Hello Again Hackney ~ A special series of performances to welcome Hackney residents back to SJQ. This event is a collaboration between SJQ & The Goldenstool Project.

For the discounted ticket offer of £5 for Hackney residents, enter the promotional code ‘helloagainhackney1’ when purchasing a ticket. Please bring proof of address on the night. All ticket holders will receive a ‘hello again’ drink upon arrival with their ticket purchase.

Fofoulah means “it’s there” in Wolof. Signed to Glitterbeat Records this out of this world group features Senegalese vocalist, dancer and percussionist Batch Gueye, Tom Challenger (Red Snapper) on sax/synths, guitarist Phil Stevenson (Iness Mezel), Johnny Brierley on bass, Gambian sabar drummer Kaw Secka and drummer Dave Smith (Robert Plant’s Shapeshifters, Juju). Fofoulah’s music is inspired a cosmopolitan mélange that also incorporates elements of electronic music, dub, improvisation, afro-rock and Wolof dance.

Their latest album “Daega Rek” (release date 8/11/18) is a more shape-shifting and adventurous recording. Slippery sabar beats, dystopian electronics, and echoing, shamanic chants ratchet up both the dub quotient and the dramatic tension. Creating a sound-world that is both earthy and urban, futurist and rooted.

“A bravely adventurous new fusion band” – 4 stars out of 5 star The Guardian

“FOFOULAH… are properly outlandish, teleporting the listener to some West African metropolis a hundred years in the future…this one’s fierce on every level” – MOJO

Volta45 (Bernard Johnson-Tackie) is a Ghanaian born, London based record collector, DJ, writer, archivist and creative head of the The Goldenstool Project. He travels the world digging for records which would have been otherwise forgotten in time. His musical style is heavily influenced by Jazz, and is very percussive; playing a distinctive mix of afro funk, jazz, highlife and African influenced sounds from South America and beyond, making him one of the most sought after DJs on the afro scene in London.

His ‘Doin Our Own Thing’ nights, in the East End of London, are legendary, and he has also been a regular on the European and UK music festival scene. He has over the lockdown period curated a 5-part podcast documenting the history of Highlife music from 1920 to present. The podcast was recently featured in SongLines Magazine and Music in Africa (Paris).

Volta45 has collaborated with various bands and record labels, notably Soundway Records (Konkoma), Kalita Records, Yaaba Funk, Fofoulah (offshoot of Outhouse Ruhabi), Hewale Soundz (Ghana) to name but a few. He is currently working with a Ghanaian jazz outfit whose single will be out on his GoldenStool label imprint later on this year.