Cargo is about to host Seun Kuti’s only London dates on his tour to mark the launch of his debut album Many Things. Having packed out the Barbican he will now perform in an intimate setting where you will experience the sounds of the true heir to Fela Kuti’s throne.

Seun will be playing with no less than 17 musicians with blasts of trumpets and booming percussion accompanying his powerful political prose. Dancers will flank the impressive ensemble and Cargo will be flooded with the musical energy born from the very heart of Nigeria.

Seun Kuti is Fela Kuti’s last son. Seun’s father, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, was Nigeria’s most beloved popular musician and most acerbic social critic until his death in 1997 — his Afrobeat music is a heavy blend of funk and jazz. Like father like son, Seun started learning to play saxophone and piano when he was eight, and not a year later he was already performing in front of live audiences. He then began his career as support band for his father’s band, Egypt 80, with whom he still plays.

At twenty-three, Seun is probably the youngest person on stage. Most of the band members of Egypt 80 including Seun’s mother, who still sings backup, performed with Fela, and some look to now be in their fifties and sixties and in addition appear in the same costumes they wore in the 80s.

With Seun, Egypt 80 seem as explosive as they were under Fela, songs can last some twenty minutes and peaking in the loud layered crescendos that were Fela’s signature. They combine horns, keyboards, percussion, guitars and vocals in a sophisticated and overpowering and insistent blend.