R&b gigs in Bristol — Headfirst Bristol

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Bristol's R&b Scene

Headfirst brings you the best R&B events in Bristol. Whatever kind of R&B you're into - from cheesy classics to contemporary tearjerkers - Bristol has everything you need. Many of the biggest R&B acts regularly tour the city, if you're looking for a live gig. Key venues like Colston Hall, Trinity Centre and the O2 Academy host concerts from larger international acts.

Or if you're a less discerning R&B head, clubs like Popworld and Bunker and nights like Bump N Grind at Thekla cater to locals and students who just want to hear the hits (think Destiny's Child, Blu Cantrell, Sisqo and all the classics). These places are heaving all week round so you need never go without your R&B fix (or listen alone in your room).

Bristol is a great city for all music so it's no surprise your R&B tasts will be well catered for.

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What our editors say

“Nourished By Time, the Baltimore based songwriter/producer with a unique blend of New Wave, R&B, and Dance, Nourished By Time's music explores themes of existentialism, love, consumerism and their relationship with labor.”
From: Nourished By Time

“NYC-based artist Emily King brings her forward-thinking soul and R&B to Brew in July, following the release of her new album 'Special Occasion' which has earned a 2024 Grammy Award nomination for its detailed arrangements with warm tenor sax, luminous flute and hypnotically layered vocals.”
From: Emily King

“Drawing on influences from grime to rap to alternative R&B, Badliana has quickly established herself as a fearless innovator in the music industry. Badliana has achieved a great deal of success in a short period of time. From releasing her debut EP ‘Diary Of a Loner’ with Saffron Records, she has been featured on BBC Radio 1, BBC 1XTRA, and BBC Introducing, as well as in publications like CRACK, CLASH, Dummy Mag, Mixmag, Rough Trade, Dekmantel and Pepsi.”
From: Alpaca Presents | Badliana + Support

“The album’s connective tissue is a knack for crafty, tongue-in-cheek pop melodies and the kind of plucky storytelling that chronicles the greater complexities of life – chapters where strife and survival are usually rife. The R&B-inflected “Louis wont break”, for example, references Laura Hillenbrand's novel Unbroken, which tells the story of Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star turned fighter pilot who spent 47 days on a raft at sea and two and a half years in a Japanese POW camp.”
From: MOCK MEDIA

“Rory J S (Sydney, Australia) croons tenderly spilling words over ivories and deconstructed R&B tracks and reconstructed electronic beats. Expect pathos, feels and emotions, from heart to mind to mouth and hand to ear to mind to heart via vibrating air. All the way from down under, your travel time is incomparable!”
From: Sunny Joe Paradisos, Rory J S, Tara Clerkin