Lighthouse Family to tour South Africa for the first time in March 2020

29 Oct 2019

The Lighthouse Family SA tour has been postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The British musical duo, Tunde Baiyewu and Paul Tucker AKA Lighthouse Family, will be embarking on their first tour of South Africa in March 2020. They will take to the stage at the Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg on 20 and 21 March before heading to the GrandWest Grand Arena in Cape Town on 24 March.

Era-defining songs, 10 million records sold and 25 years’ music-making. Baiyewu and Tucker formed Lighthouse Family at Newcastle University in the early 1990s. Ocean Drive, their first album, released in 1995 saw the duo going six times platinum while staying in the album charts for three years selling 2.75 million copies.

Lighthouse Family to tour South Africa for the first time in March 2020

In 1997 the duo released their second album Postcards from Heaven, the album produced three top 10 singles – “Raincloud”, “High” and “Lost in Space” – and two Top 30 hits. The album also went six-times platinum, charting across Europe, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand, selling four million albums globally. Their instantly recognisable sound impacted on musicians as diverse as Geri Halliwell and New Order’s Peter Hook.

Their third album, Whatever Gets You Through The Day (2001) produced top 10 single – “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free/One” – an inspired mash-up of the U2 anthem and soul classic made her own by Nina Simone.

After the two friends went their separate ways but discussions of coming together to produce their long-awaited fourth album started three years ago. The pair were determined to make something that was classic Lighthouse Family, but also sounded like it could be made today. Blue Sky In Your Head is Lighthouse Family’s fourth album and sees them back on Polydor Records (their original label) and reunited with Colin Barlow, the A&R that discovered them, and Keith Armstrong, their first manager; the same team that was around them when they were at their FM Radio-dominating peak.

Looking back on an intense decade, the pair remember different highpoints. Tucker recalls the pressure to finish their second album while running on fumes after the first album campaign. Baiyewu, meanwhile, a reluctant frontman, pushed to the spotlight by his incredible, unmistakable, seemingly effortlessly soulful voice, recalls “countless” moments that demonstrated the uniting, elevating power of ‘Lifted’.