Hire Dabs | Singing guitarist in Cardiff

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From£180

1 hour

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Better Together Jack Johnson cover (DanielBonner)

New Town Kings - Grabbed My Hand (Official Video)

El cuarto de Tula, Dabs acoustic

About Daniel

World, Jazz, Pop, Soul, Reggae, Latin, Calypso and the rest. I’m Dabs, Singer, songwriter, guitarist, DJ & frontman of the New Town Kings.

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Singing guitarist

Cardiff

Public liability insurance of £10 million

Verified profile

Dabs is a Cardiff based musician from London. A songwriter, guitarist and loop artist in his own rights Dabs fronts ska, reggae band New Town Kings and has played venues and festivals across the UK, Germany, France, Holland, Croatia, Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland. Their DIY ethic and extensive touring schedule has seen them perform at Boomtown Fair, Secret Garden Party, The Electric Ballroom, Nottingham Rock City, The HMV Forum Cardiff Tramshed and a whole host more. Previous releases include ska stomper ‘Luna Rosa’, featuring sound system veteran YT, and reggae anthem ‘BurnBabylon’, featuring reggae legend Sylford Walker recorded with Grammy nominated producer Daniel Boyle (Max Romeo/Lee Scratch Perry). Their fresh approach has gained attention and received airplay from BBC 1Xtra’s reggae hotshot David Rodigan, and led to features on Fred Perry Subculture, WorldAReggae and Punktastic. “Hey, New Town Kings, I like what you’re doing. You’re doing good!” – Toots Hibbert (Toots and the Maytals) “New Town Kings are great crowd pleasers and are made to play live shows” – Colin Murray, Radio 1. Brought up on the fringes of London on reggae, motown, hip hop and RnB, Dabs went on to live in 7 countries collecting music and stories, language and rhythms. A proficient bossa nova guitarist with a good grasp of various latin rhythms and languages, Dabs sings jazz, blues and soul as comftably as he does hip hop and grime. His cover sets range through a multitude of genres. Pop, rock, party classics, background jazz/bossa nova, soul and motown using a loop pedal for harmony and bass he prides himself on appreciating the entire sphere of musical connection. As such he is one of the top booked artists nationwide on the Encoremusicians booking platform and has performed countless festivals, tours, venues, pubs, restaurants, weddings over a 20 year career spanning the globe. Since landing in Cardiff Dabs has been a regular on the pub and bar circuit in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport and worked with various organisations such as Black history Wales, Race council Cymru and the Windrush elders council. Through this work with NGOs he recently collaborated with several young Welsh artists on a song to support the NHS which featured on Heno on C4 Wales and on the ITV evening news. A veteran of 100 weddings and over 1000 shows Dabs repertoire caters for most musical tastes.

Daniel

4.9 out of 5

53 verified reviews

Satisfaction

4.9

Professionalism

4.9

Communication

5.0

Punctuality

4.9

Daniel's Reviews

5 out of 5

Excellent artist with a wonderful personality that really made the party. Dabs is excellent and I couldn’t recommend him more. Really really wonderful

5 out of 5

Dabs was absolutely fantastic & performed at our wedding celebration, everyone commented on the music & how good he was & the selection he played for us, the venue had very limited wifi for him to play with to fill in the gaps between playing but he keep the party going & was good fun, can’t thank you enough Dabs, we had the best day! 😃❤️

5 out of 5

Good experience with Daniel. On time. Good preformance Very nice guy

2.8 out of 5

Dabs was very pleasant to deal with throughout. We booked him for our wedding to perform an acoustic set & DJ set. Prior to attending we had a few phone calls and exchanged messages to confirm all the details, confirm our few requests and ensure everything was set up. We appreciate the effort that he went through to learn our first dance which we really enjoyed and which he played live. We are frustrated however that on the day he anticipated playing 5-8 when we agreed when booking via text and during our facetimes 4-11.00. We obviously didn't want to go into this on the day so dealt with the issue by putting him up to allow him to play into the evening in the accommodation which we paid for. Secondly, on the DJ set, he didn't mix any songs which is what we were expecting from a DJ. He picked songs from Spotify, we provide a playlist to provide a vibe, but we found the music disappointing as there were large breaks between songs and some songs had long intros without any music playing. The dancing was also cut short due to the time needed to set up which was a shame. We also provided a short list of no songs and a particular had one request for a song to switch from the first dance to everyone dancing which was ignored.

Read all 53 reviews

Best of UK Reggae

Bea World Music

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Top 10 booked musician of 2023

Top 10 booked musician of 2022

Lightning fast responses

Average response time under 2 hours

100 gigs

Legendary: 100 bookings through Encore!

Saved the day!

Booked for an Encore gig with less than 24 hours’ notice

6th Anniversary

This act has been working with Encore for over 6 years

Encore expert

Demonstrated expertise by completing the Encore Academy

Member of the Encore community forum

Daniel's Song list

Hi guys, this in no way an exhaustive list. I study every day and any time I’m booked I endeavour to learn songs for my clients so feel free to let me know what you’re after and I’ll get them learned.

Songs organised in loose genres:

60s/70s/80s/90s

(The Beatles):

Money can’t buy me love

Yesterday

Hard days night

(Rolling Stones):

Paint it Black

satisfaction

Sympathy for the devil

(Janis Joplin):

Summertime

Mercedes Benz

(The Who): My Generation

(The Kinks): Sunny afternoon

(Sting): English man in NY

(Steppenwolfe): Born to be wild

(Wham/George Michael):

Faith

Wake me up

(Culture club):

Karma chameleon

(Michael Jackson):

Beat it

Bad

Thriller

Billie Jean

Liberian girl

Man in the mirror

(Oasis):

Wonderwall

(Blur):

Parklife

Song 2

(Green day):Basket case

(Nirvana):

Polly

Smells like teen spirit

SOUL, MOTOWN,

RHYTHM & BLUES

(Al Green): So in love with you

(Otis Reading):

Sitting on the dock...

Satisfaction

(Lionel Richie): Hello

(Stevie Wonder):

Isn’t she lovely

You are the sunshine of my life

Masterblaster

(Ray Charles):

Hit the road jack

Mess around

Georgia

(Marvin Gaye):

Heard it through the grapevine

Sexual healing

(Curtis Mayfield):

Super fly

Pusher man

(Aretha Franklin): Respect

Tina Turner:

(Bill Withers): Lovely day

00s-CURRENT POP

(Ed Sheeran):

Thinking out loud

Shape of you

(Luis fonzi): Despacito

(George Ezra): Shotgun

(Jack Johnson):

Upside down

Better together

(Pharrell Williams): Happy

(Bruno Mars): Uptown Funk

(Amy Winehouse): Valerie

(Paulo Nutini):

Pencil full of lead

Daydream

(Blackstreet): No diggity

(TLC): Waterfalls

(Eminem): Stan

(Arrested development):

People everyday

REGGAE, SKA,

ROCKSTEADY & CALYPSO

(Bob Marley):

Redemption Song

One love

Burning and a looting

(Gregory Issacs):

Night nurse

Loving Pauper

Hush Darling

(Denis Brown):

Have you ever been in love

(Jimmy Cliff):

Many river to cross

I can see clearly

(UB40):

Food for thought

Kingston town

Rat in ma kitchen

Madness):

Nightboat to Cairo

(Sizzla): Dry cry

(Barrington Levy); Too experienced

(Lord Burgess): Jamaica farewell

(Harry Belafonte):

Senora

Banana boat song

Coconut woman

(Lord Flea):

Where did the naughty little flea go

(Lord Kitchener):

Take your meat out mi rice

(Lord invader): Rum and coco cola

(King Radio): Matilda

(Mighty Sparrow): Big Bamboo 🤗

JAZZ, LATIN & WORLD MUSIC

(Louis & Ella):

Cheek to Cheek

Autumn leaves

St James Infirmary

What a wonderful world

(Peggy lee):

He’s a tramp

Mañana

Why don’t you do right

(Gershwin):

A foggy day in London Town

Summertime

Let’s call the whole thing off

(Chet Baker):

My funny Valentine

But not for me

(Buena Vista Social Club):

El cuarto de Tula

El carretero

Viente Años

Chan Chan

Dos Gardenias

Candela

Lágrimas negra

(Fania Allstars):

(Celia Cruz): Quimbara

(Chao Feliciano): El Raton

(Chico Trujillo): Loca

(Orquesta Tabaca y Ron):

Guajira son te llamas

(Eddie Palmineri):

Vamonos Pal Monte

(Manu Chao):

Clandestino

Desaparecido

Bongo Bon

Mr Bobby

Je ne t’aime plus

(Mattiew Chedid):

Les triplettes de Belleville

(Sanseverino):

Je Mal o mains

Swing du nul

(Antônio Carlos Jobin/

Jõao Gilberto):

Girl from Ipanaema

Corcovado

Izaura

Estate

Samba de uma nota

Chega de Saudade

(Consuelo Velázquez):

Besame mucho

Daniel's Prices

Note: prices may vary based on travel distance. For an exact quote, click “Check availability”.

Performance duration	Price
Short performance (up to 15 min)	£100
Up to 1 hour	£180
Up to 2 hours	£300
Up to 3 hours	£400

Customer questions

What if my timings change after I've booked you?

I’m totally flexible in the event of unexpected changes. In a nutshell let me know as early as possible if you need to change dates or times and provided I have no attachments the bookings I’m happy to accommodate.

Can you provide an iPod/DJ service before and between your sets?

I’m happy to DJ between sets and can bring a full sound system, mix desk and the like for between £100-£300 depending on how long is required. I actually run several live/DJ nights and get really really good feedback.

How much time do you need to set up?

Ideally I like to be set up an hour ahead of performance time. Am happy to provide a free playlist to help create the desired atmosphere.

Can I pick the songs you play from the set list?

I’m totally open to discussion regarding setlist and always happy to take requests. Client satisfaction is really my motivating factor here so I always appreciate a more detailed gig spec. Once booked I’m inclined to study for every show so feel free to get them requests in early and within reason I’m happy to learn them free of charge.

Do you bring all the equipment you need to perform?

Yes, I’ve a variety of PA options depending on the gig.

Can you learn song requests before the event?

I will always happily learn ceremony and first dance songs for your wedding free of charge. I’ll even send you a Demo before you book (just shortlist me and I’ll get you a video sent over the next day)

Musicianship

Genres:

1990s era music, 1980s era music, 1970s era music, 1960s era music, 1950s era music, Jazz, Blues, Gypsy jazz, Latin jazz, World music, Argentinian, Bossa nova, Brazilian music, Calypso, Caribbean music, Cuban music, Flamenco, French music, Latin, Reggae, Ska, Samba, Spanish music, Pop, Acoustic, Soul, R&B, Motown, Hip Hop, Australian music, Salsa

See all genres

Instruments:

Singing guitarist, Guitar, DJ

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Event types:

New Year's Eve, Wedding, Wedding proposal, Funeral / Memorial service, Hotel / Restaurant event, Bar / Club / Venue event, Private event, Corporate event, Charity event, Concert, Recording session, Theatre / Show, Cruise, Burns night, Birthday party, Christmas party

See all event types

Other skills:

Lyricist, Songwriter, MC, Community music worker

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