Yorkshire Terrierz & 9 Lives Clik @ Trash, 30th October 2007
Published by Editor November 1st, 2007 in Live Reviews, Local.
I’m sorry to start on a negative but it’s probably best if I get this off my chest to begin with. Whoever promoted this event must have no idea what flyers and posters are, they must have never stumbled across this thing we call the internet; that new fangled contraption. Hands up who knew it was on? Hands up who would have gone if they did know?
I’ve never actually been to any kind of public event that was so under attended. Sure, people drifted in and out all night but by the time 9 Lives hit the stage there was me, my bro, our mate and a handful of others (shouts to Leady for representing his scene).
To be fair the bill was good. The aim of the event was to celebrate ‘the influence of Hip Hop on modern British music and culture’ and was put on as part of Black History Month. I missed the first act, Dave Acari a blues guitarist and arrived to see Roya perform. I’m going to have to be critical about this and since I’ve already slagged off the organisers I might as well say this: Roya can’t sing live. Some of her beats were pretty heavy but overall her performance was uninspiring. Dboy hit the stage accompanied by an electro-acoustic guitar and a good voice; he played a few nice singer/songwriter tracks including a melancholy cover of Britney’s (Hit me Baby) One More Time. A couple of beat boxers (Who were you?) provided some proper entertainment, by that time I was ready for some Hip Hop. Ridim Ryda was next with some dubstep but again, to be honest, he needs to step up his live game.
9 Lives Clik were a breath of fresh air, every time I see them play they get better. These boys are certainly skilled but good raps and beats ain’t all they got; they entertain and engage. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on some recorded material from these boys (2 solo albums and 1 mixtape coming soon I am assured) and in a twist on the usual way of things - I hope it’s as good as their live show. If you haven’t seen them live, just go see them, they had me grinning and nodding my head (what more could one wish for?). I believe Chief Wiggum is playing tonight (Friday 2 nd November) so be there. Look out for the trading of rhymes they seem to have concocted on a bus and the time machine, highlights my friends, highlights. One thing you may not get to see again is the boy band ballad mockery they derived from the presence of a stool on the stage.
The other half of the audience then got on the stage: Yorkshire Terrierz. For a group with over 3000 friends on myspace I was surprised about the turn out (but as you know I blame the promoters). Despite the lack of crowd they did their thing. I’d heard a couple of their tunes before (thanks to itunes, check for their album/mixtape on there) and their set was not a disappointment. Their brand of street level life rap is made fresh and consistent with their use of their Yorkshire accents and dialect. The Terrierz add another ingredient to the bubbling melting pot of Hip Hop in Leeds, it’s only really their accents that would make their music sound out of place in either the UK scene as a whole or the US. With some hard work and accurate marketing they could become integral in the UK scene.
All in all, a good night musically but atmospherically it was lacking that extra something that really lets you enjoy a night of live music.
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u kno wot mate
i am compeltely wiv u
if i had kown earlier
i wud hav changed plans n defo gon down 2 catch the terrierz
tbh
promo these days for sum mint shit has gon down hill
its sad sad sad
Hi, I organised this, we also made the black history magazine that went with the events, I risked £1k of my own money on it. We run mainly indie stuff-we gave the pigeon detectives their first gig and run Vibrations, which I’d like to see less, but has a large contingent of white guitar bands in it.
We on purpose seek to offer the magazine we do(for free and often subsidised over the years by me) and venue as a bridge between different scenes, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, we just do our best, one of the problems being the lack of communication between different tribes, or scenes. For this we made a magazine and flyered/postered the places we knew, we can’t do too much more than that, maybe you could argue that we shouldn’t do genres that we’re not directly descended of, but I look to music as a way that groups of people can break down their barriers.
It’s easy to say what’s wrong with something, a lot harder to do things that get knocked and still keep trying to do your best, frustration in art is constant, everyone wants a good audience, a good reception, we can only hope we all can keep doing our best and that one day it comes to fruition..
We just did our best, to knock us for that’s fine, but it’s probably a bigger issue that Leeds at times has music and social scenes that are that segregated that one area could know all about something and another was obviously unaware, we probably fucked up here, because the scene we knew how to spread the word to wasn’t the one that’d appreciate.
I’d like Vibrations to have more music of this ilk, and have a venue that for the right thing I can arrange for people to do stuff at, if you(Aidan) or anyone else can, as I’m sure you can, do anything better, come show us how, to get in touch/to get anything in the magazine mail me at info@vibrations.org.uk.
Vibrations is a free magazine that takes ads from money making ventures to pay for free space for artists.
It’s a hard job been a promoter but I’m glad you came on here and made your comments, when your good no one remembers and when its not so good no one forgets…
There are plenty of local acts who I think should get involved with the smaller venues around Leeds and Yorkshire such as Trash and the like to help raise the awareness of Uk Hip Hop/Dubstep/grime outside of the usual venues e.g. Atrium.
I mean Freebass is having its last night at Dr Wus soon maybe Trash could get involved with this night?
Too true, it’s frustrating as all round, I’ve played in a guitar band for years, grew up in Leeds-so I know how to do that, but I love hiphop and think when you look at cities like Manchester, it only adds to the city when different groups come together, musically and socially. There’s loads the indie scene could learn from the people making wicked beats/lyrics on the hiphop side, also the indie scene has tried and tested paths for playing around the country/getting press, a crossing of skills looks like a winner all round to me.
It’s funny you should say about Freebase, we’ve been talking over the last few wks about doing something similar, if I can I’d like a weekly night@Trash, a lot of the hiphop I’ve seen in Leeds is very student orientated and pretty removed from the raw feeling we had when the Terrierz+Cockee ran their trial at Trash, this may be though that the places I’ve been haven’t been as good as the city can offer, anyway, my contacts are above, I’m happy to have a coffee with anyone wanting to have a crack at putting something on. And just to finish the initial point, we do sometimes fk up, but it’s through human error, not because we don’t care.
Apologies mate
i myself know how hard promo is
i respect you coming on here and rantin
n i have heard of sum of the other stuff you’re involved in
however im sorry to say the amgazine is nu to me
so ill defo try check that
fair enuf
human error
but the way i run around promoing sum twats n then i dont see half of ppl makin the same effort can make me fume
but seen as im jst one big fume anyways
take no notice
stay free
Nino