Wednesday 18th October | 7:30pm | £12 advance tickets
Gasper Nali is a roots one-man-band from the small town of Nkhata Bay on the shores of Lake Malawi. He plays a one-string home-made 3-metre long Babatoni bass guitar with a stick and an empty beer bottle, and 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 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. After the successful Euro/UK tours in 2018 and 2019 Gasper has been biding his time in Malawi, writing new music and playing locally around Nkhata Bay the way he always has - but now he is very ready to re-conquer the world in 2023!
"While I wouldn't suppose that a new generation of African troubadours will soon be seen wielding the babatoni as their instrument of choice (particularly since there only seems to be one in existence thus far), Gasper Nali's singular music deserves to be heard far and wide." - Rootsworld
Gasper is supported by Reggae singer songwriter and small-scale farmer Michael Mountain, from rural Malawi. Born by Malawi parents but brought up and schooled in Zambia before moving back to the land of his father, he is an enigmatic person; on one hand deeply rooted in the spirituality of the Rastafari movement, on the other, immersed in the local politics of being chief of a small village. October 2023 will be Michael’s first visit to the UK.