Rooftop Assembly | Orchestral Folk & Grime + James Riley

On Sunday the 18th of June, we are very happy to welcome a project formed on a #Tottenham rooftop, and made up of #Grime poetry, old school songwriting, swooning strings & dubby, incessant beats.

@rooftopassembly

The Rooftop Sessions were a series grassroots rooftop concerts in Haringey during lockdown 20/21. Due to a cancelled album release tour, in April 2020 songwriter James Riley @jamesrileysongs began performing live-streamed rooftop gigs on his street in Tottenham to raise money for food banks. 

The shows became a weekly fixture during lockdown, attracting a socially-distanced audience of neighbours and locals & a large online following. The concerts were repeatedly covered by the BBC & other national media, garnered backing from Arts Council England, helped to raise £45K for food banks, inspired a large mural depicting the concerts by local artist Albert Agwa, & sparked numerous collaborations with local artists and organisations.   

In September 2020 James collaborated with grime MC Kayes Mensah @kayesmensah on a rooftop show which paired his rapping with James’s full country band. When Arts Council England backed the project in 2021, James invited Kayes back to the roof, this time to work with drummer Emanuela Monni & a string quartet - with scored arrangements to accompany their compositions provided by Alaistar Caplin - an acclaimed fiddle player who lived across the road & witnessed the genesis of the rooftop shows.

Promo video: https://youtu.be/_etIGshGkCo