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Hackney Colliery Band review, The Forum, London: A politically infused show from a modern New Orlean’s style brass band

The ethos of a colliery band might hark back to yesteryear, but this nine-piece New Orleans style brass band bring their sound – which is made up of saxes, trombones, trumpets, a sousaphone and drummers – up-to-date with electronics making it punchy and lively with a real sense of get up and go.

And with it, they’ve been changing perceptions of brass music since 2008 with their jazz renditions of pop songs that come with plenty of oomph, youthful excitement and energy.

Opening with two of their own tracks, frontman Steve Petty adamantly reminded the crowd that it’s definitely not only covers (which they are best known for) that they do, ironically before playing Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box”, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

And the track is probably older than most of the crowd, who throw themselves into this one, and only slow down when Petty uses the middle of a song – where the band reduce their huge sound to a much lighter hum – to extensively plug their own merchandise for a minute or so, describing items in detail… (which include baby grows and CDs, in case you’re wondering).

After the self-promotion, Petty turns to politics and says HCB were hoping to “change the world with jazz”, with their own song “Bread and Circuses”, but then flatly says: “then Brexit happened, and then Trump happened, so we realised we couldn’t”. The song is a playful mash-up of jazz and funk that begins with the classic circus clown entrance tune and is slipped in right at the end of the band's 2016 Sharpener album.

Although Petty didn’t stop there and seemed to make up for the band's lack of vocals by talking at length between each song. Following three tracks from Shapener, the melodic “Timelapse”, “Reawake” and “Cramm” he goes on to describe Kanye West as “the next president of the world”, and adds “though, not the one we want” as they play their super charged version of Kanye’s “All Of The Lights”.

The live show is given originality by one of the trombone players downing his instrument and doing an unexpected solo rap, and later the duo of drummers are given their time to shine as the brass players step aside and let them show off.

The band ended with an encore of their much-loved mash-up of Prodigy’s “Jericho” and “Out of Space” and finally, with their cover of Eighties American band Toto’s “Africa”, but not before admitting they’d learnt from previous shows that they’d be “lynched if we didn’t play it”.

And not surprisingly, considering its their second most popular song on Spotify and essentially what we’re all waiting for. The finale finishes with the whole band parading through the crowds in a carnivalesque way playing “Africa” – just like the marching bands they are based on.