Thursday 1st December sees the CBs, the live band incarnation of the Cuban Brothers play the prestigious Jazz Café. It’s the live band so it IS very much about the music, but also expect the usual Cubano antics of fun and action. Support will be provided by DJ Kengo San and the amazing Dirty Word.
Another fun night at the Paradise by way of Kensal Green! Check out the pictures on our facebook page!
Thanks as usual to Shelley, Inga and team and big up to the best DJ in London at the moment, DJ Khalil for rocking the crowd before and after the show.
The festival season is now over – so to review the season was the festival awards. Someone told me that 32 festivals were cancelled this year (don’t know if that’s true) but I guess that goes to show how many festivals are around these days!
Check here for a full line up of the award winners. The Cubans hosted the awards presenting best major festival to Glastobury, medium sized to Secret Garden Festival and the small festival was “End of the Road”. Fan’s favourite went to Bestival and a new category this year “Best toilets” went to Y-Not festival!
The evening’s entertainment was provided by Luke Benson, Trevor Locke – a poetry performance by John Cooper Clarke and DJing by Paolo Nutini who won the award for Best Headline Performace.
John Cooper Clarke performs his "guest list" piece
Legendary drummer Eddie Jordan joins us to play spoons and percussion!
We travel the world bringing the UK party scene to where it’s needed and it’s always fun to come to a new country. India is such a country – a country of intense driving (not because of the F1 but on the roads) and nonchalant cows.
After the aftershow for Metallica’s concert (which due to security issues only happened in Bangalore), we played the post-race party to celebrate the success of India’s inaugural F1 race. Invited to perform for the Indian Grand Prix were Lady Gaga, Boy George, Seb Fontaine and Virgin Racing’s Sakon Yamamoto, a DJ as well as F1 driver.
Joined on stage by special guest Eddie Jordan on percussion, and a heap of Grand Prix grid girls who had come from the race, we had a lot of fun bringing the Cubano joy to the people of Delhi.
While Archerio nailed an awesome headspin on a carpeted floor (yes friends!!), Kengo San jumped over a whole Formula 1 racing car to take the dancing from the stage to the floor.
Respectos to John and the F1 rocks crew for battling the Indian bureaucracy in putting on the event!
Backstage with Boy George and his lovely make-up artist
Sorry it’s taken a bit of time to update our news! You see, it’s not the management or anyone else that looks after the website, so if things are busy (as we have been) it takes a bit of time! Apologies!!
Well, let me start off by catching up with Bestival! It was our 8th year this year (and the 8th Bestival) and it was once again full of fun and action, action and fun!
We repped the Cocktails and dreams tent every night as well as the Main Stage on Friday (as Barry peters and Double Penetration) and Sunday. The highlight was clearly the full band show on Sunday – an early afternoon set to really get the day going. By the time we ended with “Love is in The Air” we had the whole crowd jumping and singing along with Kengo san and Archerio amongst the audience!
Personal highlights included Björk who headlined Sunday night – performing Biophilia, rocking it with the Icelandic choir and the most awesome of visuals. I also had a great little dance at the Psychedelic Worm tent with T.E.E.D – a new tent for 2012 which had a great atmosphere and a banging sound system. New Wave revivalists Asteroids were also impressive at Sailor Jerry’s tent.
Once again congratulations to Robbie, Josie, Getinvolved and Loudsound crew for running a tight ship and as always, much love and respect to Sarah and the artist liaison crew for dealing with all our ill-behaviour!
Scotland is a homecoming of sorts. It’s always a very welcoming place with the friendliest of crowds and people who are UP for the party.
Electric Circus in Edinburgh was sold out, a large enough venue but felt very intimate indeed! The town was buzzing with the festival and despite an early start, the excitement was already building as a few lads who couldn’t help themselves, jumped up onto the stage even before the brothers came on. We were piped in with “The Flower of Scotland” by our very own highland dancing Makoto Kaneko, the only JAPANESE piper in Scotland!
The next day we hit Glasgow’s Chambre 69, a club that prides itself in its Funktion-One system speakers set up on all four corners of the dancefloor. It was a very fun evening especially for Archerio as many close friends had come to watch. We were joined this time by Glasgow’s finest Flying Jalapenos crew who joined us in the throw down (and Makoto’s highland dancing). Thanks to Colin and crew for looking after us!
I always look forward to Camp Bestival though at the same time, it’s also the busiest festival – teaching dancing in the afternoon, Barry peters, Cuban Brothers and a bunch of shows in the evening.
BUT it’s amazing to see the festival growing every year and the children running around and having an AWESOME time. I hope you enjoyed the dance classes!
On Friday night, Barry Peters was joined by R.O.O.D or the Royal Olympic Organ Duo who had also performed at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding celebrations – the Royal Family’s favourite fusion jazz outfit.
Barry Peters with R.O.O.D
We had a great gig at the Big Top as well as doing our first gig with SIZZLECHEST, the live band outifit of Barry Peters where we rocked the Cocktails and Dreams tent on Saturday night.
A festival by the beach is ALWAYS a winner – especially if the beach is pristine and the water is crystal clear. Chill-Out Festival boasts such an enviable environment for a musical event. Turkey has also nurtured a “good music” crowd led by such clubs as the Babylon franchise who has stuck to a non-mainstream music policy and it’s no surprise then that the twenty and thirty-somethings of Turkey come to gather and party at this mini-festival consisting of Kraak and Smaak (doing a live set), Futureboogie, Mad Mats and of course the CB’s – the Cuban Brothers live band.
We were a man short as Archerio was attending a wedding elsewhere but we nevertheless had the crowd dancing and the music pumping!
Çesme was a great place to hang out too. A port with a pretty thoroughfare and marina, a thriving night life and really good seafood.
Big thanks to Jan, Serkan and crew for the hospitality and also to Gül and the Babylon team for looking after us on out downtime. I hope to see you guys again soon!
Çero, Fulya, Merv and Tolga
Well, as you all know, we love the festivals and this Summer has been off the scale with the festival touring steez. There is something special about being outdoors, jamming with your friends, seeing bands, getting melted, meeting new friends, a bit of tent action or nature action or pretty much the world is your oyster!
It’s only halfway through July but we have already kicked off the Summer with a flock of festivals! Rockness in Inverness was once again a great event, joined by the ONLY JAPANESE HIGHLAND DANCER and PIPER, Makoto Kaneko who introduced us onto the stage and danced his Highland Fling with us for the throwdown!
Fling Festival in Chelmsford was also a great vibe where we headlined the mainstage on Saturday night. A great vibe with a crowd who was up for the party as much as we were.
Big Feastival is a new festival by Jamie Oliver, with the proceeds going to the Prince’s Trust and his own charity Jamie Oliver Foundation. As soon as Kengo San went on the decks on the bandstand stage, the people started to get up off the grass and start dancing and were drawn towards the stage as if by magic. The show ended in a frenzy with the kids dancing in line up on the stage and having a mini-dance off. Apologies to stage manager Darren who was freaking out on the health and safety flex and for over-running! It’s difficult to stop playing when everyone is having so much fun!
Finally Microfest last week in Reading was a fun little festival where we played a nice afternoon set where we literally took the show off the stage and onto the grass. Archerio reckons it was one of the best for him this year!
AND we still have the rest of July (Camp Bestival!!!!!), all of August and Bestival in September to look forward to! It’s gonna be Ha-mazing!!!
It’s still a few more months to go but we’re very very excited about playing BESTIVAL again this year. It’s definitely one of our favourites and we have a special relationship with it as we have been hosting it every year since its inception. We have seen the festival grow from 5,000 people to 50,000 and this year is gonna be the biggest yet!!!
Check the line up here. Isn’t it just crazy??!?!?!?!?!
And by the way, the fancy dress theme this year is Rockstars, Popstars and Divas!!!
