The Africa Express comes to Teesside. The collective of African and Western musicians have begun their tour around the UK with their first gig in Middlesbrough Town Hall in Cleveland featuring Damon Albarn and Rizzle Kicks.
Africa Express began in 2006 with a trip to Mali, when co-founder Damon Albarn of Blur and later Gorillaz took Fatboy Slim, Martha Wainwright and others to play with acts such as Toumani Diabate, Salif Keita and Amadou & Mariam.
Rehearsing and creating new music on a specially hired train as they go, each show is designed to be a complete one off event. Further gigs during this tour are at Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol and London.