News / Fat-Suit get ready to funk things up at Legion gig
A FUSION of jazz, funk, rock and traditional Scottish music is in store when nine members of Glasgow-based collective Fat-Suit wing their way up north for a hotly-anticipated show next month.
The instrumental group will take to the Lerwick Legion stage on Friday 10 June for a show being promoted by popular local DJ Lyall Halcrow, who describes Fat-Suit as “like no other band that’s played up here before”.
“When you listen to a complete album there are so many different influences in there that it’s quite mesmerising, really,” he said.
Sax player Scott Murphy said Fat-Suit had been promised to expect “one of the most fun audiences in Scotland” on their maiden visit to the isles.
“Our live show at the moment is centred around our brand new album which will be released in the summer, but previews will be available to watch by the time we head to Lerwick,” Murphy said.
“The new album is an exciting mix of jazz, funk, folk and cinematic musical styles which seem to resonate with an extremely varied audience.
“Our shows are fun, energetic and frequently sweaty affairs and we see this continuing to be the case in Lerwick! We’ll also be hot off the back of a show at one of our favourite venues in Aberdeen so the Lerwick crowd will be catching us while we’re on form, I’m sure.”
Fat-Suit will also be showcasing material from their two previous albums, Kambr and Jugaad, and Murphy said they couldn’t wait to get up to Shetland.
“A couple of us have been up before to play at the folk festival but apart from that the rest of us have never even been before,” he said.
“The only disappointing thing for us is that our schedule means that we’re unable to stay for much longer than the morning after the gig. So if there’s anywhere in particular that your readers can recommend for us to visit on our brief whistle-stop tour then please by all means let us know!”
Halcrow said the return of students for the summer was a “nice time” to put on a gig, and he was looking forward to seeing nine musicians “crammed onto the stage at the Legion”.
“Fat-Suit are always reviewed as a really exciting band and one that you have to see live, and I think that they’ll be no disappointment – it’s just gonna be an absolutely great night of music, Fat-Suit and all the support.”
Several local acts are featured on the bill – a new funk-rock trio called Funkicity, who recently appeared at Mareel’s student music night, and The FB, who are “just getting better and better since I saw them a couple of years ago”.
Also appearing are Big Time Quell, founded by Thomas Jones and Jamie Hatchbar, who recently added a rhythm section in the form of Robert Balfour and Chris Cope and perform “quite quirky covers of tracks that you wouldn’t expect” along with genre-bending originals.
It is the first act Halcrow has booked since a brace of acclaimed gigs with The Federation of the Disco Pimp in the past two summers.
“I think that kind of big band style of funk with quite rocky horns does go down quite well,” he said. “It’s just really good music to dance to, and folks enjoy to boogie.”
He agrees that his omnipresence on the music scene as a DJ “gives me a good platform to promote because I’m going about playing a lot of different gigs – so promotion by word of mouth is quite easy”.
- Tickets to see Fat-Suit at the Lerwick Legion on Friday 10 June, priced £18, are on sale via Shetland Box Office now
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