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Wednesday, 1 July 2026

When The King Came To Call

Last week the mighty King Ayisoba was in the UK for a short tour to promote his new Adrian Sherwood produced album "Pure Confusion".

On Thursday I went over to the air-conditioned Cafe Oto in London's fashionable Dalston together with some local hipsters and some ex-pat Ghanaians to take in the show. A great time was had by all.

The King barked and crooned to his heart's content while plucking away furiously at his kologo (a traditional Ghanaian two-stringed instrument that produces a sound reminiscent of a banjo), pausing regularly to ask us whether we were happy. We were.

The King was accompanied by three percussionistas bashing and shaking assorted drums and gourds. Together with the King and his kologo they rattled along in a manner that was hard to resist (not that I really tried to resist to be honest).

The band included Ayuune Sule who is a very talented singer and kologo player in his own right as he proved by doubling up as the support act. It would have been worth going for his set alone.

Our mini-set consists of the opening track from the King's new album, a track from "Work Hard" (2023) which features Ayuune Sule, then finally something from the latter's own "Putoo Katare Yire" album (2021) which was a real crowd pleaser last Thursday.

"Property" - King Ayisoba


"Don't Be Lazy" - Ayuune Sule

One of the King's guests on "Pure Confusion" is Ghanaian reggae titan and three time Grammy nominee Rocky Dawuni. After I posted a couple of photos from the gig up on Instagram last week whoever manages his social media put four flame emojis in the comments. Normally I would ignore such a flagrant attempt to ingratiate themselves but MAR rules apply. So here's Mr Dawuni for you.

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