Be-At

Well it seems like only yesterday that BE opened its doors to the throngs of London’s party people, but its actually been absolutely ages. And the last two years have seen the nights at Proud Galleries (old and new) and a few other choice locations explode in a giddying swirl of music, flashing lights and burlesque performance art.
Doubtless some of you will look back on our Saturday nights with a smile, perhaps a tear, maybe a slightly ticklish sensation in the back
of the throat.

But just in case the aural and visual stimulation on offer became almost a little TOO intoxicating, and precious memories have since become blurry, we’ve decided to re-post a selection of video clips culled from the last couple of years. These feature some of our
favourite BE bands and sexy performers (see Mystery Jets, Kissy Sell Out, Friendly Fires, James Pants, Zombie Zombie) as well as
‘docu-drama’ clips of dancefloor mayhem and other late night shenanigans (see Old Proud Closing Night, Bloomsbury Ballroom 1,
Burlesque Compilations). Drink it all in.
You can view our disco memory machine in a cascade of high quality at the BE-TV VIDEO PLAYER or alternatively in grainy scum-o-vision on the BE YOUTUBE CHANNEL. More to be added very soon.

In the meantime, don’t forget to check this blog weekly for the return of LAST WEEK’S HOT TOPIC, our way of interviewing and thoroughly
confusing bands as they leave the stage at one of our nights. Coming soon: Acoustic Ladyland, Boy Crisis, Ebony Bones… all get
interrogated by our mysterious and glamorous reporter, and engage in chit-chat based very loosely on a topic chosen by a previous starlet.
We will also be posting MP3s of exclusive DJ mixes (live and on tape) as well as live desk mixes from the bands. To get things started check
out this track from the excellent FAN DEATH who are playing BE on 29.11.08. This Canadian electro-disco duo are signed to Erol Alkan’s label and this is to be their first release, produced by the legendary ex-Trash maestro.
And I do hereby solemnly swear that this fledgling BE blog shall be nurtured and updated most regularly, that the dog shall no longer be
permitted to consume my homework, and nothing short of natural disaster or divine intervention shall ever again prevent the frequent posting of yet more BE goodies by me or one of my associates. You can always depend on The BE-Team.

Hot air balloons… An enigmatic topic for a very prolific chat with Dede, Thomas and Darren from We Have Band, after their gig on 2nd August!

How do you call flying in a hot air balloon? Ballooning, balloonage,
balloonment?

Dede - Isn’t it ballooning?

Thomas - I quite like balloonage though.

Darren - I think balloonage is more the group of people, or when you’re involved in that.

Dede - Yeah, like an entourage. Maybe they’re the people that accompany the people ballooning. Instead of entourages, they’re balloonages…

Darren - No! (laughing) It’s rather: “Oh what are you into? I’m into balloonage”…

Dede - Or “I’m part of a balloonage…”

Darren - And you then go ballooning.

Thomas - Like: “Are you part of the balloonage scene”?

Darren and Dede - Yes, totally!

Darren - “Yeah I’m really into balloonage, you know, and good food, lovely wine.”

What would be the best print on a hot air balloon? Best colour, design?

Thomas - I quite like the sort of swirly ones.

Dede - I like swirly ones and stripy ones. I like bright colours.

Thomas - Or a bit of retro.

Dede - I’ll tell you what I don’t like, I don’t like if they have Mickey Mouse on them, all that Disney shit…

Thomas - I’m a bit bored of that fucking Virgin thing. In the 90s, whenever you turned on the news, Richard Branson’s face would be there in his hot air balloon.

Darren - He was always ballooning somewhere…

Dede - It’s like obsessive balloonage, isn’t it?

laughter

Thomas - And he always crashed, he kept on crashing!

Unfortunately, this is the exact moment my so-called friend the Handy Recorder decides to let us down, go for a nap filled with all electronic dreams and recording fantasies, which is not what we hired it for, let’s be honest. But what can you do? Back then, I was
positive about my ability of recollecting all the major hot air balloons issues we addressed, but very surprisingly, my mind is now a blank. So I’m very grateful that Thomas and Darren drew up a quick recap of our chat on the spot :

Thomas and Darren - We hate balloons, we don’t like Richard Branson, we wondered how big the basket of a hot air balloon is, size of a small car, five people, balloonage is the general term for people who are involved in ballooning, they like camembert, Chilean wine,
balloonage.

Do you have a story to tell us about hot air balloons?

Darren - Oh I have a story about balloons. At school, you’d put a tag on a helium balloon, with your name and address on it, and you’d let it go, and then you’d wait for someone to write to you. Somebody in
France, in Calais or something, wrote to a kid in my school, that was amazing!

Dede - I think your teacher wrote the letter…

Darren - Shh shut up, next question!

Where would you want to fly with a hot air balloon?

Darren - We actually really wouldn’t.

Thomas - If I did, it’d be the Isle of Wight maybe.

Dede - I don’t want to do sea, so I’d just like to go over the English countryside.

Thomas - No, I’d be more relaxed to go over sea than over land. It’s soft landing if you crash…

Dede - But what if you can’t get out?

Thomas - Oh well, I don’t want to do it anyway, I’d shit myself. Or maybe I’d go to Calais, I’d go to a Hypermarche, get some cheap booze and then come back…

Dede - Have a balloonage night.

What is your favourite song or album linked to hot air balloons?

Dede - What about the Pink Floyd one with the big pig, it looks like a hot air balloon but it’s a floating pig… (Animals by Pink Floyd)

Darren - Actually I remember this book! “Hop hop and away went the red balloon, hop hop and away!” It’s this kid who’s on a hot air balloon and then picks up his friends, Charlie and John, and “hop hop and away
went Charlie, hop hop and away went John”. Then they pick someone else and by the end of it, it was: hop hop and away went this massive list of people. It’s good, isn’t it? (Unknown book…)

Dede - Well… I think instead of the album, we’ll go for the story.

Can you pick next week’s hot topic?

Darren - Can it be elephants? Elephants it is!

This time we’re discussing dairy with Jona aka Yacht, pictured here right after his set at Be on 5th July bravely attempting to represent cheese for the camera.

Hi Jona, what’s your favourite cheese ?

J - Well that’s the funny thing, I don’t eat cheese.

This is just perfect. And why is that ?

J - I’m following a vegan lifestyle. I’m repelled by the way the industry of cheese works, I think humans are just no better than animals. I grew up in a farming town in Oregon and witnessed the way people treat animals. Animals get a bad deal.

My next question was going to be : Cheese Ploughmans or Ham and Cheese ? But first I had to explain Jona what a Cheese Ploughmans is, as I tend
to forget non-UK residents are not aware of this delicacy.

J - I’d go for the Cheese Ploughmans as it’s a new thing for me, and at least it doesn’t involve meat !

What’s your funniest or most special memory linked to cheese ?

J - I didn’t always use to be a vegan so I remember when I was in 4th or 5th grade, I used to come home from school everyday and have Tillamook cheese, this rectangle of cheese that tastes exactly like cheddar. It
comes from a city in Oregon of the same name. It’s a nice memory for me.

Sweet. What’s your favourite song linked to cheese or favourite cheesy song ?

J - I’ll have to say the whole album “Chocolate and cheese” by Ween. It’s an album that’s not serious but not excessively jokey either, it made me look out for the fine line between comedy and drama.

Can you pick next week’s hot topic ?

J - It has to be hot air balloons…

Somewhere, deep below the dirty pavement in the heart of the metropolis lies the International HQ of The Be Foundation…

As the rest of the daytime world sleeps, the Be-Team has been busy preparing an all-out assault on the world media and its associated networks, and we are now delighted to offer YOU a glimpse at the strange first fruits of our summer season, in the shape of ‘Last Week Hot’s Topic’.

Let us explain… Every week you will be able to read a fast and loose interview with some of the wonderful music guests who provide the Saturday night entertainment at Be, recorded as they step from the hallowed Proud stage and into the vice-like grip of our mystery reporter. The idea is to have a different hot topic every week AND (here’s where it gets highly ingenious) our interviewees always get to choose the topic for the following week.

And what better way to kick things off than with Mr Edwin Foal, fresh from rocking the BE dancefloor with his DJ set on 7th June?

As it was our first time and you need to start somewhere, the topic was picked by our humble selves, and our interviewer being French, it seemed obvious to discover more about Edwin’s relationship to this (amazing) country, its rudeness and raw meat… Here he is shooting from the hip and pulling no punches.

What was the biggest stereotype you had of France before you went there?

E - That everyone was really rude.

Really? That’s horrible!

E - I know it’s a terrible stereotype…

Did you change your mind when you went there?

E - Yeah, of course. It was a stupid thing. I wouldn’t say French
people aren’t rude but they’re not especially rude, they’re as rude as
English people… Anyway, I’m a rude English person so I don’t know…

What’s your funniest memory of France?
E - We played a show in Paris and all went for dinner to this
restaurant. The guy who was doing our light show ordered a “steak
tartare”. He didn’t know what it was and none of us heard him order it. It finally came to the table, and we all had our lovely steaks - cooked - while he was faced with this plate of raw mince with a raw egg on top. The look on his face was incredible. I ended up eating about half of it… And it’s not nice! Although I wouldn’t say it’s unpleasant… I was a bit confused by it because it doesn’t taste nicer than cooked meat, it doesn’t have an interesting flavour, it just tastes like raw food. I didn’t get it.

But then you get all the sauces on it, and the chopped onions!

E - Yeah, it wasn’t unpleasant, I enjoyed it, but the look on his face…

So what’s the best food you had in France?

E - We didn’t really go to good restaurants, so we had a lot of pasta… But the way bands get treated in France is really nice, you turn up to shows and there’s this awesome platter of food, fresh bread, fresh vegetables, which you don’t get in England or anywhere else in the world. Table wine as well! You sit down for a meal with the promoter and there’s wine on the table, it’s amazing. The first time we went to France was at la Fleche d’Or and we got there and there was all this bread and free beers in the afternoon, then dinner was served with wine and then we played our show and got two bottles of champagne and a bottle of cold vodka… It just feels a lot more communal, it feels like the bands are there with the promoters, talking together, whereas in England or in America, it can be quite hostile, almost as if it’s just about making money…

What’s your favourite song linked to France, either a French song or a song that would remind you of France for some reason?

E - I don’t know… I’m trying to think of something I actually like,
but… I just genuinely can’t think about anything! I’m very bad at
getting stuff out of my head, sorry….

Can you pick next week’s hot topic?

E - I want the topic to be about cheese, it’s one of the best things in France!

So much happening up in the Be Towers at the moment… First of all and as you all know already, we’re back at Proud with our weekly Saturday parties. It’s been a blissed month (and a half) so far, so a BIG thank you to all of you crazy disco dancers for being so faithful and coming back down every week for a bit of boogie with us! Check this space for some live videos coming soon…

We are very proud to present The Last Days Of Decadence, a new quality musical establishment right in the heart of Shoreditch. It will open its doors for an advance preview tonight as part of Stag and Dagger, ahead of the official launch in June. Check out the line-up and weep… Casper C, Skull Juice, Drums Of Death, Simon Rigg, Cats In Paris and Little Boots. Don’t miss it!

We’ll also be part of this year’s Insomniacs Ball, with our very own room to host: The Indie Cabaret! With DJ sets from Punks Jump Up, The Lovely Jonjo, our lovely David H and some mind-blowing (and aerial…) performances by Roxy Velvet, Kitty Bang Bang and Lady Ane Angel. We’ll see you there on May 31st!
Love from The (busy) Be-Team xx