HAILU MERGIA

+ Tom Greig

Dates: Fri 20th Oct 2023

Times: 21:00
Doors open @ 20:30

Location: St Stephen’s Church

Tickets: £17

If you are wheelchair user, would like to book a free ticket for a companion or carer, or have any other access requirements you would like to discuss with us, please email boxoffice@spillfestival.com

In mid-1970s Ethiopia, as the political tides changed toward authoritarianism, Addis Ababa's cosmopolitan, soul-fuelled nightlife was in full swing.

Hailu Mergia and the Walias Band were the jazz pioneers at the very centre of this ‘golden age’ of Ethiopian popular music, providing the soundtrack to 12-hour all-nighters for the diplomats, power brokers, movie stars and regular club-goers seeking refuge from government-enforced curfews.

Now based in New York and in his sixth decade of musical activity, Hailu Mergia and his band come to Ipswich this October to tour their latest album, Yene Mircha (‘My Choice’ in Amharic). The record has been celebrated worldwide, including by the New York Times, BBC, and Pitchfork, who called it ‘triumphantly in the present’.

Hailu Mergia will be supported by DJ, record-collector and author (Vinyl London - A Guide to Independent Record Shops and The 500 Hidden Secrets of London), Tom Grieg.