Mack’s bands of the week.

And another one’s gone, another one’s gone, another week bites the dust. There’s been a bit of an ’80s thing going on this week for some reason (see what I did there?) and, given that I type as one who both started and left high school and was in gainful employment by the end of that much maligned decade, it’s been accidentally nostalgic. I’ve lost count of how many times my more youthful friends have derided this decade only to be loudly reminded by moi that it was this period that gave the world the Pogues, New Order and, above all, the mighty Smiths. Mini-rant over, below is another few favourites of mine who have come aboard the Freak machine in the last week or so….

Tokyo are a high concept party band that specialise in ’80s covers with a bit of modern thrown in for good measure. They also like to merge songs from the eras, listen to the Just Dance/Cars mash up on their profile for

an example. Their high energy performances have graced the stage of parties and corporates all over the planet and they played at Trafalgar Square as part of the royal wedding celebrations, which makes them the 2nd band on the roster to have performed that day.

 

 

 

 

The Bavarian Strollers (right) are, as you may or may not guess from the name, a German style oompah band. We get

quite a few requests for this type of act and embarrassingly, they found us rather than the other way round. One listen/view of the video link on their profile was enough to convince us they were more than good enough to take on board. I’m not even going to spoil the surprise, just go watch it now. They are also unique among our many acts in that they are the only band to offer a free glass hire service. This may seem odd but it’s for German 1 litre steins in order to make your event that bit more authentic. Or so your guests can drink more.


The Dana Dixon band describe themselves as a “good time Blues band”, which seems contradictory. Surely if you’ve got the blues you’re not having a good time, but that’s maybe just me. This Edinburgh based 4 or 5 piece, are well known around these here parts for the energy they bring to any party and are fronted by Dana who has both a great stage presence and a voice like a wood-chipper. And I mean that as a compliment. Imagine a female Alex Harvey without the stripy jersey. On guitar, Dave Dixon somehow drives the melody and plays rhythm. A sickeningly talented guy, I swear there are points in a few of the tracks he submitted where I’m sure his guitar was making asides that only he and I were aware of.

 

 

MaCumba (below) are yet another act who came to us rather than me discovering them on my weekly trawls, but in my defence, I hadn’t widened my net to include an 8 piece Scottish bagpipes and Brazilian Samba percussion band. Three pipers and five drummers/percussionist/noisemakers. And what a glorious noise they make. Probably not good for quiet coffee mornings or funerals but would lighten up just about any other event you’d care to mention. Truly multi-cultural both in personnel and repertoire, they have played all over the world. Amusingly, they told us that they often “don’t require a PA.” We guessed that guys.

 

Chris Mackinnon

Chief scout and Smiths bore

 

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