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Concert in your area for Funk & Soul and R&B.
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After years of being compared to Uncle Ben (yes, the popular character on the rice brand) by his friends because of striking resemblance, which he embraced with bow-tie in tow. Duterde paid homage by professionally adopting the name Ben L’Oncle Soul (and by adding ‘soul’, he was able to avoid any issues regarding copyright infringement).
In 2004 Duterde began professional singing in the gospel group, Fitiavana. The group recorded their debut album “I Have a Dream” in 2009 which featured a number of soul classics sung in English including “Killing Me Softly”, “Lean On Me” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”. Meanwhile, Duterde had also started making progress on solo career when the French division of Motown offered a recording contract.
Under the name Ben L’Oncle Soul, Duterde released his debut EP “Soul Wash: Lesson 1” through Motown. Featuring mostly cover material with a 60’s retro feel running throughout, the EP included Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy, Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” and the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”.
In 2010 he released his full length self-titled album sung in both English and French and included the singles “Soulman”, “Petite Sœur” and “Elle Me Dit”. Peaking at number four in the French album charts, the album also certified triple platinum.
The following year Duterde opened the 32nd Montreal Jazz Festival and captivated an audience of over 10,000. He has also made appearances at North Sea Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival.
Funky trio Imagination are one of the late 70s’ and early 80s most successful British (they hail from London) soulful dance acts. Their debut album Bodytalk reached chart success in 1981 and slotted right into the emerging club scene. The band’s follow up In the Heat of The Night not only found success in Britain but charted highly in various countries all over the world. Their disco sound continued with their soon to become well known track ‘This Means War (Shoo Be Doo Da Dabba Doobe)’ yet their follow up album Closer was a departure from synthetic disco and more of a soul album. Leee John of the band created a new line-up for Imagination in 1992 and released Fascination of the Psychical. Since then he has continued to create music under the Imagination name tag and just last year released a single called ‘Krash’ to promote the band’s ‘best of’ which possessed a freshness yet still maintained Imagination’s traditional 70s funk sound that harks back to the birth of the band. Seeing them live, even despite the line-up changes, is, even in 2014, nostalgic of the 80s club scene and is a fantastic opportunity to get a groove on like it’s 1982. When I saw them at Concorde 2 in Brighton in November Leee John and the gang were looking fresh as ever, and bursting with an energy that projected onto the audience before them, initiating some pretty slick (and in some cases not so slick) moves in all four corners of the 600 capacity venue. Imagination are a must see band if you love a good boogie.
katie.wilkinson18
Hot, sweaty and delightful, KJ matched the venue. Funky and groovy....standouts were Cash and Kpafuca and the sensational Josh on drums through "All along the watch tower".
Come back soon brother, London loves you
jonny-picklechin
Fantástico espectáculo en un lugar cómodo.Berlin ama La Yegros y está esperando el próximo concierto
Great show in a nice location.Berlin loves La Yegros looking forward to see her again.
essu
Seeing French soul singer Ben l'Oncle Soul live is one of those unique experiences that you can never quite put your finger on. It's hard to describe everything about how great it was and what it meant to me.
Ben performed a great soul song with tons of emotion and powerful feeling behind it. It was one of those songs that just gets to you, right in your soul (which I guess makes soul music an apt description for it). He did an excellent job of building anticipation in the song while still creating an excellent song to listen to at the same time.As he got into the swing of things the crowd got very rowdy and excited about the music and beats that he created and provided for us.
Everyone was happy to jump up and down, clap, sing along, and otherwise be a lively and engaged audience. Ben talked to the audience as he sang his excellent soul tunes, keeping them right there with him, in the mood he wanted them in.
I would highly recommend seeing a Ben l'Oncle Soul concert to everyone that is interested in soul music. Even if you do not speak French, he speaks a universal language through his music.
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