Sister Sledge, Tavares, Boney M and more: 40 Years Of Disco tour coming to Birmingham

Sister Sledge, Tavares, Rose Royce, Boney M, The Real Thing, Odyssey and George McCrae will appear at the event on March 17, 2018.

Sister Sledge sold millions of records worldwide with the album We Are Family earning them multi-platinum status for sales in excess of two million in the USA alone – and going gold in several other countries. They went on to have multiple disco anthems that include the UK hits Lost In Music, We Are Family, Thinking Of You, He’s The Greatest Dancer and the No.1 Frankie.

For over two decades Tavares had several Top 10 UK singles. They won a Grammy Award for their work on the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever that was recently certified 15 times platinum. In 1975 the band released their biggest US hit, It Only Takes a Minute - later successfully covered by Take That and sampled by Jennifer Lopez.

This was followed by a string of hits including Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel, Don’t Take Away The Music, Whodunnit, More Than A Woman, One Step Away, The Ghost Of Love and The Mighty Power Of Love. They were inducted into the RI Music Hall of Fame in 2014. Earlier this year they performed on the CBS Television Special Stayin’ Alive - a musical salute to The Bee Gee’s where they performed a duet with R&B star Jason Derulo on More Than a Woman.

LA group Rose Royce had a massive hit with Car Wash which was on the album soundtrack of the 1976 movie of the same name that starred Richard Pryor and George Carlin. The two million selling soundtrack gave them a two further hits I Wanna Get Next To You and I’m Going Down. The follow up album 1977’s In Full Bloom featured the hits Wishing On A Star, Do Your Dance and Ooh Boy, going platinum.

Their greatest hits album reached the No.1 spot on two separate occasions in 1980 spending 34 weeks on the chart. Many major stars have covered their hits including Mary J Blige and Madonna who did a heart-wrenching version of Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.

Boney M had massive worldwide hits with songs such as Daddy Cool, Sunny, Ma Baker, Rasputin, Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday, Belfast and Painter Man. Audiences worldwide have been thrilled by the energetic visual performances of all their well-loved songs.

Rivers of Babylon/Brown Girl In The Ring reached No. 1 for five weeks and stayed in the charts for an astounding 40 weeks. It is the 7th biggest selling single of all time in the UK, selling over two million copies. The band also had the Christmas No.1 that year with ‘Mary’s Boy Child’, which is No.10 in the biggest selling singles of all time, selling in excess of 1.8 million copies. They are also the only act to have two all time best sellers in the Top 10.

Multi-million selling soul band The Real Thing features their three original vocalists Eddie Amoo, Chris Amoo and Dave Smith who are celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut hit single You To Me Are Everything this year.

The single reached No 1 in the UK. The trio have sold over three million singles that also include the hits Can’t Get by Without You, Whenever You Want My Love and Can You Feel The Force.

Odyssey became one of the most successful soul/disco acts of their era in the early 1980’s when they topped the UK charts with Use It Up And Wear It Out. They scored several other Top Ten hits in Britain and throughout the world. From their debut album emerged their first smash single – Native New Yorker, an international hit late in 1977.

If You’re Looking For A Way Out, a brilliant re-working of the Lamont Dozier classic Going Back To My Roots and Inside Out’ followed this release.

George McCrae was a prime mover on the early disco front. Disco kings Harry Casey and Richard Finch of KC & The Sunshine Band both produced and wrote his output with McCrae securing a hit on his first try with single Rock Your Baby.

The song topped charts in 1974 around the world. Other hits include It’s Been So Long, I Ain’t Lying and I Can't Leave You Alone.

40 Years of Disco will appear at Birmingham's Genting Arena on March 17, 2018.

Tickets go on sale at 9.00am on September 22.

For more information, visit: www.gentingarena.co.uk/