King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys

King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys

http://www.kingpleasure.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/kingpleasurethebiscuitboys

https://www.facebook.com/pages/KING-PLEASURE-THE-BISCUIT-BOYS/360352545647

Un groupe que j'ai vu souvent en GB, mais je pense qu'ils sont passés aussi en France, non ?
à l'époque j'adorais le contrebassiste, complètement mad

King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys are more than just the world’s greatest swing & R&B band, they are an institution! The
band have been on the road for almost three decades playing every European country as well as touring the USA, Russia
and the MiddleEast, recording ten CDs.

​Dazzling musicianship,​ riveting stage performances, more than 50 TV appearances (including, somewhat bizarrely, five
episodes of Teletubbies) and 75 radio broadcasts have established them as the Kings of Swing.

​What does the title ‘King Pleasure’ evoke? In this context it suggests eating, drinking, spending money, chasing chicks,
having a good time, overdoing it more than somewhat and explaining the events of the night before to the judge on the
morning after. All apt topics for song and celebration, especially in these grim times. So much pop music nowadays is full of
anger and violence on the one hand, and slack-jawed stupidity on the other, and so much contemporary jazz is excessively
earnest and glum, that we are in urgent need of music that comes with a cheer-up guarantee. That is exactly what King
Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys unfailingly deliver.

​Sounds easy when put like that, but it isn’t - not to do it properly at any rate. Any bunch of fools can don zoot suits and
pointy shoes that you could climb a chain-link fence in. It doesn’t take a lot to learn a few riffs and strike a few poses. But
to create the kind of easy swing you hear on The Wrong Door, the precision and attack of Big Girl, the blend in Bring It On
Baby takes talent, focus and a lot of working together. And when you experience it live you discover what a real show can
be - wholehearted, full-on, exhausting and unforgettable.

​But what kind of music is it? Well, if you’ll kindly lay aside that list of runners and riders once more, I’ll attempt a brief
historical sketch. Ahem! When the great Swing Era ended, in the mid - 1940s, it broke apart and the various bits started
growing into styles of their own. One of these dance-hall rhythm and blues, as performed by such names as Lucky Millinder,
Buddy Johnson and Louis Jordan, at places like Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom. This, I think, is the root of the Biscuit Boys’ style,
although their own distinctive approach has by now developed quite a long way from there.

​The King and the Boys have been around for quite a while, getting on for three decades in fact. But how can that be? Some
of them look far too young. Well, it’s like the penknife with two new blades and three new handles. Individual members may
change but the band stays the same. Think of Count Basie’s orchestra. Half a century with one tiny break. Only two
members lasted the entire course, one of them Basie himself, but you could never mistake it for any other band. In the case
of the Biscuit Boys, the King and Bullmoose have been there from the beginning. Changes have taken place, but not often.
The latest recruit is dynamic pianist Mighty Matt Foundling, who took over from Crab - Claw Tromans shortly before the
'Hey Puerto Rico' album - the band’s ninth - was recorded. And, just as with the Basie band, details may change but the
magic formula remains unchanged.

​One result of being around for a while is that the King and the Boys have built themselves the kind of fan base that aspiring
pop stars would kill for. The word ‘fan’ is short for ‘fanatic’, and the last count there were 2,500 people around the world
sufficiently fanatical to join the band’s fan club. And if you’re talking about loyalty, how about the fifty - odd members who
chartered their own plane to follow the boys to the Cork Jazz Festival?

​Everywhere they go they hook more devotees. They’ve played all over Europe, up as far as Russia. Even more impressively,
they’ve stormed across the US, much to the surprise of the natives. As one New York magazine put it: ‘Those who say that
swing is a musical form best left to Americans, prepare to be proven wrong. This British combo is bullet proof!’.

​Of course they are! They’re the genuine article, in full working order, dedicated to shaking you up and swinging you into
the middle of nest week. They’ve got King Pleasure’s inimitable stogies - and - bourbon voice, they’ve got a roaring band
sound that comes at you like the Wabash Cannonball, and above all they’ve got that beat. In the words of the immortal
Lord Buckley ‘Rhythm is the key to everything - runs the whole swingin’ thing’.

​
Resistance is futile. Surrender to having a good time.

Dave Gelly June 2006

Photos que l'on pris à Hemsby 91

Je me souviens bien de leur contre assiste.
C'était un groupe assez délire, mais lui musicalement pas trop mon truc.
Eric

Merci Birdie

Hemsby 91 souvenirs, souvenirs

Jivers

C'est sure Eric, il faut aimer et le contrebassiste était vraiment disjoncter


Ha oui, c'est vrai Jivers que tu y étais, dommage qu'on ne se connaissait pas à cette époque !

J´les vu la dernière fois lors d´un des festivals organizé par le Barcelona Hayride,c´était pas trop mon truc non plus,trop influencé Jazz a m´ont gout,un peux dans la ligne des Chevalier Brothers j´trouve.
Dj EddieCesc