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| Rodney remains true to cool
roots |
REVIEW - ROOTS MANUVA
The Forum
RODNEY Smith is cool. And so were we. And so was the night.
Having been onstage for an hour Mr Smith – aka Roots Manuva
– told the crowd: “This is cool for a Wednesday night.
You’re cool. I like you.”
Performing to an audience made up of that hip hop staple, hat-wearing
students, he kicked off his national tour at one of London’s
best venues, the Forum in Kentish Town.
It’s the perfect size – not too big to alienate anyone,
and not so small it’s just you and a dog.
After a dramatic build up, speaking to us through an echo-ey mike
from off-stage, he finally jogged onstage in a white Puma tracksuit
top covered in diamantes which spelt out ‘Roots Manuva’
on the back.
Having been performing for ten years at underground venues with
the likes of Kalashnikov and other hip-hop and rap acts, Stockwell-bred
Manuva is a thoughtful and pondering man. He has a relaxed and personable
stage presence that most frontmen would sell the rest of their band
for.
And considering he has a new album out, Awfully Deep, he could easily
have pulled the divaesque “I’m only playing songs from
my new album, I’m sick of all the others” routine.
But his set was crowd-pleasingly eclectic, with tracks from all
five albums including the first song he ever recorded, Witness and
Dreamy Days from his breakthrough last album Run Come Save Me, and
his new single Too Cold.
With a band of seven, including a DJ, a singer and a West Indian
rapper, the rumbling bass and rich voice of Manuva gave way to a
baying crowd and much footstomping when he slunk offstage before
his encore.
Unusually for his genre, he doesn’t swear – rather like
that other hip hop heavyweight Will Smith – and refreshingly
doesn’t attempt to hype up the crowd with needy cries of “everybody
scream”, as some rappers do (50 Cent come to the front of the
classroom).
In fact he swore just once when he said “can I get a ‘f**k
yeah’” – the revved up audience was only too happy
to comply.
Charlie’s band is just so busted
REVIEW - Fightstar
The Barfly
IT’S the one with that boy from Busted – you know the
one – eyebrows, good looking, quite a good singer (for a pop
band).
Charlie Simpson’s new rock band, Fightstar, had to be good:
they had to do what they do better than Busted, who did what they
did well.
And Fightstar didn’t. They weren’t bad, I even enjoyed
some of the more ballady-type tracks, but they were nothing special.
Surprisingly made up of more boys than girls, the crowd were busy
moshing and doing that ‘rock on’ hand thingy to Fightstar’s
more well-known songs – Grand Unification and The Days I Recall
Being Wonderful – although the band are yet to release their
first album.
Busted were the biggest band of 2004, and sold out enough Wembley
Stadiums to match the all-time record.
Fightstar are faced with a Countdown conundrum. Obviously Charlie
is what lifts them head and shoulders above hundreds of other bands
practising in their parents’ basements – because he commands
press attention – but his voice means they sound like hundreds
of other bands.
Straining his vocals to achieve the rock sound, it just made me
want to whip out the Lempsip – it was painful to listen to.
Trying to sound like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, he doesn’t
have the depth of emotion in his voice to pull off more than one
sound.
And he can’t shake off the Busted tag. I was secretly hoping
they’d launch into a rock version of one of Busted’s eight
hit singles, but alas, no – although flash forward ten years
and I reckon it’s a guarantee (once he’s got to pay for
the kids private educations).
And why, oh why, does he have to talk? Saying “you guys are
awesome” repeatedly earns no brownie points with me.
Rolling deep with positivity
ROLL Deep are 30-somethings from east London. They released their
first album In at the Deep End this year, and recently won Best
Album at the Urban Music Awards. Mercury-Award-winning Dizzee Rascal
was an early member. Recently they paid a visit to Kentish Town
for a charity fireworks event.
Q: The grime genre is very underground. You’ve been the
ones to take it to the mainstream. Was that intentional?
A: We just wanted to try something different – we didn’t
know if it would work. The album took a month to make, it was our
first one and up until then we’d just been making singles.
Q: What do you think of Dizzee’s success?
A: We’re not in touch with him any more unfortunately, but
we wish him all the best. He opened the door for us really –
he bust first. There are haters back home for him, but we never
left, we’re still here and we’re on a different scale.
Q: Why do garage gigs get cancelled? For example Kano was called
off at the Scala recently after gun fears.
A: Gigs get cancelled but the music is a scapegoat. It’s the
individuals that go there and drink and do drugs. It’s not
the music that we play. If you go to the football, there are fights
but no one blames the game of football, they blame individuals –
why should it be any different for us?
Q: What do you think of the rap scene? Do you think it sends
out the right message to kids?
A: When we were first making it, we weren’t thinking about
being idols, we were just talking about where we were coming from.
Our rhymes are more constructive.
They’re not glamorising guns, sex or drugs, were just talking
about our lives and what we’ve been through.
Q: But 50 Cent’s Reebok ad about being shot nine times was
pulled after complaints that he was glamorising drug culture. How
are you different?
A: I can see that it sends out the wrong message but his whole album
sends out the wrong message. We’re just saying what we’ve
been through, and people should listen to us before they judge us
– we’re not about violence. It’s a route to go: some
people get a job, or rob, or sell drugs, or sign on, and there’s
also a whole load of MCs and DJs and producers trying to make it
that way.
Q: What has made you successful? How can kids follow in your
footsteps?
A: Being original helps, everyone’s stuck to their guns and
everyone in the group has individual talent. Kids should stay positive,
try not to be too negative in what you’re saying. Kids are
going to listen to what you’re saying, it could backfire on
you.
Q: Are you doing quite well now? No-ones working in Marks and
Spencers?
A: We’re doing alright, no one ever worked in Marks and Spencers,
nothing wrong with it though.
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