At the start of May we jumped on a train to the UK City of Culture for 2025 - Bradford. We were there to see the Bassline Symphony event. This was our second event from the programme - we’d gone early in the year to see the film La Haine with a live score by Asian Dub Foundation. Unfortunately I forgot to write about that, bad Tim.
Bassline kind of passed me by a little at its peak as I was out of the country for a couple of years in the early 2000s and was a bit blinkered towards breakbeat-heavy dance music in those days. However, I’ve lived in Sheffield for closing in on 20 years and it’s virtually impossible to go out out without hearing a bit of bassline - it’s seeped into the fabric of the city.
This time we stayed overnight and we were joined by Lou’s sister and niblings. As for the La Haine screening, this was held in the beautiful St George’s Hall. This event was a lot busier although weirdly still had a fair few empty seats even though I’d heard people saying it was sold out. We took our seats smack bang in the middle of the Grand Tier 1, sitting down to a pair of DJs belting out both classic and up to the minute bangers. They were also joined on stage by a series of MCs at various points. It didn’t take long for Lou’s nephew to be stood up and jigging about.
The intermission arrived, and after a toilet break and a failed attempt to get a drink from the bar, it was time for the main event. The musicians of the Orchestra of Opera North filed onto the stage, joined by a trio of singers. As DJs TS7, DJ Q and Jamie Duggan ‘played’ a set each with the orchestra accompanying we were treated to a succession of guest singers and MCs. I really enjoyed it - I thought the orchestra added a lot to the tracks. By the time Jamie Duggan had come on, like about 75% of the rest of the audience, we’d abandoned our seats. Instead, we were dancing behind the uppermost row of seats along the side of the Grand Tier.
I have to call out how great the trio of singers were - they absolutely nailed some of the classic tunes. Also the sign language interpreters seemed to be having a ball. Big respect to all involved in putting the show on - I had a great time and most importantly we earned some cool aunty & uncle points from the niblings!
Videos
The Bradford 2025 channel on Youtube has some videos of the event. You can even vaguely see us dancing on one of them if you look hard enough!
-
Despite it being an all ages show, Lou’s nephew wasn’t quite old enough for us to get standing tickets. ↩︎