The Electric Swing Circus may well be the hardest working act in the electro-swing scene. Not only have they recently recorded an album (funded by their fans), organised their own regular and hugely successful Birmingham-based club night "Hot Club de Swing" and set up a record label (at least, Tom is one half of Ragtime Records), but they have also organised what must be the world's first electro-swing festival - Swingamajig. The event will take place on 5th May, from 2pm. The whole thing will stagger to a close at 5am the following morning.
The line up reads like a who's who of electroswing. I mean, just look at this poster:
The festival will be centered around Spotlight Bar in Digbeth. There will be two outdoor stages, and a further indoor 'speakeasy'. As one might expect, there will also be a variety of stalls and associated festival-stuff like circus performers and what-not.
Other people involved are the guys from Nottingham's Jitterbug nights, and Madame Electrifie's Discotech, which might go some way to explaining the strength of the line-up. I understand that there are still tickets left. Go to www.swingamajig.co.uk for more details.
If you still haven't decided to go, have a look at this here video.
If nothing else, the event should provide electro-swing fans a great taste of what is to come at Boomtown this summer, and the Electric Swing Circus a great warm up gig for their appearance at Glastonbury.
Fear not, readers! I am alive and well. I apologise for the lateness of this week's installment of Jack's Top Tracks. Been a bit preoccupied with a lot of other stuff, but I am back and ready to fill your ears with some lovely electroswing goodness. Old Bakini - Company B-Boy (Starring the Andrews Sisters) In the absence of any scantily clad young ladies I bring you visual delights of a different time. This was originally released back in 2003, but a chappy named Grant Bernard (what a great name), an electroswing DJ from Toronto who also goes by The Great Grantsby, has made this very fine video for it. He has also made a few videos for Skeewiff. Subscribe to his YouTube channel here.
New The After Hours Quintet - Red Dust (Swing n Bass Reprise) In their own words the After Hours Quintet are 'all beardy blokes', so have only provided a Soundcloud clip rather than a video. The 5 piece are the house band at Speakeasy Leeds and, it turns out, live on the same road as the Jenova Collective, who I featured last week. This is a new tune from them, and I rather like it.
Old DJ Yoda - Cheesecake (Louis Armstrong) DJ Yoda might be the most famous turntablist DJ in the world. I certainly can't do him justice in this short space. I had his How to cut and Paste Volumes 1-3 when I was at school. Here is a track sampling Louis Armstrong singing about cheesecake. Like that pudding, this tune is simple yet satisfying.
Old I Monster - The Blue Wrath For some reason I feel like ending on a cheery note this week, and this track just popped into my head a few moments ago. I used to listen to it at work and it always made me feel quite chipper. I think it has something to do with the way that it ends - a bit like an old cockney pub song. Enjoy!
So, that's your lot for this week. I will be heading out to SwingStep @ Ginglik on Friday night. Jamie Berry is DJing and there are a few live acts on so it should be a good one. If you are going, come and say 'what ho'.
