Mr Beasley - Radio 1 Tip Hull Band's Debut Single! By Matt Hill

With Radio 1's One World show playing their debut white label single, this month Neon charts in DJ Magazine's top 40. So who are Mr Beasley and what's this new music they're making? After a few years of jamming, Bobby, Matt and Will met singer Sarah a year or so ago, and started to get some concrete ideas together. For the recent live gigs James has joined the line up on guitar, and things are really coming together.

Our sound fuses electronic beats and samples with organic elements, such as trumpet and guitar - think Massive Attack and Zero 7 right through to DJ Shadow and Groove Armada. We just got hold of this months DJ magazine - Mr Beasley Neon straight in at 32! Just behind the Gorillaz - woooh. After the Best New Track of the Week accolade on R1's One World, there was obviously a few excited people in Hull. Hull Uni's Vice President Liz Bennett was there when the news broke...

Well at first people didn't really believe it was real, getting the track played on Radio One and beating London Electricity to the number one slot is quite a big deal.

But then when it sunk in there was a lot of excited calls around Hull, dancing in pyjamas to Radio One's listen again on the internet at 9 in the morning with left over wine! After many requests the band played their first big gig over the summer, which has gotta be a test of whether they can pull it off live...

You see, I thought I was one of the privileged few who knew how amazing this band were, but obviously not - the club was packed out, they were vibing off the crowd that was vibing off them, the atmosphere was amazing. When they played Neon, everyone knew the breaks and the vocals... they played a brilliant set.

What do they sound like? .... I'd just say its EXCITING. It's at the front of Hull's electro sound but also really organic, all the sounds are created live on stage, smooth trumpet, driving bass & guitar and the sexy haunting vocals from Sarah Johns over the original beats from Mr Beasley himself."

Next month Mr Beasley headline Funky at HUSU (Public Event), following recent headliners Krafty Kuts, The EZ Rollers and Fingerthing - futher details are on their website (www.funky-online.co.uk). In the words of Liz this band is bigger than Hull.

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