Lack of Afro’s Cardiff gig was bittersweet. When Adam Gibbons sauntered on stage, he announced that with a heavy heart, he was planning to leave the music industry. His Cardiff gig was the first of the tour, and presumably his last ever gig in Cardiff as Lack of Afro. For the rest of the gig, it seemed clear that Adam Gibbons was keen to make this final tour count – he brought an unbridled energy to the stage that seemed to be fuelled by a passionate love for music.
This passion is an essential ingredient in becoming a stage performer like Lack of Afro. What makes him so unique is his proficiency in playing what seems like a never-ending number of instruments. I saw him play bass, guitar, keyboard, drums, saxophone, and the occasional tambourine throughout the course of the gig. He jumped around the stage with boundless energy, switching instruments with his six-piece band seamlessly, never missing a beat.
The Globe was full of a mix of old fans who were singing and dancing along to his beats and newcomers who managed to find his music just in time. The tour is promoting Lack of Afro’s newest and final album ‘Love Dealer,’ an eclectic mix of funk and disco. It is a marked shift from his earlier releases, with more of a dance floor focus, moving away from his traditional funk and soul sound.
His website introduces the new album: “Here to dazzle you by the power of the disco ball… ‘Love Dealer’ is the authentic modern disco experience, packing a stacked sole’s worth of club beats full of star dusted sing-alongs, style-outs and French touch-style cool.” His new music did feel like a party. The newer songs were a stark contrast to Lack of Afro’s older discography. Classics like ‘Wide Open’ from his 2023 album ‘Square One’ got the crowd tapping their feet. Saxophone solos brought out the jazzy elements to his songs. During the gig, fans were treated to a whistle-stop tour of his almost 20-year career as Lack of Afro.
A favourite moment of mine was when he slipped into one of his most popular songs ‘The Basis’, an aptly named song from his album ‘My Groove Your Move’ which is built on a simple saxophone refrain that repeats throughout the song. In the song you hear a man’s voice saying “it was the funkiest stuff and we all wanted to play funk and jazz, and that music was the basis…”
It’s clear that funk and jazz remain the basis of Lack of Afro’s music, even amongst his new disco sounds.
The six-piece band were all clad in the stylish new merch. The frontman of the day was Jonah Hitchens who started us off with a falsetto rendition of Lack of Afro’s top song on Spotify and the first track of the new album ‘Keeping me Strong’. It was a ‘strong’ start, bringing some funky disco to the table and really showed off Hitchens’s vocal range, which even spanned into rapping later in the gig.
Gibbons himself was a man of few words – he seemed to be much more focused on the music and collaboration with his band than on working the crowd, but that alone was captivating enough. If you have seen the Disney movie ‘Soul’, I kept thinking that he constantly looked like he was ‘in the zone.’ Hitchens’ humour was guiding the band and keeping the mood relaxed as they slipped into some unexpected classics like a jazzy rendition of ‘Fireball’ by Pitbull and Nelly’s ‘Hot in Herre’. In keeping with the tongue and cheek name ‘Lack of Afro’, the gig was light-hearted and fun while remaining musically bodied.
The end of the gig was emotional. The musician said on Instagram that “the whole band was buzzing.” This was evident
in the room, and they were treated with a long ovation.
On an Instagram video for his fans, Lack of Afro said, “I’ve thought long and hard and this is probably the last tour I’m going to do.” He added “there’s other stuff that I want to do, there’s other life stuff I want to do, there’s other music stuff that I want to do.” So, fans can remain hopeful that they will see Adam Gibbons in some form on the stage again.
He went on to say,
“Never say never… but being an artist is tough!”
It’s unsurprising that Adam Gibbons feels burnt out, because it’s obvious that he puts everything into his gigs. By the end of the gig the whole band looked exhausted but like they were riding a high, like they knew they’d been a part of something special.
Words by Abigail Neve
Image courtesy of Abigail Neve
