While everyone in the UK was busy celebrating the Diamond Jubilee, the Brothers were Rocking and Running in Amsterdam. An event that combines music with a 6K run, The Jacks kicked off the stage in the early afternoon as the runners took to the course.
We did a special afternoon set including a tribute to Donna Summer. R.I.P to a true disco icon! Thanks to Dimitri, Henk and team for a great event!
Photo by Danny North
Nowhere else do you get a festival that is 5 days long and we were yet again in for another week of fun and action. The line-up was strong with Dizzee Rascal headlining the Forest Stage and Fatboy Slim hosting the Street Party.
Shout outs to Tayo, Ben Westbeech, Barry Ashworth, Soul Clap, Heidi, Artwork, NUMBRS crew, Urban Nerds Crew for entertaining in and outside the DJ booth.
My personal favourite was Norman Jay’s Good Times Sound System transported from Notting Hill to Mayrhofen – pure good times classics in the sun and snow. Beautiful!
Also special thanks to all the Snowbombing crew for being wonderful and accommodating, and most importantly a good laugh! Gareth, Harriet, Paul, Hugo, Ciara, Julie, Judith, Anna, Jason… thanks again and we’ll be back!
At the wrap party of Let’s Dance for Comic Relief, Kengo san made a drunken promise to some attractive ladies from Sport Relief in a moment of inebriated enthusiasm. So the Sunday after the Let’s Dance finals (which we didn’t win, but managed to raise over a million pounds – hurrah!!!) Kengo San found himself on the starting line along with Jeff Brazier, Masood Ahmed from Eastenders (or Prince Pondicherry from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Olympians Dalton Grant, Philips Idowu and our partner in crime Fatima Whitbread.
On this beautiful sunny Sunday, Kengo San ran the mile to Buckingham Palace along with over a million other runners and also went an extra mile just for good measure.
The Sport Relief fundraising total (on Monday 26th March) stands at a staggering 52 million pounds! Good on everybody!
Thank you for the Olympic training tips Dalton Grant!
Thank you everybody who voted for us – and thank you panel for judging in our favour (and Jo Brand for giving us the deciding vote!). After an evening of amazing dance performances, we are through to the grand finale next Saturday – so please do support us again – and it’s all for a very good cause! It was an amazing experience not only working with Fatima but performing with Patrick Monahan, Oliver and Watson, Ortis and Susie and Roland Rivron! Roland’s routine of Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” routine was something special!
It’ll be a while before we’ll be able to wake up in the morning and walk onto Bondi Beach, but for now, our antipodean tour has come to an end. It has been an awesome experience playing alongside such artists as Erykah Badu, Greg Wilson, Africa Hitech, Hudson Mohawke… but we return to London and straight into the studio for 2 days of gruelling rehearsals with Fatima Whitbread in preparation for “Let’s Dance for Sports Relief.”
The Cuban Brothers will be performing on “Let’s Dance” on BBC on March 10th, with Fatima Whitbread!
If you grew up in the 80s, you would remember Ms Whitbread, a world champion and Olympic medalist javelin thrower, I remember her being so much more than just an athlete; a big personality and celebrity.
So it was with great anticipation that we met the legendary Fatima Whitbread for the first time for a rehearsal in the studio. Tune in on March 10th to see how it went down – and yes, do vote for us!
It’s a pity that The Playground Weekender has been cancelled due to danger of flooding. New South Wales has been hit with the heaviest rain in more than a century!! So instead, we will be playing tomorrow (Sunday 4th) at the USNW Roundhouse alongside Shapeshifter, UNKLE, Bonobo, Roots Manuva and Greg Wilson. Those with festival tickets will be able to enter any of the newly allocated shows and there will be tickets to buy on the door too. Rain don’t stop the party!
If you are in Sydney at the moment, you’ll see us on the cover of MX magazine – the free listings magazine! Thank you to Señor Chris Pavlich for one of the most painless and professional photo shoots ever and to Celia for organizing it. Respectos!
Hola friends! We’re enjoying the Summer over here in Sydney (sorry Northern hemisphere guys), and we’re getting stuck right in!
Our final run of dates are:
1st March – Ivy Pool, Sydney
2nd March – East, Gold Coast
3rd March – Playground Weekender
At the Playground Festival, We’ll be hosting the fancy dress parade and on stage at 19:00 at the Southern Comfort stage.
Splore Festival, about an hour’s drive from Auckland is set on Tapapakanga National Park. To one side of the main stage is the beach and on the other a gentle slope that makes for a natural amphitheatre. We arrived on site on Friday evening to catch Erykah Badu’s set – her performance was spot-on mixing in new material with reworked classics from her Baduizm and Mama’s Gun albums.
By the time it was our slot at 9pm on saturday evening, the crowd were really ready to party as we certainly were! We hope everyone enjoyed the show as much as we did as we were faced with a sea of smiling faces – we’d prepared some numbers from our forthcoming album so it was great to finally play them out!
Thank you to John, Amanda, Helen, Kris, JJ, Duane… and the whole Splore team for a great festival. Shout out also to Africa Hitech, DJ Qbert, Hudson Mohawke and Shortee Blitz for the good times!
The wonderful Splore site looking onto the main stage