Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy
So what's new on the Big Boss Menu? Full English Beat Breakfast, that's what. An all you can eat buffet of gut-busting beats, full fat fruggery, hot footed floor-fillers and continental flavours from the Latin vibes of Full Brazilian to the Riveria cool of Black Eye and C'est Moi's . FEBB is an urelenting rush of concorde riffing, jazz percussion and neatly-trousered, swish-hipped shakedowns, served spry, crisp 'n dry from the deep funk fryer.
But, more than this, it's almost a soundtrack for tomorrow's world where sci-fi goes spy-fi and the Men from U.N.C.L.E boogie down with Booker T on Beat Breakfast, while Clown Face comes across like George Clinton jamming with George Jetson.
If retro-futurist flavours and finery tickle your taste buds you really must have a munch on Big Boss Man's Full English Beat Breakfast. It's an album that's been sizzling away on my stereo since being released, and, being the cheeky blogger I am, thought I'd fire a few questions BBM's way.
How would you describe Full English Beat Breakfast and the Big Boss Man sound to anyone who hasn't heard the band.
The Big Boss Man's sound is a cauldron mix of a Bongo-Hammond-Fuzz-Boogaloo Party in Timothy Leary's head.
The new album has an inter-continental flavour and a menu of Latino tempos, Euro-vintage synth shufflers and sci-fi meets spy-fi. Was there a masterplan of varying the vibes - and how do you write, as a band or does someone bring in a riff or fully formed track.
No master plan, but we do have many influences the world over; 60's Funk, ye-ye, Psyche, cool movies, anything groovy! Some of the tracks on 'Full English Beat Breakfast' are written by Nass on his own, some with Trev, and some with Trev and the Hawk. For a few tracks we had a band party - filled the place with grog and set up the 8-track recorder.
I read there were scenes of Big Bossmania in Russia - what's the story
The first time we went to Russia, to Moscow, we were invited by Art Troitsky - the Russian John Peel. Then more recently we did a mini-tour of Tinkoff Brewery/music venues which was mental, the kids had never heard our sort of Hammond-groovyness so it freaked them out. We had to take quite a few internal flights on very historic aeroplanes - which was not for the faint hearted!
Fantasy jam band. If you could jam with anyone (dead or alive), who would you choose and why.
Here's who we want in our fantasy jam band and crew:
Jimmy McGriff & James Brown (playing avant-garde)at the Hammond Organ,
Ray Barreto : Congas
Buddy Miles: Drums, Bernard Purdey: Drums
Tito Puente: Timbales
James Jameson: Bass
Jimmy Smith: Vocals
Cissy Houston and The Sweet Inspirations: Backing Vocals
Lee Perry: Sound
G Fawkes: Lighting
Billy Idol: Tour Bus Driver
Bob Marley: Catering
Pussy-Cat Dolls: Roadies
Bez: Runner
G Haystacks + B Daddy : Security
Peter Grant : Management
Shakira: General Assistance
Any favourite fry-up cafes, and are you a brown or red sauce person
Sauce: both+ English mustard
Cafes: Tasty Shop - Bristol, Tasty Plate-Newbury, Tasties - St. Paul's,
Bristol.
Vampyros Twist is a cracker - have BBM ever considered covering an entire soundtrack and which would you choose : The Italian Job, Vampyros Lesbos, Get Carter or something else of your choice..
Vampiros Lesbos would be good, but we have been working on our own film 'Get the Vampiros Italian Lesbos Job'
Have you ever DJ'd and what are your 'banker' tracks
We all DJ a bit (except Des)
Hawk: Tainted Love - Gloria Jones
Nass: Any Meatloaf or All About my Girl - Jimmy McGriff
Trev: Charge! -Dreams Band
Are you purist about equipment - is vintage best, and have you bagged any ebay bargains, or own a cherished or collectable piece of gear.
Hawk - I just cover everything in Leopard skin to hide any disgrace.
Nass: Hammond D100, Yamaha L45, Farfisa Compact Duo, Wurlitzer EP200
(electric piano) Hofner Clavinet, Korg Mono-polly, Yamaha CS15, Leslie 122, Roland 101,
Rhodes 73, Elka Rotary cabinet X 2, Leslie 147, + 825, I could go on!
The band have played at Blow Up's new location 4 Denmark St - where you aware of the venues Rock pedigree - (formerly Regent Sound Studios where the Stones, Hendrix, and Stevie Wonder recorded)
We rocked out the last time we played there, maybe it was the spirit of Hendrix jamming with Lil' Stevie and the Stones that took us over
Where and when can we expect to see BBM on tour and any plans for Southend dates...
We play Camden Zoo on 13th Nov, Mr Wolf's in Bristol on 21st Nov, Maybe New Years eve in Moscow (to be confirmed) then in February we tour France and March 1 to 14th we tour Spain. Paul from Blow Up was thinking about having a new Club night in Southend, so hopefully we'll make it there next year if not before.
And how about a taste test of Full English Beat Breakfast?
Big Boss Man - Clown Face
Full English Beat Breakfast is available from Blow Up Records or for download via Amazon or iTunes
Comments (8)
Billy Idol as tour bus driver is probably not the most sensible choice available....
I did their suits, just for that I will give it a listen at home this evening.
err dig
and a brilliant write up full of cheeky humor.
Sounds like the second coming of the James Taylor Quartet (in theory anyway)..thanks for the intro. I'll be sure not to drive anywhere near where their gigs are. I totally agree with Mr.I on that score.
oh, here I am hoping it was going to be more like... I dunno, british lounge music/covers/techno/next new thing by a couple of guys in really nice suits.
If it is anything like ... I feel dirty even saying this.. "James Taylor"... Im Out!
I'm talking about a different James Taylor..the British Hammond playing one,. You should listen, it is a pretty cool cut, sounding more like what you envision above. I'm definitely gonna check the lp I wonder if the cover is a tribute to another British B-3'er Wynder K. Frog. The new Full English Breakfasy sure looks healthier than the old school.
Bums! I've only just noticed MOG, had manked all my formatting. I've retweaked to make it more readable - apologies for that..
But you can't knock G Haystacks + B Daddy for muscle and G Fawkes for Pyro though JonH.
Trust me Ghost you'll love you can check the tunes on iTunes or Spotify - it's sort of JTQ territory but fuller, fatter and funkier.
Wynder K or Mick Weavers is a Keyboard King Cody - I've got all three albums, but Frying Pan and Fire are the strongest -and it's a little known fact that he contributed to this classic UK TV Theme
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_4iyJZp7AM