FACE THE MUSIC:Layout 3
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FACE | THE MUSIC
FESTIVAL FANATIC After 25 years experience in the music business, booking big name acts for festivals, Bristol man Steve Symons says he still enjoys discovering new talent. He talks to James Russell about his exciting career and picks his top ten favourite tunes
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f you’ve been to Glastonbury Festival in recent years then you’ll have been entertained by Steve Symons, since it’s his job to book acts for the main stage. Not that he’s only interested in the star turns; after 25 years in the music business Steve still loves nothing better than to find new talent and share his discoveries. Securing the services of global stars is great, he says, but putting on a little-known act and seeing people respond to them is special. Steve moved to Bristol 30 years ago, drawn by a thriving music scene that had produced maverick acts like the Pop Group, and immediately got involved. DJ’ing initially at small clubs and pirate radio stations, where he played reggae and early hip-hop, he soon moved onto bigger things; running the Jazz Tent at the Ashton Court Festival he met musicians who were going places, people like Will Gregory (later of Goldfrapp) and Adrian Utley (of Portishead). It was here that he discovered the pleasure of booking acts, and developed a passion for festivals that remains as powerful as ever. He loves the spectacle and fun of a festival, whether large or small, and in recent years has been involved in the creation of Grillstock, a barbecue and music festival. Another of his pet projects is the glorious, glamorous Christmas Spiegeltent, which first materialised in Bristol a couple of years ago. This year the splendid 1950s travelling ballroom will spring up on Harbourside on 28 November, with acts including Georgie Fame and Sons, the Tiger Lilies and the Puppini Sisters taking to the stage over the following month. Steve took time out from his organisational duties to share some of his favourite tunes, and one or two reminiscences of life in the music business. He is evidently a man who loves his work…
Steve’s top ten: ❶ Talking Heads – Once In a Lifetime Still sounding remarkably fresh over 30 years after its release, this is a perfect tune for mind and body. Writing credits were shared between those slightly gawky intellectuals David Byrne and Brian Eno and the band’s awesome rhythm section of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz who provided that sensuous post disco groove. The combination was both whippet-smart and beguilingly mysterious.
❷ MIA – Paper Planes The song that cemented Maya Arulpragasam’s claim to worldwide stardom was a glorious mash-up of her Sri Lankan and British roots. It was also a bold hymn to female empowerment. A bona fide hustler making her name, indeed.
❸ The Stranglers – Golden Brown A harpsichord-led ballad written in waltz time that drummer Jet Black once claimed was a song about Marmite. The Stranglers were always about contradictions. I thrilled to their overt menace but later came to realise that they fitted into that lineage of quintessentially English bands from the Kinks to Madness. Even though one of them was French.
The Stranglers
Troker
MIA
❻ LCD Soundsystem – New York I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down At an age where many of my contemporaries had moved on from dance music, LCD Soundsystem had a special resonance for me. Losing My Edge and Daft Punk is Playing at My House were magical and hilarious paeans to the aging hipster. However, it was with New York that James Murphy gave us his most bittersweet lyric – an eloquent 21st century sequel to Lou Reed’s finest moments. ❼ Troker – Principe Charro I still have a visceral need to feed my soul with new music and one of my most exciting discoveries in recent years is the Mexican band Troker. I first came across them in a hip hop club in downtown Medellin, Columbia; this summer I was able to get them to Glastonbury and at several gigs there and one in Bristol I watched them repeatedly delight every audience. I’m just back from Mexico where I was fortunate enough to spend a few days hanging out with them. This track is taken from their forthcoming album and is a great showcase for their explosive power and stunning musicianship. ❽ Sun Ra – Door of the Cosmos The free spirited Afro futurist’s influence seems to grow every year since his death in 1993. He appears as a fleeting cipher in the work of performers as diverse as Pulp and Janelle Monae and as an overwhelming influence on artists from George Clinton to ex-Specials leader, Jerry Dammers. Although his work often threatens to spiral into chaos there is always a rigid discipline underpinning it.
Although this record takes me back to those heady days of the Dug Out it was also a potent signpost to what was coming. Jonathan More and Matt Black’s remix took one of the stand-out tracks from hip hop’s golden era and wove in fresh beats and that otherworldly vocal from the Israeli singer Ofra Haza.
❾ The Polyphonic Spree – Popular By Design I once had a spirited chat with Michael Parkinson about music. We didn’t agree on much but Parky did speak eloquently about the visceral power of the big band. I’m reminded of what he said every time I stand in front of a crowded stage. A big gathering of musicians can deliver an experience rare in this digital age whether it’s a band, orchestra or choir. The Spree are the latter and this track from their latest album is pure unbridled joy.
❺ Roy Ayers – We Live In Brooklyn Baby
❿ Chic – Good Times
Back in the day I used to run a club night called the Cooker with John Stapleton and my (now) wife, Shona. Roy Ayers played live for us aboard the Thekla several times and on the first occasion I asked him whether he could play We Live In Brooklyn Baby as it was a massive Cooker tune. He hadn’t played that number for years, he said, but I suggested that if he did and if he changed the lyric to ‘we live in Bristol baby’ he’d have the crowd in his hand. As he came on later in a jam packed club he walked up to the mic and sang those very words. Cue total pandemonium…
Music is a very fast moving art form and as a festival booker you can have a six month gap between brokering a deal and the artist taking to the stage. Much can change in this time and a couple of months before Glastonbury, Nile Rodgers’ collaboration with Daft Punk was revealed. We really did Get Lucky on this one as Nile was suddenly propelled to superstardom. The finale of Chic’s Friday night headline slot with a massive stage invasion and 30,000 people having the time of their lives was a proper lump in the throat moment.■
❹ Eric B & Rakim – Paid In Full (7 Minutes of Madness Coldcut Remix)
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NOVEMBER 2013
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THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE 25