Top London world jazz/folk roots/global beats band Me and My Friends are back in the city where it all began a decade and a half ago, Leeds, on Wednesday 9th April as part of their spring 2025 UK tour. They play Brudenell Social Club (once again linking up with the city's leading world music promoter DJ Lubi aka Lubi Jovanovic), for their first show at the venue since spring 2023.
Their sound is described as "the sound of English folk colliding head-on with the golden-era music of 1970s West Africa and the Caribbean". They play soulful, poignant music with a beat, a unique blend of Afrobeat grooves, folk infused harmonies, reggae rhythms and jazz improvisation where rich harmonies, graceful cello and funky clarinet are all tied together by the hauntingly elegant voice of singer and guitarist Nick Rasle.
Over the past decade Me and My Friends have toured across Europe, gaining support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, Cerys Matthews, FiP, Soundway Records and Quantic. Their whirlwind live shows are dedicated to creating the warmth and connection that all humans crave, with a penchant for tearing up their own tracks with explosive dynamism and spontaneity. In spring 2023, they released their fourth studio album "Before I Saw The Sea", which represented an audacious development in the band’s signature sound. Intimate and reflective, it was an immersive set of night-time meditations conceived during lockdown, its laidback grooves combining bittersweet nostalgia with hypnotic rhythmic interplay. This was a record made to accompany journeys when none could be made, as the world awaited the parting of the stormy clouds.
“An amazing live show!” - Will Holland (Quantic)
“A life-affirming sound” - Loose Ends, BBC Radio 4
“I’m loving this!” - Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music
“They’ve got joy written through them, like a stick of Blackpool rock!” - Alex Lester, BBC Radio 2
“A sublime fusion that combines pastoral dreaminess with the heat of highlife and Afrobeat sounds” - Songlines Magazine
“Such interesting influences… beautiful” - Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music
Their last Brudenell Leeds gig two years ago was to promote the "Before I Saw The Sea" album, and was their first show in Leeds in 5 years. It was a packed night and proved that Me and My Friends still have a strong Leeds based following who love their blend of roots music from across the world, from English folk to West African highlife to Jamaican reggae, plus touches of jazz added into the mix.
Support comes from Leeds' favourite Afrojazz explosion Afrodesia, led by alto saxophonist Reece Fogg and featuring some of the best young musicians from the city's buzzing alt-jazz scene. Formed in early 2021, they were the next generation of Leeds' rising jazz stars emerging from Leeds Conservatoire following in the footsteps of people like Nubiyan Twist, TC & The Groove Family, Jasmine Myra and Fergus Quill. They are a 6 piece afrobeat/afro-jazz ensemble renowned for their explosive live sets. They've played many shows in Leeds over the past few years at the Hifi Club, Sela Bar, Hyde Park Book Club and Brudenell Social Club as well as Leeds Jazz Festival (Welcome To Leeds Open Air Stage), and now regularly play shows in Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool and York. Their gigs are always firing sessions where their unique blend of classic afrobeat, highlife, contemporary jazz and Latin rhythms always pack the dancefloor.
