At the age of thirteen, bass player (and human beat boxer) John Parker and singer Luke Concannon met on the school bus. They became good friends, and sat in a room for hours after school, playing and writing songs. They evolved in to the duo Nizlopi. Their difficulties at school (later inspiring their number one hit, ‘The JCB Song’), their love of Jazz, Soul, Gospel, Ska, and Hip-hop infused their songs.

Nizlopi took their music all over the world, meeting and collaborating with their heroes (Benjamin Zephaniah, Danny Thompson, Rory McLeod, Alastair Mcintosh, Damien Dempsey) and count Daniel Day Lewis, the late Tony Benn, and Jamie Cullum as admirers. Ed Sheeran also cites Nizlopi as a major influence on his music:

‘Everything I know about live performance I learned from them’ – Ed Sheeran

During their hiatus Luke hitch-hiked to Palestine with a travel guitar, meeting a bear, some soulful, kind people, and volunteering in the West Bank. These experiences distilled into his 2013 release Give It All. John became a stalwart of the singer-songwriter and folk scenes, playing with, Ed Sheeran, Newton Faulkner, Foy Vance, and others. Now they're back to perform as Nizlopi once more.

John Martyn and Danny Thompson meets The Roots and Ani Di Franco, Nizlopi play joyful, honest, atavistic, heavenly folk stories. And when Nizlopi perform live, they are a positive force like no other.

• Rock
• Soul
• Rap & Hip Hop
• Acoustic
• Irish