Review: Bristol Takeover 2020
The live music and clubbing scene is all a bit different nowadays in the times of coronavirus. We all have to stay at home, but the music industry is doing all that it can to keep music coming to us if we can’t go to it, whilst we listen together, albeit apart. Here in Bristol, the Colston Hall has long been the lynch pin of the live music scene, and yesterday on Saturday 23rd May they took their festival The Bristol Takeover online.
The Bristol Takeover previously ran in venues city-wide in 2017 and 2019. But this year it’s been lovingly curated and live streamed directly to us in isolation. A massive 9 hours of continuous new and established Bristol talent, as well as some specially invited guests playing live sets, offering up archive footage, premieres of new music videos, specially pre-recorded films interspersed with updates from renowned grass roots music like The Louisiana, Thekla, The Fleece, Exchange, St George’s Bristol, Trinity, Crofters Rights, The Old England and Rough Trade, about how they are coping with life under lock down.
The impact of the outbreak is likely to last a long time for artists and venues as it will take time to move safely back towards live events. The festival was streamed for free via YouTube, however organisers are asking that viewers donate what they would normally spend on a gig ticket via the event’s CrowdFunder page. All donations will be split 50/50 to support participating artists and Bristol music venues in collaboration with Music Venue Trust.
I caught up with a couple of the contributing artists prior to Saturday, to get their take on the current situation and find out how they are adapting to a world with no live music.
First up was internationally renowned human beat box SK Shlomo, who brought the festival to a suitably joyful and beat-heavy end performing live last night. ‘I had close to 100 performances planned this summer at music venues, theatres, festivals and at the Edinburgh Fringe… (the pandemic) has completely destroyed our industry! I pay my bills from touring (I did 160 shows last year) and from speaking at conferences, all of which seem likely to be the last things to be coming back… This Bristol Takeover stream is my first show of “festival season” so it’s exciting’.
Local folk artists Three Cane Whale’s contribution to the Bristol Takeover was an extract from a collaboration of theirs with 13 filmmakers/visual artists…’it’s an extraordinary, visionary CGI animation that Bristol-based filmmaker Mark Taylor & A Productions made for our tune “Eggardon Hill”... We’ve not taken the plunge into the live stream yet as a band, although two of us have performed solo slots. It’s a strange experience - strangely intense in some ways, yet also filtered through the flapping curtains of technology... not a natural fit for us…. As a band, I’m confident that we will be back performing and making music as soon as the situation allows, whatever adaptations that entails’.
Tezeta are an 8 piece band from Bristol led by composer/pianist Daniel Inzani, combining cinematic prog with Ethiopian jazz and lots of improvisation. They unveiled a new exclusive video of a live performance from before the pandemic as part of the stream. Daniel shared his thoughts on how coronavirus is impacting individual musicians. ‘A lot of musicians are now receiving self employment support and have received hardship grants… So for the time being we are mostly able to get by frugally (not so unusual) and concentrate on other areas of our work, such as composing, practicing, finishing recording projects where possible and working on our online presence... My concerns are for the mental health of musicians in general. We have currently lost our preferred way of expressing ourselves, our creative outlets and the social scene from gigs that are so important to our mental wellbeing.
Tezeta
So, down to the nuts and bolts; at 3pm I cracked open a beer, armed with laptop and minirig, and settled down to find out if doing a festival in my living room with just the cat for company could compare to actually being there.
The line-up was in four distinct sections. The first group of artists in the afternoon provided an acoustic, folky, chilled soundtrack to pootle around the house to whilst sipping gin (which I swapped to after realising the soundtrack was not a beer vibe one). A bit lonely, but you know, the cat is here. As well as the two comperes from BBC Introducing, and the live chat stream, full of appreciation for the music and the amazing houseplants in the performer’s houses, it was also a comfort to know that Big Jeff was there on the live chat. It’s not a live gig in Bristol without Big Jeff. And I even get some work done, which I wouldn’t usually manage at a festival.
Personal highlights were Adrian Utley playing his guitar with pliers whilst a small child gurned at him through his patio windows, Sean Addicott’s amazing electronic soundscapes performed live from Woodbox Studios in Bristol, and the nuts wig-outs from Pictish Trail and Martin Green from Lau.
Dot-to-Dot’s 1.5 hour takeover in the early evening provided more of a beer and crisps vibe, with live performances from Kate Stapley, Tamu Massif and Bridges, followed by archive footage from some big names who have played previous Dot-to-Dot festivals, so that is what I moved on to. I am not sure if it was the afternoon of gin-sipping, but the melancholy set in; Dot-to-Dot would have been on this weekend, and the reality of how different the world is nowadays without live events really sank in when listening to Kate Stapley reminisce about pounding the streets of Bristol going from venue to venue at previous Dot-to-Dots, with friends and cans of beer in hand.
Next up was a far too short showcase from Saffron records, the Bristol-based record label championing womxn in the music tech scene. And that is when the red wine came out and Deliveroo turned up. I discovered possibly my most favourite new-to-me artist of the day, Grove. Their sunny, fierce, beat driven rap instantly transported me to around 2000-2001 with my feet dangling over the side of the docks outside the Arnolfini with a plastic cup of wine and some girlfriends. And Grove has a lovely bedroom and houseplants; cheese plant goals right there on the screen.
The Fantasy Orchestra
The evening then turned into night, and the line-up went all out dance, weirdness and DJ sets. I shared the rest of my wine catching up with mates on Houseparty, whilst all who were tuned in had their own parties, helped along by cracking DJ sets from DJ Hiphoppotamus and The Allergies, interspersed with too many fantastic Zoom meeting live set moments to mention. A special shout out to The Fantasy Orchestra’s joyful, quirky covers of Aphex Twin, Tortoise and Beverley Glenn Copeland in amazing head gear, Beardyman’s beautifully produced video offering, and to Melt Yourself Down. I mean, how did they do it? They achieved the trippiest Zoom call ever, full of energy and life, sounding as tight and amazing as I am sure they could manage live in the flesh.
Melt Yourself Down do Zoom
I have been enjoying the Bristol music scene for a bloody long time, and I miss it loads. The Bristol Takeover was a wonderful celebration of it, although melancholy at times, and having smashed their fundraising target, hopefully yesterday will really help to keep our precious music scene alive and kicking into the future. They plan to do it all again as well, on June 20th, as part of the unveiling of the brand new Bristol Arts Channel: Together Online – a digital programme of performances, events, talks and more from a cross section of Bristol’s cultural organisations,
Colston Hall plan to post the whole stream live for the next seven days if you want to catch any of it, and donations are still being accepted for a week as well via their Crowdfunder page. I really do urge you to donate, so we can all get out there and slosh beer over eachother on a crowded, sweaty dancefloor again one day, hopefully in the not too distant future.
And, like last night, in the meantime I will leave the last words to SK Shlomo: ‘I’m sure we will find a new normal. We always need people who can express themselves creatively. Someone once told me that talent is currency and that has kept me going through much darker times than this, including recovering from life-threatening depression, so I’m not too scared. Humans are amazing at evolving and adapting’.
To watch again, donate, and find out more about the next Bristol Takeover, visit the Colston Hall here.