Swingamajig 2017 - part 3 - Chicken Brothers

Last but not least in this year's Swingamajig preview are the mighty Chicken Brothers - pioneers of the scene in Liverpool and festival fields around the land, scratch maestros and all-round good eggs. One member of the flock has just flown back in from Oz, setting a new world record for 'Longest Flight by a Chicken' in the process, so the answers are a little brief, but entertaining and informative none-the-less.

Jack: You’ve played a few Swingamajigs now – can you share your best memory of the festival, if you can remember any of them?

Our favourite memory would have to be at the first ever Swingamajig — playing the closing set with an audience made up of loads of UK producers, DJs and performers all getting down and interacting. A particular highlight of that set was when Odjbox approached us to request some Odjbox... He also went on to say that we were top of the list of people to play the electro swing office Christmas party, being "the dj's DJ..."

Jack: The Chicken Brothers have a habit of popping up during other people’s sets – have you got any guest appearances planned?

Not due to do any cameos at Swingamajig this year as we will be working all day helping to run the event in different areas. But we will be on hand to play the opening set at the after party, and as a reverse cameo we have our newest member Mike coming down on rooster duties [I think that means MC duties. Ed.].

Jack: You have a hand in loads of events and festival stages and so on. What is it that sets Swingamajig apart from other festivals?

Swingamajig is special to us because we have been involved in it from the beginning, and now help to run various areas of the production as well as perform. It's filled to the brim with our favourite acts, producers and DJs. Plus the crowd are next level awesome! It's a solid date in the diary every year.



If you've got your ticket yet, I think there's still a few left, but don't delay. There's so much more to do in addition to the music. I've been asked to take part in some sort of table-football event, so watch out for that; there's dance classes, something called the Bacon Cheeseburger Pie which sounds life-changing (or perhaps life-ending), and performances from the likes of Oh My God It's The Church, magicians and all sorts of scantily clad ladies. The festival's tagline is 'A show like no other'. They're not wrong. It is, as Odjbox said, the vintage remix world's office party, so there'll be some tired legs and sore heads come Monday morning.

Aye, aye, Kaptin - Jack meets the man behind BoomTown's music

As the world gears up for Glastonbury, and those of us who didn't manage to get a ticket start to feel those pangs of jealousy and #FOMO, I thought I'd try take your minds off it by reminding you that there arejust a couple of months to go until BoomTown Fair. I spoke to Kaptin is Dead, one of the men behind BoomTown and one half of Big Swing Soundsystem, to get his story and his take on the festival. Read on to find out why BoomTown knocks Glasto into a cocked hat. Glasto-goers, fear not, most of the artists mentioned here are also playing this week at Worthy Farm, though you might have to look a bit harder for them.

Jack the Cad: Afternoon Cap'n, thanks for agreeing to chat. First of all, can you let everyone who you are, in terms of Big Swing Soundsystem and BoomTown?

Kaptin is Dead: I'm the Sheriff of BoomTown, but I also get to programme most of the music at the festival. Matt The Hat and I started Big Swing Soundsystem but we've also been DJing together since 2004.

JtC: You're a pretty big deal in the festival world - how did you first get involved?

Kaptin: I knew I wanted to be involved with festivals the first time I performed at Glastonbury in 2004, I was rapping with a band called Dark Chunk and also a contemporary Dance group called Reform Dance, although I'd been to Glastonbury a few times before, that weekend changed my life. The next year Matt and I took an Inflatable Church to Bestival and through that many festival friendships were formed.

JtC: How did you first come to be involved in the Vintage Remix scene?

Kaptin: We first began as The Chaps back in 2005. We dressed up in boaters and blazers and played a mixture of Old Swing, Nu-Swing and what would later be classed as Electro Swing. We even had an extremely short lived band, playing silly swing covers. We carried that on until we ran out of Pimms and moved on to the next incarnation, which I seem to remember was a Swedish Apres Ski duo called Stefan and Jurgen. 


Big Swing Soundsystem Summer 2014 from Something Creatives on Vimeo.


Many years later Chris Tofu introduced us to the idea of Electro Swing and we realised it was just a continuation of what we'd been doing as The Chaps, so we instantly clicked with it. We started a night called In Full Swing at a club we were running called Cardiff Arts Institute, and as we didn't actually know many Electro Swing DJs back then, we booked various bands that fitted the bill and took up most of the DJing ourselves. Eventually the brewery shut us down for being too outrageous and we realised we'd have to find other places to play.


JtC: You're a proper muso - what is it about VR that grabbed you?



Kaptin: I think more than anything it was the excuse to be silly and have fun. I think both are incredibly underrated ways of being. I was raised on Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Spike Jones and his City Slickers, and I'd say both of those were instrumental in my love for Vintage Remix. Even now, although I play all sorts of music under different hats, I have the most fun playing Vintage Remix.



JtC: There's not many festivals with such a huge area dedicated to the VR sound - to what extent are you responsible for BoomTown's MayFair Avenue?

Kaptin: Well Chris Tofu and the Word's Tallest DJ are responsible for bringing Vintage Remix to the festival and they still run The Ballroom, which is our main venue in Mayfair Avenue. Even though I do the music programming there now, I still make sure I run everything by them and take on board any of their recommendations.

JtC: Vintage Remix, and in particular Electroswing, seems to be a bit of a Marmite sound, especially given the recent Eurovision travesty - why do you think it causes such differing opinions?

Kaptin: Because it's such a broad spectrum and different sides of it appeal to totally different people. I was chatting to someone on New Years Eve who kept stating that he hated Electro Swing, but then admitted he came to all of our In Full Swing nights and loved every minute of it. Plus you do have to dig through a lot of tripe to find the good stuff, but as an old vinyl digger, I quite like that.

JtC: I'm going to be picking my 'Don't miss these guys' list - which acts would you, with your intricate knowledge of the line up, recommend for readers of this blog?

Kaptin: Well I love everyone on the bill but as a lot of the French acts don't get to play here that often, with maybe the exception of Caravan Palace, I'd say definitely catch them. I went to see Deluxe (part of the Chinese Man Records family) in Bourges a couple of months back and they are one of the best live bands I've seen all year. Also a Gypsy-Swing Hip-hop band called Soviet Suprem are a lot of fun, or if you like Electro Blues then Scarecrow are not to be missed. Plus there are some great French DJs such as Bart & Baker, Grant Lazlo and Kiwistar.



JtC: For those who haven't been before, tell us why BoomTown is so different from other festivals.

Kaptin: It's actually really hard to explain for anyone who's never been. The whole concept of a pop up city seems to baffle a lot of people, especially when you start trying to explain the Post Office, the Job Centre, the Leisure Centre, the Town Hall, etc. It's definitely something you're a part of, rather than simply an observer and it's a completely different, rather twisted, but ultimately magical land indeed. It's worth reading up on the storyline that runs though the festival, I hear there's whisperings of revolution this year. Plus even if you don't like Vintage Remix, we have lots of different stages with all kinds of music. There's no focus on cool and trendy bands whatsoever, the bookings are all based on the quality of music and performance.

JtC: Finally, where can we catch BSSS and what can we expect from your performances?

Kaptin: Unfortunately I don't really get any time off during the festival so we shall be closing The Ballroom on Sunday night and going out with a bang. We shall, of course, have our partner in crime Hypeman Sage with us, but also plenty of special guests as well.

You can also catch us at Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, WOMAD, Camp Bestival and Bestival.

Jack's Boomtown Picks - 4 acts not to be missed at this year's festival

A week or so ago the national media got all hot and bothered about the fact that there were just 100 days to go until the General Election, but for me there is more important event on the horizon – Boomtown 2015. If, like me, you are counting the days, I can tell you that at the time of writing, there were 177 days to go until the gates open and the craziest town in the world is open for business once more.

Last week May-Fair Avenue’s aristocratic overseers Mr and Mrs Fitz-Sloane released the full programme of performers for this year’s festivities, and bugger me sidewise with a magnum of champagne, it’s a veritable Who’s Who of Vintage Remix royalty.

Closer to the time I will do a more in depth post about the whole line-up, but for now I am going to pick out a few of the names which have already got my heart racing in anticipation and my ever-so-shiny dancing shoes twitching.

First off, it is hard to miss the fact that Caravan Palace, pioneers of the electro-swing vibe, are top of the bill. Having seen them perform in sweaty, crowded London venues, I am very much looking forward to seeing them in a festival setting, where hopefully the cooling Hampshire breeze will allow for some vigorous dancing. Their on-stage energy and Zoé’s perfect vocals make them one of the unmissable acts of the festival. I can’t quite work out which stage they will be playing, but given how fast their shows sell out when they come to town, let’s hope its one of the bigger ones.

Another performance about which I am so excited that I nearly soiled my trousers (something which my tailor would be very unhappy about) is ‘Brass Band Remix’. Taking the concept of Soundclash to a place never before imagined are two of the biggest names in the Vintage Remix world: Dutty Moonshine and Chris Tofu. They have teamed up with the Temple Funk Collective and the Brass Funkeys respectively to create what may be the epitome of the electro-swing sound: Live brass bands remixed live.

Speaking to Mike from Dutty Moonshine earlier today, he told me that the Dutty Moonshine Big Band "is made of several existing acts. Hypeman Sage on vocals, Maria Laveau - a female singer and rapper of Oxford Jazz Hip Hop outfit Voodoo Collective - plus the seven-piece brass section and drums come from the Temple Funk Collective."

They have performed with this set-up only once before and like an idiot I missed it, but in my head it sounds (and looks) a bit like a lorry-load of drums and synths crashing into a marching band at 150mph (or should that be 150bpm?): loud, messy, and with the potential to cause serious, potentially irreparable damage.

There so many excellent DJs on the poster that I’m struggling to work out which is top of my list, so instead I am going to pick out two names I have yet to catch live: DonJohnston, the man behind the amazing video below; and Grant Lazlo, who is joining his fellow Frenchies Caravan Palace in hopping over the channel for the event.

For all the details and info on the MayFair Avenue performers, and those on the other stages, head over to the Boomtown website, and watch this space for more Boomtown related posts from me.

GUEST BLOG - DJR's Boomtown Report

Owing to my pal Benjamin deciding to get married on the same weekend as Boomtown  Fair I was unable to attend this year's jamboree. This was a sad state of affairs, since Boomtown is just a few miles from the my family's country seat, has the best Vintage Remix line-up of any festival in the world, and is one heck of a party. Fear not, dear reader - Ben has been chastised.

BUT, I would never leave you wondering what went down at an event like Boomtown, so I went on the hunt for a correspondent to give you all the lowdown.. Happily, DJR of the Free Breaks Blog stepped up to the plate. Without further wittering from me, here is what he had to say about the weekend.

Hey hey swingers and swingettes! Jack The Cad couldn’t make this year’s Boomtown festival and since I wouldn’t shut up about it he asked me to write a report of some of the goings on. In case you’re wondering who I am, some of you will know me from my own ‘Electro Swing Roundup’ over at Free Breaks Blog. For those who don’t, I’m DJR and I try to keep an eye on all the latest music in the scene. If you’re a DJ looking for fresh music, or just keen to hear the latest tunes check out my posts on the 1st of the month (or thereabouts!)at http://freebreaksblog.com/category/music/electro-swing/.

So. What was Boomtown 2014 like then? Well it’s a hard festival to sum up. They focus less on having lots of superstar names in favour of having an incredible strength and depth with every single small and medium size act they can find from a diverse range of styles, including swing, reggae, roots, ska, punk, and pretty much the whole spectrum of dance music (apart from mainstream house), and they seem to find a home for every single band in the country that has lots of members. Brass section? String section? 'Orchestra', 'Collective' or 'Ensemble' in your name? Yep you’re in. They also have a legendary attention to detail which means that the site looks incredible. In truth I can’t even start to describe it, so best watch this instead:



From a swing point of view they always have an incredible line-up, in no small part due to Town's Sherrif Kaptin (solo DJ and part of the Big Swing Soundsystem) who ensured that they continued to have the hottest line-up of vintage artists of any event in the country. Last year’s festival was triumphantly completed by Pavor Stelar, so this year they had to pull all their strings and ensure that they could match the line-up again; and match it they did, recruiting amongst (many) others Dunklebunt and the Secret Swing Society, Tape Five, Algorhythmik, and pretty much all the stars of the UK based swing scene. Here’s the promo mix they put together in advance:



I’d like to say that I managed to see all of these, however Boomtown is one of those festivals where due to the sheer number of stages (over 70 fully programmed stages for four days) you seem to spend lots of time missing everything you planned to see and discovering other incredible stuff instead. Therefore I’ll just talk about what I saw.

The main stage for vintage mayhem at Boom is the Ballroom stage which once again looked incredible. Over the weekend it was graced by a veritable who’s who of the swing world, plus circus performers, (if you’ve never seen them search 'hoop hooligans' online!) , burlesque beauties, and all sorts of vintage reprobates.

In musical terms my highlights were: 

Elle & the Pocket Belles who seem to be going from strength to strength since adding Mistatrick to their lineup. This means that they can choose between doing a classic swing style show, and doing a electro swing show where Mistatrick adds beats and bass. This is what they played in the Ballroom and it went down really well on the Saturday afternoon. Sadly there's no footage from their Boomtown performances, but here's a video of them shot at Glasto this year.






The Big Swing Soundsystem rocked it late on Saturday night, giving Kaptin a chance to relax from festival duties while Hypeman Sage did what it says on the tin and hyped the crowd. 
The Electric Swing Circus always go down a storm and this they did again, particularly with a great set in the town square early on Saturday, including The C@ In The H@ on FX and scratching duties.





Other acts worth mentioning are the Chicken Brothers who seem very at home on the big stage now; Chris Tofu who is always in his element at any festival both performing front of house, and backstage controlling the multitude of bands and ensuring that the show went on; Smokey Joe & The Kidd with their great live and VJ show; and Madame Electrife who followed last year's Chinese Laundry with a new General Store Venue in the Wild West district.

The weather did make the festival. It was a little challenging at times, particularly on the Friday night when it did turn nasty, creating a lot of mud to contend with (on a very hilly site!) however, apart from one small glitch, the Ballroom, being indoors was a brilliant respite from the elements.

Alex’s Last Gigs With Dutty Moonshine

For myself and many other swing fans, one of the most important, 'can’t miss' moments of the weekend was Alex Furley's last gig with Dutty Moonshine.

As was reported in this blog (check here if you missed it: http://jackthecad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/alex-leaves-dutty-moonshine.html ), Alex has decided to move on from Dutty Moonshine and focus on other projects both within music and his career. So how would they sign off with their time with him? Well to start with, newest member of the group Danny managed to get himself locked out of the site after returning after the 10pm curfew when everyone had to be inside the site. This was sad for him, but maybe appropriate for Mike and Furley that they signed him off as they started – together.

So with a packed Ballroom stage at 3am on Friday night, Mike and Furley tore into their customary swing & bass set for about 20minutes before Mike handed over the controls fully to Alex and let him do what he wanted. I think even Alex wasn’t quite sure what he was going to play, because he tore into a set of big bass heavy hip-hop classics, mixed unpredictably and at a furious pace. There was no swing in sight, however Furley clearly enjoyed having the freedom and it went down really well with an excitable crowd. Then finally to sign it off, Mike called Furley to the front of the stage, and well, this happened...



Athough this was treated as Alex’s proper last gig, in actual fact it was the day after when, all three of them this time(!), played a much lower key set at Charlie Brown's across from the Ballroom (a spectacular speakeasy populated with gangsters and molls in brilliantly rendered style).

The post-script to this farewell is that following on from this gig, I actually managed to catch Dutty Moonshine play a week later in Birmingham. This time they had a much smaller crowd, however Danny and Mike will clearly have fun together because they showed they are still masters at rocking any venue big or small. Danny’s clearly enjoyed the ride so far although he is going to have some work keeping up with Mike’s infamous partying! Still they did get to be put on the side of a building.

While I’ve got the chance, there’s one more slot I can talk about. 24 hours after the Dutties' big sendoff, I had the privilege of playing the Ballroom stage to close the Saturday night lineup. Following on from the ever reliable C@ In The H@ who had the crowd rocking to his bass heavy shenanigans, I had a great set, enjoying the chance to play quite heavy for once and dropping in plenty of bangers transitioning from hip-hop tempo right up to drum & bass including a healthy dose of swing, soul & funk and rock & roll. If you fancy checking it out have a listen to this:



That’s it. I hope I’ve whetted your appetite, and I’ve barely even mentioned everything else that went on... the best reggae stage in the country, the mighty Arcadia (if you don’t know – check Youtube) and so many other stages also featuring the cream of their particular scene. In fact, don’t bother listening to me just see me on the dance-floor next year!

SwinGrowers take the Rebel Colonies by storm

For the last few weeks the SwinGrowers have been touring the USA and Canada. Despite lots of travelling and plenty of gigs, they took the time out to have a chat with me. I have been interested to see how long it would take for electro-swing to really take off in the States, especially given the rise of EDM (ptui!) and the debates it has provoked both in the States and in the wider dance music world. The reception these guys get should provide a good barometer or litmus test. [Jack the Cad - bringing you not one but two clichéd metaphors to choose from] 

For those who don't know them the SwinGrowers are an Italian outfit, consisting of DJ/producer Roberto Pisk, vocalist Loredana, and manouche guitarist Alessio. They hail from Sicily, but have been touring hard. Their album "Pronounced Swing Grow'ers" came out last year and was one of my top 5 releases of the year.

The tour has seen them drop in on Speakeasy Electro Swing Montreal, the longest running electro-swing night in North America, and other venues in San Francisco, New York and a host of other glamourous places.The first thing I wanted to know was how they have been getting on in the land which gave us swing music in the first place. "Everything is going great!" they tell me enthusiastically. They say they have been shown fantastic hospitality, great support from the promoters and a lot of pampering. Montreal has been the highlight so far: " There is a big electro-swing crowd there, and the whole audience was there to see the SwinGrowers. In any case, the cities where we have been have all been great because each one is different from the other and because they are all completely different from home. Here, everything is a surprise." 

North Americans, in the eyes of lots of Europeans, have taken a while to really appreciate dance music, so I wanted to know how audiences have reacted to their sound. Happily, it seems they have been well received. "We have had nothing but  positive reactions! At the end of every show people we get loads of compliments. There are parts in the show where people go crazy: when Pisk sings with the vocoder, or during Alessio's solos, or when Loredana gets the audience dancing." They must have done something right as their New York show sold out.

And how do the crowds across the water compare to those in the UK? Favourably, it would seem: "The U.S. audience is giving us lots of feedback. It is an interactive audience that receives and then gives it back. If we wanted to compare the U.S. and the UK crowds, we can say that they are very similar! Both warm and active. The only difference perhaps is that in the UK we are always inside of Europe, so we can say that we are "at home", whereas in the U.S. and CANADA we are on the other side of the ocean, so people are really excited to find the Italians on stage!"

We can see what they are talking about in this fantastically cool little video of Lore doing her thing in Tompkins Square Park in the NYC.




At the time of writing they have two gigs left in North America: Toronto on Friday 26th April and 27th April in Detroit. Having said that, they also promise further dates to be added, so keep an eye on their Facebook page if you are in that part of the world. 

One thing I forgot to ask them... when will you be back in the UK guys?

Sam and the Womp - you heard them here first!

It's official - electro-swing has hit the big time. On Sunday evening it was confirmed that Sam and the Womp's single 'Bom Bom' (also featured on the Barcardi advert at the moment) is the UK's new official number one single, having deposed Rita Ora from the top spot.

Those of you who have been reading this blog since the beginning will remember that I included them in the post on Bands a few months ago. I don't want to brag tooo much, but yes, you heard it them here first, ladies and gents!

Sam and the Womp are not what one might call typical of the electro-swing scene, and they would probably not class themselves as such - indeed I seem to recall that on their old Soundcloud page they described their style as Jewish-Gypsy Dub, whatever that might mean. The sound, as you probably know by now, is one of unbridled fun - brash brass and, of course, big wompy noises, and that is enough for me to claim them for my preferred genre. I can not verify this, but I am told that Sam (of the Womp) used to play with Molotov Jukebox... can anyone confirm this?! You can certainly hear that they have the same influences, especially in the trumpets...


I see this as a very important moment in the progress of the genre to the mainstream... yes, I know that there was that Gramaphondzie song a few years ago, but that was what I might call commercial house with some swing, but these guys start from the balkan end of things, which to my mind is a significant difference. I feel that the sudden and unexpected popularity of 'Bom Bom' is a symptom of the growing popularity of electro-swing in the wider public, thanks, no doubt to the massive festival presence this summer from people like Caravan Palace, Madam Electrifie's Discoteque and the Swingrowers. A friend who was at Boomtown Fair said the electro-swing stages and tents were rocking, and I have seen it suggested that royal bum-flasher Prince Harry and his toothy cousin Eugenie were seen dancing to the Electric Swing Circus at WOMAD...

Once again, I should acknowledge that the Fabulous Miss Fox has once again shown remarkable prescience: she was the first to recommend the Correspondents to me, and  Molotov Jukebox and Sam and the Womp. Her knowledge of unsigned bands is remarkable, and comes from a love of live music - without her, you would not be reading this blog!

Lots of Love

Jack