May

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings to play Mandela Hall

We are delighted to announce that SHARON JONES + THE DAP KINGS will play their debut Northern Irish show at the Mandela Hall, Belfast on Saturday 25th October. 

While many artists have come and gone, why have Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings only continued to grow steadily in popularity around the world? How can they continue to sell-out huge theaters, headline festivals, and sell hundreds of thousands of records year after year with neither major label support nor a single radio hit? The reason is simple. People love their music. There is no other band around today that plays with the rhythm, feeling, or explosive power of the Dap-Kings, there is no other singer that can match the energy and honest soul of Sharon Jones, and there is no other record that embodies this captivating sound better than their latest studio endeavor, Give the People What They Want.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings formed out of the ashes of Desco Records, a fiercely independent label that developed an international underground following for releasing hard funk vinyl in the nineties. After the label's demise in 1999, the family of musicians that populated it's roster regrouped to form an all-star band that would become the core of the Daptone Records stable. It was obvious that the new label's first release would be the debut full length of the fiery Sharon Jones. 2002's Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings would prove to be the birth of a juggernaut.

Over the next ten years, the band toured vigorously, crafting electrifying shows that brought packed rooms to rapture, leaving only dropped jaws and sweat drenched dance floors behind them. They continued to record albums and 45's to critical acclaim and public delight, and with each successive release found themselves in bigger and bigger rooms. 2005's Naturally brought them their first network television performance on Conan O'Brian. 2007's 100 Days, 100 Nights would sell over 100,000 copies in the states alone, a staggering success for an independent release, and 2010's I Learned the Hard Way debuted at #16 on Billboard's Top 200 Album chart outselling it's predecessor in only it's first few months.

Tremendous success on TV would follow, with the Dap-Kings appearing on The Colbert Report, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan, Later With Jools Holland, as the house band for Comedy Central's Night of Too Many Stars, and as performers on 2012's VH1 Divas.

Beyond their own records and performances, others have tapped them consistently for a sound that simply cannot be found elsewhere. They have been sampled, licensed for film and TV, and called upon time and again to join other artists both on stage and in studio. Simply great music from a great band, because in the end, that's all the people really want.

Get ready to shake, shimmy and shed tears of joy! Check out their official website.

Tickets are on sale now from Students' Union Reception and Ticketmaster - get yours today.