London After Midnight: Felo Le Tee at Village Underground

Welcome to my new column: ‘Don’t Give Up on London Nightlife Yet’, where I do the honours of jumping around the city finding the best events for those within the Black British Diaspora. As a self-proclaimed lover of all things music and entertainment, this is a role I take very seriously. No genre will go untouched and no venue will go unvisited.

Since the Easter bank holiday, outside seems to be more open - people have officially defrosted from the winter blues and SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is nowhere to be seen, which brings happy tears to my eyes.

I arrived at Village Underground, Shoreditch and was immediately met with a queue going around the corner. South African powerhouse Felo Le Tee returned to the UK to headline a show produced by current front runners in the electronic scene, Labyrinth Events. They describe Felo as someone who is  “Renowned for sets that move effortlessly between hypnotic rhythm and high-energy… and infectious energy on the dancefloor.” This is quite an apt description of the night and the music that was played. 

VU is an iconic venue in its own right, it only made sense that the line up followed suit. Curated by Felo’s team, the doors opened to the sounds of DJ K3 an active pusher of amapiano, in a climate where things have slightly shifted to other South African electronic genres such as Gqom and 3-step. It’s quite unusual for the opening DJ to already have a packed room with everybody jumping, yet K3 managed it in a way that seemed effortless. People described his set as healing, as well as a great platform for discovery of music within the genre. 

The only female on the line up Duo did not falter under the pressure of following behind such a high energy set, and also represented the scene well. As I said, I’m someone who loves all things music, entertainment and “outside” enjoyment - but this was my first time seeing a Duo set and I was wowed. She blessed us with seamless blends and spiritual sing-alongs all with a smile on her face throughout. 

1:30am hit, and headliner of the night Felo Le Tee graced the stage to a venue full of excitement and applause. What counts as an ‘Extended Set’? Because he was working very hard keeping our ears busy until 4am and I could’ve had another 2 more hours of the heavy hitting amapiano that we don’t hear as often these days. He was accompanied by British-Zimbabean MC Mr Showtime, who added his personal flair to the instrumentals, introducing the common call and response, with a smooth rhythm that perfectly complemented the tracks that Felo was playing. In London, there are quite a few (what I would call) perfect MC and DJ pairings. Felo and Showtime were quite literally meant to be. You can tell that between the two of them there is a level of familiarity, comfort and synergy: something that can be hard to come by at events in London (programmers often don’t think about the actual chemistry that the MC/host has with the DJs on the line up, and it can sometimes sound like how nails on a chalkboard feel). 

With such a dense and popular discography and knowledge of music, it was inevitable that Felo Le Tee was going to give us a great set and an even better time. I went into the set expecting to hear a lot of ‘piano classics - which I did and loved. This included his 2024 hit ‘Yehbo Lapho’ which had the whole room moving and shaking within the first few seconds of being played. What I didn’t expect was to hear popular new releases such as ‘Gone Kanje’ by Mellow & Sleazy, Scotts Maphuma & Skyzza Rsa, blow the roof off the building in the way it did. You would’ve never thought that the song had only been released 7 days prior. This moment was a perfect example of how fast the music moves within nations and towards the Black British diaspora. Music, even those of different languages, continues to bring people together and collectively heal hearts. 

By the time it reached 3.30am, closing DJ Kwamzy joined Felo for what I would say was a historic Back-to-Back. For those who may be unfamiliar, usually stylised as ‘B2B’, is when two (or sometimes more) DJs play a set together. The format varies, but usually goes from the first DJ playing one song, to the next DJ blending in a song of their choice, whilst they bounce between each other for a set amount of time.

This was the perfect way to close out what was an ethereal set from Felo, as well as the perfect introduction to the party closer. You can tell Kwamzy’s love for the music through his selection and they were pretty much going banger for banger for 30 minutes straight. At this point, despite the beautiful journey Felo had spent the last 2 hours taking us on, the crowd was at its peak. Not a single body in the building was still, including the venue staff and security. 

Once again, Labyrinth Events did their big one for the afrohouse community - perfectly bridging the gap between sounds and cultures in a way that has made them a reliable provider of vibes and entertainment for London.

Although we're still in April, Summer has officially started!