MEANWHILE, BACKSTAGE IN SONIC BOOM SIX’S WORLD

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged Anti-Vigilante, artivism, backstage, Barney Boom, Brexit, Capdown, commentary, costa, enter shikari, EU, gentrification, Ghould, Ghouls, gig, Great Britain, Imperial Leisure, interview, James Routh, King Prawn, Laila K, live, metal, Mobb Deep, Mouthwash, MTM, music, music that matters, Nick Horne, No Man No Right, O2 Academy, performance, petrol girls, politics, punk, race, racism, rage against the machine, Random Hand, Remain, series, show, ska punk, social commentary, Sonic Boom Six, subway, The Clash, The Specials, The Tuts, Truck Store, uk, Warped Tour, women in music, Zodiac.

Content Warning: Racial slurs, homophobia

by Chris Jarvis

A few minutes’ walk from the dreaming spires for which the city is famed lies East Oxford’s Cowley Road – the hub where ‘kids of the multiculture’ grow up. An area undergoing rapid gentrification, it still retains its working class heritage, ethnic diversity, and unique character under the strains of the expansionist middle classes settling, with students and university professors increasingly filling the nearby terraces.

Cowley Road is home to the O2 Academy. Previously the Zodiac, the venue is emblematic of other changes in the area – a corporate takeover of a formerly independent music venue. Across the road sit branches of Subway and Costa, but a little further down is the Truck Store – the pivot of the local independent music scene. Here, at Oxford’s O2 Academy, Manchester-born Sonic Boom Six get set to tear up the stage on a Friday evening. Continue Reading

WOMEN AND PUNK: SHAPING THE GENRE 40 YEARS ON

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged #WomeninMusic, Ace Bushy Striptease, Adore Life, album, autonomads, Baby Ghosts, BME, British music, Built on Our Backs, Chekhov’s Hangnail, Colour Me Wednesday, DIY, EP, From Caplan to Belsize, Goldman’s Detective Agency, hardcore, hc, In Evil Hour, Kate Nash, Kerrang! Awards, King Prawn, Laila K, Leftover Crack, Lily Allen, LP, Martha, math-rock, media, Middle Ones, MSM, Muncie Girls, music, music journalism, music that matters, No Ditching, No Man No Right, Okinawa Picture Show, Perkie, petrol girls, pop punk, post-hardcore, punk, Radiator Hospital, Resolution 242, rock, Savages, Ska, ska punk, Sonic Book Six, split, T-Shirt Weather, Tellison, The F-Bomb, the king blues, The Selecter, Treading Water.

by Chris Jarvis

Last week, Music That Matters looked at the 40^th anniversary of punk and how our understanding of its history is typically one which erases the efforts and achievements of women musicians and people of colour. Today, the scene is often still seen as a male and white space, with punk shows frequently having male dominated crowds queuing up to see white men thrashing on guitars in shabby venues.

But it looks like things are changing. 2016 feels like it is becoming a rebirth of women in punk, and critically, as if it is women of colour who often are leading the way. More women are touring, more are getting bigger stages and longer sets, and more are getting the media coverage that they deserve. Among the nostalgic reflection, this year, dozens of punk albums will be released. Some will become instant classics, others will fade from memory as quickly as they came. Here are 10 bands leading the British punk scene this year, and the women that are making them shape the future of the genre.Continue Reading

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged asian dub foundation, Babar Luck, babylon whackers, bob marley, crass, dead kennedys, east end trinity, hardcore, hip hop, King Prawn, music, music that matters, politics, public enemy, punk, rage against the machine, Random Hand, Ska, the king blues.

By Chris Jarvis

In 1993, a new icon was born. King Prawn’s incendiary sound emerged from London, and paved the way for countless other bands on a burgeoning and ever developing scene. Over the next decade, they would lay waste to notions of genre as album after album would reinvent punk, ska, hip-hop and hardcore blazing a trail for many others to follow. Sonic Boom Six, Random Hand, The King Blues all built upon the legacy of King Prawn. So diverse and innovative, they coined their own label to define their music – Wildstyle, and their rebel rousing songs combined with their flagrant disregard for musical convention led to comparisons with American rap-metal pioneers Rage Against the Machine.Continue Reading

IN TRANSITION – AN INTERVIEW WITH JOSH CHANDLER MORRIS OF HOPE IN HIGH WATER

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged Anti-Vigilante, B Dolan, Community, hip hop, Hope in High Water, impact, Inner Terrestrials, interview, JME, Joey Bada$$, John Stoltenberg, Josh Chandler Morris, Kendrick Lamar, King Prawn, music, music that matters, Noam Chomsky, politics, Propagandhi, rock, Sage Francis, Ska, skacore, Supporting Caste, vegan.

by Chris Jarvis

For years, Josh Chandler Morris was known as the energetic frontman of skacore band Anti-Vigilante, whose powerful stage presence, piercing sax segments and fast paced vocals thrilled crowds across the country including on tours with veterans of the ska scene such as King Prawn and Inner Terrestrials. Nowadays, Josh has teamed up with Carly Slade to form Hope in High Water, a two piece acoustic folk band, whose focus is much mellower and whose lyrics are less focussed on the political issues that Anti-Vigilante were well known for. But because of Josh’s background, The Norwich Radical decided to discuss with Josh his political outlook, how it interplays with his musical outputs and why his most recent outfit has decided to steer away from the politics as part of our series Music That Matters.Continue Reading

HUMAN PROBLEMS, HUMAN SOLUTIONS – AN INTERVIEW WITH BABAR LUCK

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged arts, Babar Luck, folk, human, humanity, interview, King Prawn, music, music that matters, politics, punk, series, Ska, underground.

by Chris Jarvis

In underground music circles, Babar Luck is something of a legend. For more than twenty years, he has been a staple feature of the UK punk scene, blending and smashing genres along the way. Starting as the bassist of seminal London band King Prawn, notorious for their eclectic influences which drew upon hardcore, reggae, metal, punk and hip-hop, Babar has gone on to have an illustrious solo folk career, as well as working on new bands such as East End Trinity and collaborative projects The Babylon Whackers and Suicide Bid, while providing guest vocals for friends and comrades in the scene such as Sonic Boom Six and Random Hand. Babar Luck’s musical outputs have been beyond any doubt, inhumanly prolific.Continue Reading

King Prawn

WOMEN AND PUNK: SHAPING THE GENRE 40 YEARS ON

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

IN TRANSITION – AN INTERVIEW WITH JOSH CHANDLER MORRIS OF HOPE IN HIGH WATER

HUMAN PROBLEMS, HUMAN SOLUTIONS – AN INTERVIEW WITH BABAR LUCK

Support the Radical

Subscribe

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Support the Radical

Subscribe