KLONK
An 8-piece party & festival band from the hills and valleys of Yorkshire. We take traditional Eastern European melodies and mash them up with funk, metal, disco and hip-hop to create kick ass gypsy funk.
Our lineup comprises funky horn & rhythm sections, folky fiddles & bouzouki, a classical ‘cellist and scratches & samples from our turntablist.
We have headlined Sark Roots Festival on the island of Sark and the Great Manx Shindig on the Isle of Man, and appeared several times on the Beatherder main stage. Our members have toured Europe, America and the Far East, performed live on TV and radio and reached national finals of prestigious competitions.
Listen to a selection of our studio recordings below:
Check out our artist showcase performance @ Lawrence Batley Theatre:
Recent activity
7th March 2025 - Sold out EP launch @ Marsden Mechanics
28th Feb 2025 - Online EP launch for Klonk Club Classics Vol. 3
28th Dec 2024 - Headline act for Perfumed Garden Winter Gathering @ Sunbird Records, Darwen
21st Dec 2024 - Klonk Christmas Pary @ Parish venue, Huddersfield
30th Nov 2024 - Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
11th Oct 2024 - Northern Quarter, Huddersfield
15th Aug 2024 - Headline act for Cloth Cat stage @ Northern Green Gathering
26th July 2024 - Bold As Brass event @ Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
18th - 21st July 2024 - Beatherder Festival, Clitheroe - apperaring on the main stage alongside the likes of Leftfield and Orbital, and playing a storming Saturday night set for the Smoky Tentacles stage
Forthcoming
10th April 2025 - Domino Club, Leeds
29th June 2025 - Blind Pig, Sowerby Bridge
3rd - 6th July 2025 - Klonk South West England tour - including 3rd July @ Ashburton Arts Centre, Newton Abbot and 5th July @ The Maker Heights Weekender, Cornwall
29th Aug 2025 - Headlining Dingle Dell stage @ Lindisfarne Festival
Marketing Copy for gig promo materials
(insert venue here) play host to Klonk and their trademark East European hootenanny on (insert date here).
The mighty Klonk juggernaut will be tearing up the dancefloor with 100% certified pure industrial grade rock-n-roll dynamite, crafting stone-cold killer cuts out of klezmer, Balkan, funk, jazz, metal and hip-hop.
Expect full-tilt horns and wild strings going toe-to-toe with a powerhouse rhythm section. Expect scratching and sampling. Expect a dance riot. Faster. Louder. Klezmer.
Alternative marketing copy
On a back street in Istanbul, near the Galata tower, ther’s a small bar which has gained an outsize reputation. Ask for Erdem and he’ll show you down to the basement where there’s a band playing; he’ll introduce the players. Tom picks up an electric violin and plays an old Klezmer tune through a rig with three different fuzz pedals. Kev on stick ‘cello has escaped an orchestral rehearsal for the evening, he joins in underneath before Ed picks up an oud and starts weaving a counter-melody between the ‘cello and fiddle. Second time round horns join in with some spicy riffs; there’s Sal on trombone and Ath on sax but you’d think there were four of them given the energy that’s goin in to this. Nothing however prepares you for the storm that is the rhythm section. Damo on drums is throwing beats everywhere while somehow always keeping a tasty beat locked down. Stephen on fretless bass is effortlessly winding a funky groove under the chaos and you’ll probably find yourself feeling an urge to dance by this point. Don’t fight it, join in the crowd of sweat-soaked, euphoric dancers crammed into what little space is left in this basement. Hang on. I know that riff, it’s the hook from a 90s hip-hop hit, a suspicion soon confirmed by the addition of a scratch solo and some carefully chosen samples from Dr Weevil on decks. This is Klonk, and you need to experience them!