Neneh & Andi: 45 years of Friendship, Family and Food

With Neneh Cherry and Andi Oliver.

This event has been rescheduled from the original date of 2 July, which was cancelled due to ill health. All original in-person and online tickets will be valid for the new date, unless ticket holders wish to request a refund, which can be arranged by contacting boxoffice@bl.uk.

Best friends, collaborators and confidantes, broadcaster, chef and author Andi Oliver and singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry share their memories of lives lived side by side. Friends since 1981, the pair became instantly close as members of their band, Rip, Rig & Panic, and over the course of four decades they have been through the good and the terrible together – from the births of each other’s children to the death of Andi’s brother Sean, their former bandmate and a close friend of Neneh’s.

Coming from very different backgrounds - Neneh grew up in Sweden and travelled the world with her musician and artist parents, while Andi grew up in Suffolk - the pair instantly connected, and their friendship has remained an anchor ever since.

Throughout it all, there was food. Cooking together when they had little money to buy ingredients yet making enough for everyone; food as a means to connect to their heritages that span Sweden, West Africa, Jamaica, Britain and the US.

The pair come together to discuss friendship, family and food in an intimate discussion chaired by Food Season co-director Melissa Thompson.

This event is part of the British Library Food Season 2026.

Rising to fame in the 1980s with Neneh Cherry in their band Rip Rig and Panic, she moved into television and radio in the 1990s. In 2006 she presented The Truth About Food for the BBC and in 2007 she and Neneh Cherry hosted BBC2 cooking series, Neneh and Andi Dish It Up. Since then, Andi has been a regular on our screens, from shows such as Great British Menu and book programmes on Sky Arts to the two-part film The Caribbean with Andi and Miquita (2021), where she and her daughter embarked on a life changing journey to the islands of their heritage, Antigua & Barbuda, and then Barbados. Always in the kitchen and running restaurants alongside her media career, in 2023 Andi published her cookbook, The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table.

She has released six critically acclaimed studio albums and won two Brit Awards, an MTV Europe Music Award and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. She has collaborated with artists including Gorillaz, Gang Starr, Michael Stipe, Cher and Four Tet. Neneh’s memoir, A Thousand Threads, was shortlisted for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.

Melissa is the author of two cookbooks: Fired Up celebrates barbecue with modern recipes and tips on the BBQ basics for beginners. Her debut cookbook, Motherland, charts the island’s history through food with accompanying recipes. Of Maltese and Jamaican descent and based in London, her heritage features heavily in her food. An ambassador for global BBQ brand Weber, Melissa has demonstrated the art of jerk and barbecue cooking to audiences across the UK and Europe, and is a regular chef at Meatopia. She is a panellist on Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, and writes for national publications about food.