Featuring: Mala & The Outlook Orchestra, The Honey Colony (Lafawndah, Tirzah featuring Coby Sey and Mica Levi, Bonnie Banane), Ralph McTell, Nest Collective, Loscil, Federico Albanese, Uniting of Opposites (Tim Liken, Clem Alford and Ben Hazleton) and more.
L-R The Balkanoes ©️ David Robinson, The Honey Colony, Mala
This December, Southbank Centre’s gigs and contemporary music programme celebrates innovative genre-changing musicians and pioneering producers.
The hottest artists right now come together as The Honey Colony for an exclusive London performance. Lafawndah, Tirzah (featuring Coby Sey and Mica Levi), Bonnie Banane and surprise special guests present a barrier-breaking concert experience, equal parts celebration and provocation.
Founding father of dubstep, Mala (Mark Lawrence) delivers a night of serious bass exploration with the incredible Outlook Orchestra and friends, whilst Uniting of Opposites collide the worlds of jazz and classical Indian music in a melting-pot of new sounds.
Southbank Centre also welcomes progressive international artists including genre-fusing Italian composer and pianist Federico Albanese, and Vancouver-based abstract electronic musician Loscil to its most intimate venue, the Purcell Room, for unmissable performances.
Highlights of December’s gigs programme include:
- Legendary producer Mala, an instrumental figure in the creation of the dubstep scene, is joined by the critically acclaimed 20-piece Outlook Orchestra for a one-off show to trace the history of dubstep with special guests (2 Dec, Royal Festival Hall).
- Italian composer and pianist Federico Albanese launches his third album, By The Deep Sea, with an intimate gig showcasing this nuanced and elegant work (2 Dec, Purcell Room).
- Equal parts celebration and provocation, barrier-breaking pop experiment The Honey Colony combines material from Lafawndah, Tirzah (featuring Coby Sey and Mica Levi), Bonnie Banane and more to create a collaborative live performance of forward-thinking music (6 Dec, Queen Elizabeth Hall).
- Tim Liken, Clem Alford and Ben Hazleton collide the worlds of jazz and classical Indian music as Uniting of Opposites, forming a melting-pot of sounds with guest artists Eddie Hick (Sons of Kemet) and Idris Rahman (Soothsayers) (6 Dec, Purcell Room).
- The Nest Collective bring free folk and world music from emerging and established artists, with a dose of audience participation, to the Clore Ballroom (20 Dec, Clore Ballroom).
- Festive celebrations pop-up across the site throughout December including Ian Shaw and Claire Martin’s Early Christmas Cracker (8 Dec, Royal Festival Hall) and the free Caribbean Christmas Party Time (15 Dec, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer).
- Free gigs every Friday in our Friday Lunch and Friday Tonics series.
Now ON SALE:
- This March, Bedouine brings her mesmerising voice and magical folk-meets-funk sound to Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, with influences from the political landscape, sixties folk and seventies country-funk, and a glimmer of bossa nova cool (22 Mar 2019, Purcell Room).
For further press information, interview requests or to request press tickets please contact: Alexandra Shaw, Press Officer, alexandra.shaw@
Press images for all shows mentioned can be downloaded here.
FULL LISTINGS BELOW
MALA & THE OUTLOOK ORCHESTRA
Sunday 2 December 2018, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Ticketed, For ages 14+, £26 – £37
Legendary producer Mala (Mark Lawrence) was instrumental in the creation of the dubstep scene, forming production outfit Digital Mystik with Coki and launching flagship club night DMZ together with Loefah and Sgt Pokes. In a special one-off show, Mala is joined by the critically acclaimed 20-piece Outlook Orchestra, led by BASCA award-winning composer Tommy Evans (Submotion Orchestra, Gentleman’s Dub Club) and featuring some of the UK’s finest contemporary musicians. Presenting some of the biggest pioneering bass driven tracks of his generation and Mala’s own unique productions, it will be an unmissable night of serious bass exploration.
https://www.southbankcentre.
FEDERICO ALBANESE
Sunday 2 December 2018, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, Ticketed, £15
Genre-fusing Italian composer and pianist Federico Albanese launches his third album, By The Deep Sea, with this intimate gig at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room. The album is a nuanced and elegant work which incorporates piano, Rhodes piano, synthesizers, Hammond organ, electric, acoustic and bass guitars, in addition to field recordings, blending classical music, electronica and psychedelia.
https://www.southbankcentre.
UNITING OF OPPOSITES
Thursday 6 December 2018, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, Ticketed, For ages 14+, Under 18s require the accompaniment of an adult, £12
This new musical venture from Tim Liken, Clem Alford and Ben Hazleton sees the worlds of jazz and classical Indian music collide. Their first album, Ancient Lights, is a melting-pot of sounds that’s been feted by Gilles Peterson. For this gig, the trio are joined by Eddie Hick (Sons of Kemet, Roots Manuva, Omar Puente, Dave Walsh, Ruby Rushton) on drums, Idris Rahman (Soothsayers, Arun Gosh) on clarinet, Manjeet Singh Rasiya on tabla and vocalist Marcina Arnold.
https://www.southbankcentre.
THE HONEY COLONY
Thursday 6 December 2018, 8pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Ticketed, For ages 14+, £15 – £20
Lafawndah, Bonnie Banane and Tirzah present a live performance of forward-thinking music un-balancing the norm, featuring Coby Sey, Mica Levi and more special guests to be announced. Equal parts celebration and provocation, this barrier-breaking concert experience brings The Honey Colony mixtape onto the stage, upending the relationship between performer and audience.
https://www.southbankcentre.
RALPH MCTELL
Friday 7 December, 7.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Ticketed, £30
50 years on from the release of his debut album, Eight Frames a Second, folk singer-songwriter Ralph McTell retains an entrancing storytelling style. The prolific songwriter had his biggest break in 1974 with the single ‘Streets of London’, which won him an Ivor Novello Award after selling millions of copies worldwide. McTell is known for his mastery of the acoustic guitar and for a narrative style that bridges the gap between folk and blues.
http://www.southbankcentre.co.
IAN SHAW AND CLAIRE MARTIN’S EARLY XMAS CRACKER
Saturday 8 December, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, Ticketed, £30
Get in the festive spirit with this selection of seasonal classics and show songs from jazz-singing duo Ian Shaw and Claire Martin. Expect wit, mischief, hilarious originals and rousing singalongs, including songs by Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, David Bowie and The Pogues.
LOSCIL
Sunday 9 December 2018, 7.45pm, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, Ticketed, £22.50 – £25
Experimental ambient musician Loscil brings the bleak beauty of Vancouver’s landscape to Southbank Centre’s Purcell room in this live performance. Drawing on his Pacific Northwest surroundings over a constantly evolving discography, Loscil captures the region’s conflicted nature, its troubled history of settlement and displacement, and the heavy industry that pockmarks its stunning landscape.
https://southbankcentre.co.uk/
FREE GIGS
FRIDAY LUNCH: GRANNY’S ATTIC
Part of Winter
Friday 14 December, 1pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Central Bar, Free
Lively trio Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne (melodeon, concertina), George Sansome (guitar) and Lewis Wood (fiddle, mandolin) shake the mothballs out of traditional English folk in a free lunchtime concert.
https://www.southbankcentre.
FRIDAY TONIC: THE BALKANOES
Part of Winter
Friday 14 December, 5.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Free
The energetic Balkanoes perform a Balkan goulash of brass and fiddle with a pinch of klezmer. The nine-piece band mix Eastern European and Jewish music, traditional klezmer and Romani grooves, for a magnificent Balkan bash.
https://www.southbankcentre.
CARIBBEAN CHRISTMAS PARTY TIME
Part of Winter
Saturday 15 December 2018, 3pm, Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, Free
Live musicians and DJs showcase the unbeatable festive spirit of a Caribbean Christmas with traditional festive Caribbean music, including parang and soca.
https://southbankcentre.co.uk/
FEELINGS OF HOME: TOMORROW’S WARRIORS AND WOMEN FOR REFUGEE WOMEN
Part of Winter
Monday 17 December 2018, 5.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Clore Ballroom, Free
Tomorrow’s Warriors and Women for Refugee Women consider what home means to different people during winter with a performance from two groups who have their home here at Southbank Centre.
https://www.southbankcentre.
GAMELAN WINTER CHIMES
Part of Winter
Tuesday 18 December 2018, 5pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Clore Ballroom, Free
Gongs, chimes and metallophones ring in the season at a Winter performance on Southbank Centre’s community gamelan. Musicians perform Indonesian repertoire alongside some more surprising party pieces. Southbank Centre has been home to a Javanese gamelan orchestra named Kyai Lebdhajiwa, ‘the venerable spirit of perfection’, which was presented as a gesture of friendship to the people of Great Britain by the government of the Republic of Indonesia in 1987.
https://www.southbankcentre.
FEELINGS OF HOME: STREETWISE OPERA & KINETIKA
Part of Winter
Wednesday 19 December 2018, 5.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Clore Ballroom, Free
Part of a series of performances considering what home means to different people during winter, Streetwise Opera and Kinetika Bloco perform.
https://www.southbankcentre.
NEST COLLECTIVE TAKEOVER
Part of Winter
Thursday 20 December 2018, 5.30pm, Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Clore Ballroom, Free
Take in the finest of folk and world music this Winter as the Nest Collective bring you engaging sounds and rhythms, with a dose of audience participation. Formed in 2006, the Nest Collective are London’s fix for folk, building musical communities and seeking out those who want to create sonorous experiences in unusual places.
https://www.southbankcentre.
# ENDS #
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Southbank Centre
Southbank Centre is the UK’s largest arts centre, occupying a 17 acre site that sits in the midst of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter on the South Bank of the Thames. The site has an extraordinary creative and architectural history stretching back to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Southbank Centre is home to the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery as well as The National Poetry Library and the Arts Council Collection. For further information please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk.
