.
African Night Fever continues to evolve and partners with local venues and promoters throughout the UK to share a taste of African and Caribbean culture, belonging and community to a diverse range of audiences.
About Easy Skankin’:
In a nutshell Easy Skankin’ are promoters of great music specialising in Reggae Music.
