WHAT WE DO

Tongue Fu is one of the UK’s leading spoken word and music projects. We mix spoken word, music, film and improvisation. We take risks together. We collaborate. We mix forms and styles. We celebrate difference and create platforms, both live and digital, for a diverse range of brilliant artists.

Our live shows are built on one rule - there is no rehearsal. Writers (poets, novelists, journalists, comics, storytellers, rappers) have seconds to brief the band. The musicians cook something up and we fly by the seat of our collective pants. It’s a wild ride.

Over 15 years we have toured nationally and internationally and worked with the likes of Kae Tempest, Akala, Irvine Welsh, Hollie McNish, Lemn Sissay and hundreds more.

In 2021 we launched Hot Poets with poet, Liv Torc, Bringing poetry and science together to imagine a better possible future, partnering poets with scientists and academics from LSE, Met Office, RSPB and more. The resulting poems have been viewed/heard/read over half a million times. The project featured on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please, a TEDX Women talk, international climate conferences, universities, schools and and literature fetivals. Hot Poets CIC has been formed and is working with UNFCCC’s Resilience Frontiers programme as well as UCL on new science and poetry projects.

In 2020 we released Boat Building, our first studio album - a poetic and political snapshot taken over three years. A large scale collaboration, it features Dizraeli, Vanessa Kisuule, Zia Ahmed, Amyra, Joshua Idehen, Anthony Anaxagorou, Rafeef Ziadah and KOG, along with Chris Redmond and the Tongue Fu band - Riaan Vosloo, Patrick Davey and Arthur Lea. It’s featured on BBC6Music,  BBC R1, 1Xtra, BBCR4’s Loose Ends, BBC Introducing and WorldWideFM.

"A beautiful album...just sounding wonderful" - CERYS MATTHEWS (BBC 6MUSIC)

“Exquisite...very hard hitting..our favourite new discovery of the week...very exciting” SARAH GOSLING (BBC INTRODUCING)

“Chris Redmond and the Tongue Fu band have pulled off something special here! A moving journey of word and sound that features some of the most notable poetry performers based in the UK. This is easily one of the best Spoken Word albums in recent years!“ RAYMOND ANTROBUS

Prior to this we have released Tongue Fu Tapes - a live album - and an anthology called Liminal Animals, featuring Lemn Sissay, Salena Godden, Luke Wright and more.

Tongue Fu have played the Roundhouse, Glastonbury, Edinburgh Festival, Dublin, Capetown, Rio and a residency at Romania’s Jazz TM festival, with features on Sky Arts and BBC R2’s Arts show with Jonathon Ross.

As well as our flagship live show, we’ve branched out into creating shows for little people with our ‘Tongue Fu For Kids’ performances blazing a trail at Southbank Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Camp Bestival and more.

We are also an education provider having led courses for young musicians and writers across the country from one day workshops in primary schools to designing and leading modules on degree courses. Education Partners include the Roundhouse, BBC and St Mary’s University. We are currently delivering and co-creating an artist development programme in Romania, called Strada Fara Nume, with Timisoara cultural centre, PLAI.