9.29°C This editorial currently features in the March 2011 issue of The Colchester Circle, available throughout the town right now.
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Here are just some of the events taking place this month that you can go to, safe in the knowledge of hearing some great music.
It’s March already? Ferris Bueller told us that life moves pretty fast, but this is ridiculous. With winter more or less behind us, we can start looking ahead to the spring and summer months, and all the local festivals. More on those in future issues – for now, here’s what’s happening this month.
It’s the diversity of music on offer in Colchester that makes the scene what it is. Segue works in partnership with artists and organisations to produce music-led and cross-art form performance and education projects. On Saturday 5 March at the Lakeside Theatre, Segue brings together pianist Joanna MacGregor, widely regarded as one of the world’s most innovative musicians, and Brazilian master percussionist Adriano Adewale for an evening spanning classical, jazz, world and contemporary music.
Tin Pan Alley Music Bar in Queen Street has been receiving good reviews since opening before Christmas, and now hosts live music seven nights a week. Animal Noise are one of the bands I’ve tipped for big things this year with their ‘beaten, battered n bruised folk’, and they play Tin Pan Alley on Friday 11 March alongside The Raffles Gang, fronted by well-known man about town Richard ‘Benny’ Benedetti.
The Curve Bar holds plenty of memories for me. Back in the eighties, it was called The Venue and was the place to hear acid house in Colchester long before it went mainstream. I DJ’d there many times alongside the likes of Ray Keith, Dave Lee (Joey Negro), Conan Manchester and Gilly, so I’m always pleased to see dance music represented there today. On Friday 11 March, a new monthly night, Afro Dizzy Stack, launches at Curve Bar with DJs Singi, Main Line, Onslaught, Huffle, EyeRee and Duracell spinning a mix of drum and bass, dub, jungle, hard trance, techno and electro.
The following night sees bands and DJs combine at Art Not Apathy’s first live music event of 2011, in association with Essex Rocks, at Colchester Arts Centre on Saturday 12 March. The line-up is strong, with New Town Kings returning to a venue they consistently sell out. Support from Housework, The Strangerhood and The Jorneta Stream would be enough on its own, but the addition of Soundcheck DJs Huffle, Seffi B, Roachie and Mat Tha Hat means it’s set to go off from the very start.
Broken Heads won the Colchester Sixth Form College Battle of the Bands last month and have since been putting the finishing touches to their debut EP. It launches at The Twist on Wednesday, 23 March, on a night organised by Centre Stage Photography. The indie/rock four-piece is joined by Abusing Mary Jane from Colchester, Mae’s Lost Empire from Sheffield and Depth from Norwich.
Rounding off the month, Chase & Status DJ at Route Nightclub on Saturday, 26 March alongside MC Rage. Hailed as “the most exciting producers in the UK today” by Pharrell Williams of NER*D, they’re likely to mix drum and bass anthems with newer material from their album No More Idols.
For more information, visit www.thecolchestercircle.co.uk.
