Catch the pioneers of desert blues Tinariwen in Manchester this month. In support of their latest release and ninth studio album Amatssou, the band will play at Aviva Studios on Monday 26 August.
Since the early 2000s, Tinariwen have toured the globe and gained international recognition for their mix of traditional West African and Arab music with blues and folk rock. They popularised the assouf style – or the Tuareg blues – a guitar style imbued with sorrow, longing and a call to dance. In 2012, their album Tassili won the Grammy award for the Best World Music Album.