Babyhead History

The (hi)story of Babyhead. First draft

The story began in 1995 with 4 childhood friends (Bloodworth, Rowse,
Milky and Krishna) making a raw untamed punk noise in a caravan on the
Somerset levels. A few months later, just back from travelling the
states, Krishna’s older brother Mancub joined the band. They drafted in
his best mates J.G and Arthur “burning stick” Hollinrake for a little
technical credibility. Geek was born.

Their first gig was supporting childhood heroes’ Citizen Fish and
Bender. Such gigs were few and far between and after a year or so of
small town life, Glastonbury was just too small for Geek. So in
partnership with compadres ‘Think’ Monster Piece was created to give a
platform to unknown bands in the urban landscape of (nearest city)
Bristol. By the time the band relocated to Bristol the name Geek was
patented by a northerner, who promptly disappeared into the ether and
the name “Babyhead” was assumed.

In the following five years…… Ska came to the forefront of the Babyhead sound. Burning stick took a 3-year sabbatical to get an education and Rowse quietly departed. The band went on to play with some of Bristols most talented musicians in the form of Errol Flynn, Mr Craig Crofton and Walter Piccleruaz - the culturally diverse orld of the Bristol sound was absorbed.

Babyhead joined the insular, draining, small time, Wednesday night Bristol promotion circuit - hooking up with other Bristol bands in the same boat (Box of Frogs, Lillydamnwhite, Oil experts, CCQ) - and continued to promote through M.P.P. to moderate success. They supported Ozomatli, lived in a big house like the monkeys meets Kids meets fear
and loafing, experienced dark alcoholic lows and countless band
politricks, met Lamb and worked on a few tunes and produced two 4 track
CD’s to little effect. Z-law did a 3-year stint as the band comedian
and DJ.

The band drifted in disillusionment at being unheard in a huge
unwelcoming industry, installed a routine of practice 2 to 3 times a
week and above all, had fun making music and gradually got better.

It was 2002 when the gradual curve of Babyhead’s success took a steep
incline. J.G split to London to study the discipline of jazz. In his
wake Bobby horn and DJ Benny Legz arose. It wasn’t long until the horn
section was completed by Fluff and finally Byron Valentino.

With the horn section came the other bands Babyhead shared them with, think, Zen hussies and the Onega sound system.

Around about this time Bristol ledge Jo Hook asked for help raising
money to set up a charity organisation for the aids affected region of
Shapwhick nr Street. Monster Piece fired back into action once more,
giving Babyhead and all the countless numbers of like minded bands a
hungry audience in a home grown environment.

The band was also beginning to enjoy higher profile gigs outside of
Bristol with the help of Continental Drifts. The festival circuit
opened up a little and Babyhead found themselves in front of bigger
crowds and receiving a warm reception. The ska sound felt authentic
with the addition of the horns and was easy to dance to, appealing to
young and old. The song writing and lyricism had progressed giving
Mancub and Bloodworth space to project themselves and communicate with
the audience. Suits, hats and masks became a fixture of the show as had
theatrical routines, this combined with cameos from the likes of the
Aspects crew’s Monkey Moo and Bubber Louie, MPP, Family Man, The Rev.
Halleluiah, stage invasions by dancing girls, tattooed drunks and
random children - adding to the feeling that one didn’t know what to
expect when going to a Babyhead show. The show was becoming tighter and
more consistent and with that performing was becoming fun and with that
confidence grew and was transmitted. Babyhead became a fairly cheap and
likely bet to move the crowd, whatever the occasion happened to be. In
turn they got more bookings.

By 2003 they started work on “The Geek Show” their first real studio
project with “Switch Doctor” Stamp of Think. It was the beginning of a
long, surprising year of hard work, highs and lows. It was to see the
bands profile increase through playing a summer of festivals
culminating in 2 hometown gigs - the first on the street out side The
Star and Garter at St Paul’s carnival. The second was to the largest
crowd to date at Ashton Court festival. A hometown event, a sunny
Sunday evening, the last set before the international headliner -
things felt like they were coming full circle. 5 days later Burning
Stick lost the faith and threw in the towel. A period of soul and
drummer searching ensued.

In September Alexander Lupo Bobbyazee received a phone call that was to change the course of his way home from work.

2004 was the year of the baby, the first part of which was spent
preparing the release of the now finished ‘Geek Show’ and settling the
sound down to its new parent and working on a parenting style that
would benefit the parents and baby equally.

The introduction of Lupo brought technology and a new way of working.
Lupo had been teaching music workshops to kids of all ages since
leaving university where he had become versed in production and
electronica. The launch night of ‘The Geek Show’ was to see the
showcase of 2 side projects the band had had on the back burner for a
while; Babydub (instrumental dubs) and Audio Obscura (Mancub’s
digitised hip-hop karaoke show). The show was a sell out success. It
was also the last show that Milly played before taking paternity leave.
This heralded J.G.’s return to the band, fresh faced from jazz school
with a first under his belt. Without national distribution the album
was only available at gigs and in shops in Bristol (where it still
continues to sell).

2004 was also the year of the big strange gig (a full field at the
Glastonbury Festival Jazz stage at 10.30 in the morning), jam packed
Monsterpiece shows, a set at Ashton court before Ronnie size, an
Amnesty internationals celebrity ball with Natasha Beddingfield and the
Monster Piece crew, and a Respect festival appearance that ended with
an encouraged invasion of the stage by a child, a security guard, a
transvestite and a dog. The year was rounded off with a sell out New
Year show that marked Bobby horns Departure and Benny leg’s paternity
leave.

2005 saw the return of Milly and the introduction Adam Pleeth on
trumpet. The year was marked by the tsunami and the following benefit
gigs. One of which was with Roni size and organised by Massive Attack
and Portishead, where Babyhead did themselves proud on the A- list line
up. They supported Ozomatli again and Mancub made a cameo. Monster
piece enjoyed its most successful season culminating in a headline show
at the Bristol academy on NYE complete with Broadway stage sets,
dancing girls, red carpet and their bestest mates.

The 2nd album is in production.

Watch this space....