Pat Thomas marks 80th birthday with Accra concert featuring Ambolley and Amandzeba

Pinned summary · as of 04:55

Veteran highlife singer Pat Thomas was honoured with a birthday concert titled Pat Thomas@80 on 26 September, staged at Accra's +233 Jazz Bar and Grill. Several well-known Ghanaian musicians, among them Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Amandzeba and Kwabena Kwabena, took part in the celebration of an artist widely called the Golden Voice of Africa.

What we know

• The Pat Thomas@80 concert, staged at Accra's +233 Jazz Bar and Grill on 26 September 2026, marked the singer's 80th birthday.
• Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Amandzeba and Kwabena Kwabena were on the bill for the celebration, alongside other performers.
• Pat Thomas is widely known as the Golden Voice of Africa.
• Over his career he has been linked with the bands Sweet Beans and Marijata, and his song list includes Sika Ye Mogya.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  The Ghana Report listed Wutah Afriyie, Pozo Hayes, Obrafour, Ben Brako, Bessa Simons and KK Fosu among the performers, backed by the Bessa Band, while Pulse Ghana named Kofi Kinaata instead among those who joined in; neither list has been matched by the other report, and the two also spell Akosua Agyepong's surname differently.
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  Wutah Afriyie told The Ghana Report he felt "truly humbled" to perform for Uncle Pat Thomas, adding that the veteran's songs shaped him before he took up music; no other report carries the remark.
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  Pulse Ghana said Pat Thomas turned 80 on 14 August 2026, a date The Ghana Report does not give.
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  The Ghana Report also linked him to the Uhuru Band and the Kwashibu Area Band, and named further songs including Antokyire and Medo Wiase; Pulse Ghana instead mentioned the Broadway Dance Band. None of these details has been matched by a second report.
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  According to Pulse Ghana, he formed the Sweet Beans in 1974 and put out The False Lover, a 12-song debut under his own name on Gapophone Records, produced by George Appea Prah. This has not been confirmed elsewhere.
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  Pulse Ghana said his recordings range across highlife, Afrobeat, funk, soul and reggae, plus the later burger-highlife style, and that the 2016 Strut Records compilation Coming Home gathers work from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and can be bought on his official Bandcamp page.
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  Pulse Ghana reported that the 1976 release Pat Thomas Introduces Marijata contains I Can Say, a track it says played over the opening credits when Marvel's Loki wrapped its first season in 2021, and that Ebo Taylor arranged and played guitar on the 1977 Pat Thomas & Marijata record, with a Nigerian edition cut at EMI Studio in Lagos.
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  Pulse Ghana described a long partnership with Ebo Taylor, running from the 1960s into the 1980s, and said the 2015 album with the Kwashibu Area Band, recorded in Accra with Tony Allen on drums for several tracks, reunited the two men. The Kwashibu Area Band is led by Kwame Yeboah, it added.
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  Pulse Ghana said the eight-track 2015 album opens with Mewo Akoma, which runs past eight minutes and was reworked in 2021 with Sarkodie, and that the nine-track 2019 album Obiaa! was released by Strut Records and produced by Kwame Yeboah and Ben Abarbanel-Wolff. Strut Records called its opener a modern parable about arrogance, according to Pulse Ghana.
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  Pulse Ghana said Obiaa! can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Qobuz as well as Bandcamp, depending on territory, while availability of the 1974 and 2005 albums differs by platform and country.

Why it matters for Ghana

For music lovers in Accra, the evening was a chance to see a pioneer of Ghanaian highlife honoured by artists from several generations. Pat Thomas's catalogue, which reaches listeners abroad through reissues and streaming, is part of the wider story of how Ghanaian sound travelled beyond the country. Live venues such as the +233 Jazz Bar and Grill also give older musicians a stage in the capital.