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

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

KILLING CULTURE: THE CLOSURE OF THE OWL SANCTUARY

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community and tagged activism, business, Capdown, closure, Community, faintest idea, gentrification, grassroots, JB Conspiracy, Muncie Girls, music, nightlife, norfolk, norwich, Norwich Soup Movement, NPA, ONSIND, politics, Random Hand, response, Slaves, Sonic Boom Six, The Owl Sanctuary, The Tuts, venue, working class, working class culture.

by Chris Jarvis

Last night, my Facebook timeline erupted. It’s customary for this to happen every once in a while, typically following an international atrocity or a major political event. Instead, this time it was in relation to the news that beloved Norwich music venue The Owl Sanctuary is set to close its doors at the end of January. Waves of solidarity swept across the internet, with the venue’s lengthy, emotional and angry announcement on their Facebook page being shared more than 2,000 times within three hours. Friends, musicians and fellow Norwich public spaces all joined in to stand with their venue and condemn its closure. I couldn’t express my rage.Continue Reading

Random Hand

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

KILLING CULTURE: THE CLOSURE OF THE OWL SANCTUARY

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