CQAF 2025

For the past 30 years, James Lavelle has been at the forefront of global club culture. Known as much for his eclectic DJ sets as for his production work with UNKLE, Lavelle has been lauded as a highly influential tastemaker and musical curator.

Alongside a successful DJ career Lavelle continues to produce albums under his UNKLE moniker, working with a myriad cast of musical collaborators including Thom Yorke, Michael Kiwanuka, Mark Lanegan, Massive Attack, Brian Eno and Josh Homme.

The most recent full length UNKLE album, The Road: Part II / Lost Highway topped the Billboard Electronic Album chart in 2019. With UNKLE, Lavelle has won the MPG Award for remixer of the year four times in the past seven years and has reworked tracks for artists as diverse as Beck, London Grammar, Radiohead and Wu-Tang Clan.

In 2014, Lavelle was asked to curate the iconic Meltdown on London’s South Bank, joining a long list of musical luminaries such as David Bowie, Yoko Ono, Massive Attack, Nick Cave and John Peel, amongst others, something he described as one of his career highlights.

Lavelle’s long interest in the visual arts led him to create the ‘Daydreaming With…’ exhibition series back in 2010. This celebration of creativity and innovation in all its forms, aimed to create a unique and multi-sensory experience pairing music with art in a wide range of disciplines, including film, photography, fashion, performance, painting, street art, sound, and sculpture combined under one roof to create the ultimate multi-sensory environment. One such incarnation saw Lavelle curate ‘Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick’, a blockbuster exhibition at London’s Somerset House in 2016, that featured contributions from artists such as Anish Kapoor, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, Thomas Bangalter and many more.

2018 saw the release of ‘The Man from Mo’Wax’, a critically acclaimed documentary film about Lavelle’s career, that saw a major release with the BFI, as well as showings at several international film festivals.

March 2021 saw UNKLE release the first in a two-part mixtape project, Rōnin I, which featured the singles ‘Do Yourself Some Good’ and ‘If We Don’t Make It’, both A Listed at BBC Radio 6Music. 2022. UNKLE followed this up in August 2022 with the release of Rōnin II, the second part of the project.

2023 saw UNKLE return to touring following the pandemic, with shows across Europe. Lavelle curated, DJed and performed the UNKLE Rōnin show with bespoke visuals at Hydra’s closing party held at London clubbing institution Printworks before it shut its doors at the end of April. Autumn saw UNKLE take the Rōnin show across the Atlantic returning to the USA and Mexico for a tour as well as DJing across the globe.

Throughout 2024 the UNKLE Rōnin show went from strength to strength with dates across the world. 2024 has seen UNKLE perform to massive crowds in China at Bubbling & Boiling Festival in Tianjin and at Kiloglow Festival in Hangzhou, a headline slot at the infamous Secret Garden Party festival, dates in Latvia, in Germany, and a hugely successful UK tour culminating in a packed show at London’s Outernet in the autumn.  Lavelle continues to DJ with shows in Europe and the UK as well as DJing at and curating a special “Invites” night celebrating Fabric’s 25th anniversary.

As we head into 2025 James is back in the studio writing a new album, continuing touring and excited about what the next chapter for UNKLE will bring.

This show is strictly for audiences aged 18 and over.

If you have access needs, feel free to email Aoife at aoife@cqaf.com for more info—we’re happy to help!