Monday 6 September 2010

Brassed Off


I was hoping to get down to the Word Magazine blog meet in London this Friday, but circumstances have prevented me from seeing the bright lights and hooking up with Mondo et al; which is a shame as, not only was I looking forward to breaking bread with like-minded coves, I was planning to slope off after a couple of hours and check out the Hackney Colliery Band's set at Camden's Jazz Cafe. To those of you not familiar with the HCB, they're a bunch of young horn players (and a couple of drummers) putting a new spin on the brass band/New Orleans marching band format. Incorporating lethal injections of jazz, funk and ska it's no wonder they've already appeared on the radar screens of both Gilles Peterson and Craig Charles.

This is their new single - it's got to be worth 79p of anybody's money. Available from those good people at iTunes:

2 comments:

  1. I can't do this Friday either John, recent circumstances and all that. Loving the brass - although the sound generally makes me think of reworked film themes from school fetes and local carnivals

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sure we can sort out another night between us in the not too distant; see if we can get Mr Piley to make an appearance, too? I've always found brass band music very moving (I'm sure somebody posted a feature recently) and when I get asked to give examples I invariably come up with this. It's on the B-side of Dumb by The Beautiful South: Paul Heaton got The East Yorks. Motor Services Band to play Blackbird On The Wire.

    ReplyDelete