Scene Report: Bristol March & April 2009
By: Sian Norris
Welcome back readers! Apologies for my absence since February, I have spent the last two months chasing Boys and Dance around Bristol in order to secure an interview - a task that proved more difficult than I anticipated as they practised allusiveness and ran off to Austria...
So I will cast my mind back to the post snow days of March and the sun soaked spring of April and bring you my missive of what's been going on in Bristol.
[THE APPLES]
The month started off in Start the Bus, the ubiqutious venue of Bristol, to see The Apples (not to be confusd with Apples). Quite frankly - the band were amazing. All instrumental, from cheeky covers to original tracks, it was a joyful cacophony of my favourite music genre - funk - mixed with another favourite genre - jazz. So, you know, rather a perfect set up for me. The band hail from Tel Aviv, and they mix this Middle Eastern influence into their tracks. Having recently released a perfect and hyperactive cover of Snap's 'The Power' on Freestyle, this band are sure to be going places. They sound great on record, but I can't emphasise enough how impressive the live experience is, and with a band of nine people playing trumpet, trombone, tenor and soprano sax, baritone sax, drums, double bass, decks, and live effects, you can understand why.
Next up was a trip to lovely new venue The Lanes, a fifties style bowling alley/nightclub with a menu of diner goodies that includes a Lebowski Hot Dog. The band we had come out to see melds gipsy folk with a twenties feel and a bit of jazz in the mix - Hmnahmna. Unfortunately the sound engineer hadn't fully got to grips with the fact that the venue is a bowling alley, and so the set was dogged by problems. Despite this though, Hmnahmna offered an impressive set. Singer Liz has a voice full of soul, starting sweet and soft, and building in volume to push the tracks upwards. The set had a real sense of twenties European cabaret about it, perfectly combining the gypsy foot stamping feel of the voice, guitars and flute, with the bluesy jazz provided by the sax and clarinet. They seem to be playing a lot of gigs all over town at the moment so keep an eye out, they'll make you want to stamp your feet in a rhythmic dance and swing around the dance floor. Which is just perfect really!
[FILTHY DUKES]
A second trip to the Lanes was necessitated by the very loud and very filthy Filthy Dukes, who you London folk may have caught up with at Camden Crawl. Olly and Tim and Mark mashed up the decks with a set comprising of mainly new material that sent the bass rushing through the crowd on the dancefloor like an electric bolt. It was such an exciting performance! I loved the way their tunes seemed to take the listener through a whole history of dance music, comprising influences of early nineties rave to early noughties electroclash (I miss electroclash! It was feminist!) to make something that sounded really exciting and fresh and new. They'll be in the Bristol vicinity again for Bloom so I would really recommend taking a trip down to have a listen. Remixing artists as diverse as White Lies and TuPac, Filthy Dukes are certainly filling my ears with joy at the mo.
The most exciting night of THE YEAR SO FAR was provided by the woefully under attended Yo Majesty gig at the Croft, supported by Inca head Dress wearing Octopussy and the lovely Dutty Girl crew, with Tight Fit and DissMiss dj-ing in the bar. So, quite frankly, all my favourite ladies in one gig! Perfect! This night gave me the memory I will keep forever, dancing with Yo Majesty in the bar whilst Katie played 'Work It' by Missy Elliott.
First up on the line up was DissMiss and Sarah B of Dutty Girl, playing perfectly pitched hip hop as Sarah Mc'ed live over the tunes. Dutty Girl was set up by DissMiss to showcase local women in hip hop, and have enjoyed amazing success, precisely because the artists that have been brought together in the crew are so talented. It was a great set up to the evening.
Octopussy took to the stage next, sporting the most extraordinary Inca costumes. Now a three piece of Ghettozoid, Stella and BUF, the three took control of the stage and the crowd. With Ghettozoid and BUF putting together the dirtiest bass lines and teasing the audience with the vocoder, Stella danced and shimmied her way around the stage, MC-ing with her moves. I have never seen anyone dance like Stella, I didn't even know such moves were possible! Octopussy are just such an amazing band to see live, they throw themselves body and soul in to their performance, until the audience is completely in their thrall. They have the filthiest lyrics and the duttiest basslines, but all of it is delivered with such a cheeky glint and knowing look that you are totally swept away in their enthusiasm for the whole show. I'll let you discover the naughtiest lyrics yourself.
[YO MAJESTY]
Yo Majesty were, well, majestic. Starting off with 'Don't Let Go', they beamed energy and excitement into the audience. The set went by in a blur, excellent rhymes, subtle and then massive tunes, they were just such an inspirational hip hop band and now they've split up and it is totally gutting.
Having chased them from party to party, spotting them sloping around outside of Start the Bus and weaving around Gloucester Road, I finally tracked down the Bristol legends that are Boys and Dance (B.A.D) in the Hatchet, to discover just what had made them decide to bring male contemporary dance back in style, and back to the masses. I present to you - a conversation with B.A.D.
[BOYS AND DANCE]
Rockfeedback: So, what inspired you to set up Boys and Dance?
Sean: Frustration.
Mark: You can't say that! But yes - we were frustrated at seeing men lined up against walls of clubs, afraid to go out onto the dance floor.
Sean: There was this void of men no longer expressing themselves with their bodies.
Mark: Men didn't dance as they had this fear of looking, well, homosexual. They weren't comfortable with moving.
Sean: So Mark asked the question - he asked 'Why? Why are they not dancing?' And I suggested we provide an answer.
Mark: It became a question of what would happen if men stopped dancing? So, we decided to form Boys and Dance. We did our first gig at the Cube as a favour, in March 2008, and then we built up a following.
Sean: We saw the gig at the Cube as an opportunity. Before that, we were dancing in nightclubs, just ourselves, trying to encourage people to the dancefloor.
Mark: At weddings and things, people would say 'What's the matter with him?' when we danced.
Sean: It was terrible.
Mark: We danced in our homes, in our club The Basement. We'd listen to the Top 40 and dance. Then, Sean's housemate and brother would get annoyed by the noise, he told us we had to take it out there.
Rockfeedback: Did you expect to get the following you have?
Sean: At the time, we didn't expect to get double figures of fans. But now, it makes sense.
Mark: I mean, look at it this way. You go out there and see if you can find another male contemporary dance troupe with over 200 friends. You won't. But, that's not what it's about.
Sean: Someone came up to us after the first gig and said 'You were amazing.' She was doing a charity cabaret night at a night club in Bristol, and we thought, what better opportunity than dancing in a night club, as this was the place where the frustration had started! We started to get more gigs, Cabaret, Start the Bus, Mr Wolfs, now we're Start the Bus's resident dancers.
Mark: You see, they commission us, Start the Bus. We've supported some rather big bands. Heloise and the Savoir Faire were nice.
Sean: We've supported Countryside. They're nice.
Rockfeedback: What kind of reaction do you get from people?
Mark and Sean: We have had every reaction you can get!
Mark: We call it dance action. And you can see Dance Action in the films we have made.
[Ahh, yes. The films. Boys and Dance have been working with filmmaker Mike to put together a documentary for the BBC which you can view here]
Rockfeedback: How did the films come about?
Mark: Michael is a film maker who was looking for a project. He saw us at Start the Bus, and we were looking for someone to film the dances.
Sean: People are always telling us that they want to show their friends outside of Bristol our dances - they're always going 'Oh, w've got friends in New York who want to see you' - so we wanted to film the dances for this audience.
Mark: Michael filmed us at the Cube before Christmas, and afterwards he wanted to do an interview. On the back of that he suggested making a documentary
Sean: It's all very well you see, showing people what we're doing about dance, through dance, but sometimes people have problems understanding or interpreting the dance. But everyone can understand film, so we want to bring dance to film.
Rockfeedback: You've just returned from Snowfest in Austria. How was that?
Mark: Austria was f**king horrible.
Sean: It was really good, really hard work. Which is why Mark thought it was horrible.
Mark: I couldn't sleep because someone (looks pointedly at Sean) was snoring.
Sean: Well, if you stay up all night and get smashed, then you won't be able to sleep, will you.
Mark: I found out what a Jaeger Bomb is.
Sean: They have some mental schnapps.
Mark: The best gig we did was in a place called Back Country, on the side of a mountain.
Sean: We had to take 2 buses to get there!
Mark: Yeah, two buses. And we had to go through this tunnel that went through a mountain!
Sean: Then a smaller bus to get up the mountain, and to this little Alpine cabin.
Mark: We did three dances there, and they had a Fame 80s party. It wasa riot. I smashed some glass in my hand.
Sean: We had a dance off with this old couple.
Mark: 65 and we lost. It got in the local paper. We filmed a dance to Fleet Foxes 'White Winter Hymnal' on the side of a mountain, we're going to make it into a music video and send it to them. It was like Ibiza in the snow, all these people coming over and telling me I was great. Out of Snowfest we might now be doing Glastonbury and we're definitely doing a celebrity wedding in June! OK magazine are going to be there!
Sean: We're also doing a festival in Gloucestershire with British Sea Power.
Rockfeedback: Do you have a favourite male dancer?
Sean: My favourite dance has to be Cafe Muller by Pina Bausch
Mark: Tim Cahill's dance when he scores for Everton
Rockfeedback: And do you have a favourite dance?
Sean: If I had to have a favourite, it would be Walking on a Dream
Mark: My favourite bit is when we walk on to Justice. It's like being a boxer. At the celebrity wedding we'll do that bit flanked by girls.
And with that I say goodbye to BAD, taking their lycra on to the streets of Bristol...
Next month (May) is all about the mighty Dot to Dot...Friendly Fires, Ladyhawke, Little Boots, My Vitriol, Polly Scattergood and much more besides! Can't wait!
Finally, I wrote this whilst listening to Electrelane's The Power Out, and Joanna Newsome's Ys, two of my favourite albums that I haven't listened to for ages. So, I would really recommend everyone reading this to put those albums on, as you will certainly enjoy relistening to them too.