What’s On

“His music is simple but joyous, and totally infectious” – Songlines Magazine
“His songs are moving to hear and a spectacle to watch” – Evening Standard

Gasper Nali is a not-so-traditional babatoni player from the small town of Nkhata Bay on the shores of Lake Malawi. The babatoni is an African one-string home-made 3-metre long bass guitar, and with a stick and an empty beer bottle, together with a cow skin kick drum and catchy melodies, he creates the most amazing and danceable original Afro Beats possible!

Gasper’s unique style of Kwela music has received an extraordinary amount of online attention after a video of him playing by the lake shore went viral with over 20 million views. He has been featured by CNN and in the documentary “Deep Roots Malawi”, jammed with Joss Stone, appeared on Wired for Sound – Malawi, remixed by Aroop Roy for Sol Power Sounds and been played by Iggy Pop on BBC 6! His debut album, “Abale Ndikuwuzeni”, roughly translates to ‘People, I want to tell you’. It is a fitting title as Gasper’s songs, all sung in the Malawi national language of Chichewa, talk about life and strife in the country, often including social issues such as the rich and the poor, child marriages etc.

80s parody spandex band back to the Portland for the first time in 3 years.

Arthur Brown is synonymous with his 1968 hit “Fire” and the Hammond-driven “Crazy World” line-up which spawned it. However, his ‘God of Hellfire’ burned out fast and, in 1970, he returned with a new project: the prog-festival freak-show Kingdom Come followed by a varied solo career. Those initial four band albums, by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and by Kingdom Come are thrilling, as tend to be Brown’s cameos on other peoples’ projects.

Best known for his flamboyant theatrical performances and his powerful, wide- ranging operatic voice. He has been a major influence on a wide range of musicians due to his outstanding vocal ability and wild stage persona and concepts. He is considered a pioneer of shock rock and progressive rock and influential on heavy metal music.
He associated with Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Frank Zappa, Hawkwind, Klaus Schultze and Alice Cooper and made a cameo appearance in the cult film “The Committee” and also “Tommy”. His countless collaborations include The Alan Parsons Project, The Stranglers and The Prodigy.
His best-known single “Fire” hit number 1 in the UK singles chart and Canada, and a number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album “The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown” had top ten success on both sides of the Atlantic. Following “Fire”, the press would often refer to Brown as “The God of Hellfire”, in reference to the opening shouted line of the song.
Arthur shows no signs of stopping or slowing down and continues to record and release hugely inspiring music, including his most recent release “Long, Long Road” (2022) and the launch of his new multi-media show “A Human Perspective”.

https://www.thegodofhellfire.com

https://www.facebook.com/arthurbrownmusic

ProgRock/Metal night