Tony Allen Tickets

Afrobeat Founder and Influential Drummer Tony Allen Tickets

A revolutionary drummer for the Afrobeat genre, Tony Allen is perhaps best known for his collaboration with Fela Kuti, who once famously said "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat." Brian Eno has called him "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived. See Tony Allen in concert to experience a legend in an under-appreciated musical genre.

Schedule

Get your Tony Allen tickets soon, as tour dates can sell out. Allen routinely tours through Afrobeat festivals in the United States. His home base is in Paris, so you can find him in clubs across Europe, like the Village Underground in London and the Theatre de Bouffes du Nord in Paris.

Trivia

In 1984, Allen recorded the album N.E.P.A with his band Afrobeat 2000. N.E.P.A. stood for Never Expect Power Always, a commentary on the unreliable power system in Lagos, Nigeria that at the time (and continuing today) led to recurrent power outages. The power supply was the responsibility of the Nigerian Electrical Power Authority (N.E.P.A).

Band

Born in Lagos, Tony Allen established himself as the drummer and unofficial music director of Fela Kuti's band, Africa 70, and is one of the creators of the Afrobeat sound. Influenced by jazz musicians such as Art Blakey and Max Roach, as well as by American funk like James Brown, Allen and Kuti added their own unique twist to the emerging, politically charged Afrobeat genre in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1979, Allen formed his own band, Tony Allen and the African Messengers, and recorded his first album apart from Kuti: No Discrimination. Allen remained active in the Afrobeat scene in Lagos before moving to London in 1984, and settling in Paris the next year, where he still resides.

Throughout the 1980s, few other Nigerian musicians took up Afrobeat, considered by many to be too difficult. But Afrobeat heavily influenced juju, another African music style, and Allen played in several juju bands throughout the decade. Throughout the 1990s Allen often played as a session drummer for a range of artists, such as Grace Jones, Groove Armada, Randy Weston, and Manu Dibango. As a solo artist, Allen has continued to progress musically, incorporating elements of hip-hop and dub into his pop and jazz albums.

Breakthrough

Allen got his first regular gig in 1960 with the Cool Cats, a highlife band led by Sir Victor Olaiya, the so-called "Evil Genius of Highlife." Allen then met Kuti in 1964, when they started playing American-style jazz together, before they formed Africa 70 in 1969. Allen's double bass playing, political activism and forward, driving rhythms came to define the emerging sound of Afrobeat. Allen stayed with Fela Kuti for roughly 15 years, from 1964 to 1979, before setting off as a solo artist.

Hit Albums

Allen experienced a career resurgence in the 2000s, when interest in the Afrobeat genre and his early solo albums returned. He also began collaborating with modern recording artists. He teamed up with Damon Albarn of Blur, Paul Simonon from The Clash, and The Verve's Simon Tong to form the British alternative rock band The Good, the Bad & the Queen in 2007. Their eponymous, self-titled record was released in 2007 to critical acclaim.

Allen further collaborated with Albarn and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea in the band Rocket Juice & the Moon, which released a well-received self-titled album in 2013. Allen published his autobiography Tony Allen: An Autobiography of the Master Drummer of Afrobeat, in 2013, recounting his epic musical career.

Show Experience

Getting Tony Allen tickets will enable a music fan to witness a truly unique musical experience. Afrobeat shows are legendary for the sheer energy of the performers. The driving rhythms and improvised music, along with colorful stage performers, never fail to entertain. As Allen says, "There are many places I can take my drumming and I try to make my drums sing and turn them into an orchestra."