Lineup: 2010

Beardyman

London, UK

Beardyman is awesome. . . . After winning the well renowned Lyric Pad Beatbox Battle twice in 2004, he went on to win the title of London champion and UK runner up in the 2005 Championships and the following year became UK Beatbox Champion 2006. He successfully defended his title in June 2007 to become the first beatboxer in UK history to win the national championships twice in a row. In 2009 he won the award for Best Mc/Vocalist at the World renowned breakbeat awards ceremony Breakspoll.

His first musical venture was writing a symphony for his school orchestra at the age of ten. At fifteen, an introduction to drum ‘n’ bass led to his long-standing obsession with music technology. Now, in his live shows, as well as world-class solo human-beatbox, he uses his voice and live synths, driven through cutting-edge sound-mangling technology to create dance-inducing layered rhythms, breath-taking soundscapes, fully produced songs and tunes, often totally improvised and all created entirely from scratch. In Beardyman’s shows, no pre-recorded material is used, and everything is created live and in real time in front of the audience, who he takes on a mind-bending journey from dumbstruck to dancing and back again. His unique ablity to get any crowd going bonkers has seen him play huge stages, from bezerk Rave-core Mash-ups such as Bangface and Bloc, through to legendary drum ‘n’ bass rave ‘Slammin Vinyl’ to gigantic stadium filling childrens concerts to corporate events for Prudential, Google, Deloitte and loads of other ting innit.

Since starting to play out in 2001 Beardyman has supported Andy C, Marky, Shy FX, Grooverider, Nextmen, Groove Armada, Jazzy Jeff, Skinnyman, Terra Firma, Chaz and Dave, Squarepusher, Blondie, Bill Bailey, the beastie boys, Sly and the Family Stone, Wyclef, George Clinton, Underworld, and Jimmy Cliff and your mum, and has acted as compere for a huge variety of events all around Europe, including the Graz Hip hop festival in Austria, the Earls Court Urban Music Festival Love Box main stage, get Loaded main stage and Rise festival main stage, each in front of over 40,000 people. This Summer he will host the Bestival main stage and Camp Bestival. He hosted ‘The Freestyle Show’ on Get Lucky TV from 2004 to 2005 with Klum-Z-Tung, the mind-bogglingly quick-witted freestyle-MC, with whom he performed as the Gobfathers. He has supported Groove Armada on the UK leg of their tour and hosted Fatboy Slim’s Big Beach Boutique Party in Brighton. Basically he’s sicker than the black death. . . . cha. . .