BASH #5 – uncarved.org blog

Jerry Dammers at BASH - www.bashsound.com

A strange one… this took place on the day after my birthday, so I turned up slightly worse for wear having already necked a few with my family and then Martin.

I staggered in, got up to speed with recent developments in The Bug camp and sat down to enjoy a blinding set by Doorman Dean. Having played the opening set last month (yes yes, had to get that in here, didn’t I?) I know that you can feel quite isolated playing to a virtually empty dancefloor, but the upside is that the pressure is off and you can stretch out and play some deep selections while the place fills up.

Plus, at BASH, people are listening hard to your stuff and appreciating it in the bar area – not ignoring it while they talk bollocks to each other. (Mainly!). Dean is a great bloke and clearly has a top record collection – hearing Little Clarkie’s “Selector Him Good” was a real treat – one of many highlights that had me jigging about in my chair.

The selections by Loefah and The Bug well were up to their usual standards of HUGENESS, but the evening was marred by the complete non-appearance of Nolay and Flowdan. BASH just isn’t the same without any MCs. I think I must have compensated for the drop in energy by drinking a lot more. That’s my excuse and I am sticking to it. Apologies to Boomnoise and Kode9 for my shambolic ranting.

And to Georgina Cook, who I introduced myself to. Georgina’s photos of dubstep events, BASH, and general south London ambience put my snapshots to shame. She manages to find beauty in the everyday. Her recent blog post on dubstep is the perfect antidote to my grumbling below.

Anyway, Georgina’s got so many damn photos she doesn’t know what to do with them, so was sans camera that night. In stark contrast I managed to stumble about getting in everyone’s way and ended up with a load of photos which were well under par, even by my standards. I can’t even remember taking half of them, including a couple of Boomnoise and Martin which I shall retain for blackmail/nostalgia purposes should either of them find the recognition and acclaim they so richly deserve. You can see the best of the bunch below.

Jerry Dammers was on last and ripped up the place with some junglist business. Obviously the bloke is a total legend and has already fast-tracked his way into the uncarved-hall-of-fame, but what is exceptional is that he’s quietly carried on, keeping up to date rather than rehashing his past. Reports of his recent DJ sets show a love of Congo Natty and Razor-X, perhaps the latest incarnations of the Two-Tone current’s commitment to musical and cultural cross-pollenation (at least before the arrival of Grime and Dubstep)? Legend!

At some point we staggered out, found a cab and headed north. I ended the evening swearing my head off on the pavement, watching the taxi speeding away with my camera still inside it. Fortunately for me, and indeed for the world of visual art (yeah, right), Martin was able to rescue it for me.