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March 21st 2006
Grassroots at The Lamp
Grassroots Free Festival presents a night of live roots dance music at The Lamp on Thursday 13th April, 8 p.m. – midnight, featuring Kava Kava, DJ Redlocz, Baby Jinx and Kurdish music and arts collective, Nvar featuring Gul Naz.
Tickets are £4 on the door and proceeds from the gig will be donated to Love Music Hate Racism who state, “Our music is living testimony to the fact that cultures can and do mix. It unites us and gives us strength, and offers a vibrant celebration of our multicultural and multiracial society.”
Grassroots organiser David Okwesia explained, “This gig will provide a taste of things to come, by previewing tracks and live cuts from the Full Flava collective’s five albums which will be released between now and Grassroots on August 20th.”
Kava Kava
Explosive Huddersfield live act Kava Kava have played festivals and clubs all over Europe including Glastonbury. Ultra experienced they fuse rock, soul and electronica with ease. The band's highly rated album ‘Maui’ is released on singer Pat Fulgoni’s Chocolate Fireguard label casually kicking out a load of cool releases from French hip hop to Rock to Trip Hop.
Recently the band have been spun a good few times on highly influential DJ Nic Harcourt’s ‘Morning Becomes Eclectic’ radio show on KCRW, Los Angeles. Music from the band has also been featured in the first episode of Golden Globe award winning TV series ‘Weeds’
FUTURE MUSIC (UK) "The future of dance ... you can hear why they are an essential live experience...."
A mixture of up-tempo dub reggae and hip-hop, plus special guest MCs. DJ Redlocz is founder and member of Full Flava, Young Flava and Streetlife. The leading light of the Hull hip-hop scene, recently and regularly promoting UK and international artists such as Blak Twang, Skinnyman, Rodney P from BBC1 Extra, the Mixologists UK and World DMC finalists alongside emerging local hip-hop talent. Redlocz also delivers DJ, breakdance, graffiti and computer music workshops in Hull and throughout the North of England. After the release of the highly acclaimed “TotalConfunktion” DJ Redlocz presents live cuts taken from his eagerly awaited second album released out of the Full Flava Hip-Hop Lab.
Baby Jinx
Following debut album on Lowlife Records Label London, Baby Jinx - rapper from Malawi, Africa, living in Hull will perform tracks from his new EP. Last appearance at Grassroots supporting the Mad Professor, with his own brand of up-beat, party hip-hop.
Baby Jinx was born and brought up in
African savannah lands of Malawi. With a lot of interest in music Jinx's
life was a radio to him. By the age of eight, Jinx's interest in hip-hop
music had grown and he attempted recording his first ever-composed song,
which was only famous within his tiny bedroom. In 1999, Jinx together with
long time friend formed a group known as "The Blind Vision family."
It wasn’t until the year 2000 that Jinx's voice was heard over Malawian
airwaves under a Blind Vision release called "H.I.V.", an AIDS song.
A year later as the duo prepared to drop an album, they released a double
play with two songs; "As The World Turns" which was to the name of the album
and "Battle of Rhymes" both of which enjoyed massive airplay on the airwaves
of Malawi. In August 2002, the duo, Blind Vision, released their first album
titled "As The World Turns" whose sales were quite satisfactory. That very
month, Jinx travelled to UK to pursue further education. To-date, he is
based in the city of Hull where he is studying and working on an underground
album entitled "The Rapture" which he hopes to help him strike a deal in the
UK hip-hop world.
Nvar present the recently acclaimed live music theatrical performance and art exhibition ‘Halabja’. It features paintings films and photographs with dance and live music from Gul Naz playing an irresistible mix of traditional and contemporary Kurdish music. Gul Naz’s infectious rhythms are performed on keys, dumbek, electric saz and violin.
Web links:
http://www.chocolatefireguard.com/artists_kava2.php
http://www.myspace.com/kavakavamusic
http://www.hullrockagainstracism.co.uk
http://www.streetlifeworkshops.com
http://www.ukhh.com/bhh/demos/babyjinx.htm
ENDS
Additional Information:
Grassroots Festival
The fifth Grassroots free festival of live and original music, dance and art will take place in Hull’s Pearson Park on Sunday August 20th 2006 12 noon til 6pm. There will be a world music main stage, Full Flava DJ stage and boxing ring for rap battles, the Raw Talent UK marquee, breakdancing performances, and live Graffiti art demonstrations. The Lamp music café will serve summer food and drinks and there will be three workshop tipis for all the family to have a go at poi, dijeridoo, Arabic and African drumming and circus skills.
The Grassroots team state that, “Grassroots creates opportunities for people from Hull's different cultural backgrounds to work together and will highlight how music and art can draw together and promote diverse cross-cultural activity in Hull.”
Grassroots 2006 has funding from the Arts Council England, Awards for All, Hull Community Investment Fund, Hull City Arts Live Music Fund and Hull DOC. It is co-ordinated by Full Flava and Duffy-Howard Productions.
This exhibition of posters – commissioned as part of Wilberforce 2007 for Hull’s Winterlude Festival, shows a part of Hull's history in the fight against racism.
Twenty-five years ago, Rock Against Racism took a leading role in the battle against racism in Hull, building a community campaign at grass roots level with music as its driving force. Still with the power to smack you right between the eyes, the screen-printed posters from that time, promoting gigs featuring dozens of local bands, will be exhibited for the first time alongside texts written by people currently seeking political asylum in Hull.
Writer and poster creator Richard Lees explained: “It is about more than just the past. These are moving, poetic, gripping accounts of lived experiences from people confronting racism on the streets of Hull today.”
Exhibition contributor and musician, Dilzar Ali said: “When I came to England, to Hull, it was a different language, culture and basically everything was like a big lock. And it was locked. The key to my life in Hull was music. If you take the music out of the world there would be nothing left to make a difference.”
The Lamp
The Lamp, 2 Norfolk Street, Hull HU2 9AA, tel (01482) 326131
For more information, photo opportunities, or photos contact
Richard or Lou Duffy-Howard, Duffy-Howard Productions Tel: 07879 646875