Back in 2002, 18 year-olds Yobu Maligwa and Yosefe Kalekeni met on the street in Malawi’s capital city Lilongwe. Yosefe was strumming a four-string homemade banjo (which many places call an acoustic guitar). They decided then and there to become a band. Kalekeni now plays an updated model of his homemade banjo, built around the body of a used acoustic guitar he was given and augmented, but its strings, as is Malawi tradition, are unraveled motorcycle brake cables. He sits on a drum he beats with his feet while strumming. Maligwa plays his homemade traditional one-stringed babatone, which serves as a bass guitar. Their songs are based on a mash-up of their two tribes' traditional music and delivered on home made instruments, are about love, praising god and everyday life advice-delivering fables. For a decade they paid their dues with relentless busking before being seen by a manager with a keen eye for talent that transcended street corners. With just a one-string bass, four-string guitar and a foot drum, they moved from that street corner to the Glastonbury Festival and fawning BBC coverage. And with music that is as uplifting, engaging and energetic as what Madalitso Band brings to the stage, their ascension is entirely deserved.

- Derek McEwen/Kerry Clarke