It always takes a couple of days for the smoke to clear after Broad Casting but this time he smoke had the unmistakeable smell of some high-quality BBQ as the Red Bull Music Academy took over the entire venue at Cargo. Blessed with a lucky break in the weather, and some incredible food courtesy Dante’s Fried Chicken, the garden played host to acoustic sets from some of the academy’s favourite sons and daughters. Past participants Jamie Woon and Andreya Triana both delivered incredible performances to an audience that couldn't have been more attentive if you paid them. Between them another old academy face - Alice Russell - popped up for a surprise demonstration of her renowned vocal dexterity and wowed the crowd with a couple of her own tracks and a killer rendition of 'Crazy'.
Meanwhile in the bar there were 30 dubstep heads fighting over headphones in order to get a sneak preview of the forthcoming Deep Medi album from Silkie called 'City Limits Vol.1'. Hosted by the academy’s own Emma Warren and Silkie himself, I was great to see so many dub-step enthusiasts open-minded enough to hang around and get involved with the main room activities…
Of course no-one would envy GoldieLocks’ job on a night like this – entertain a room full of mature Latin fans who have been itching to see Joe Bataan play live ever since they first heard 'Gypsy Woman'. But despite the fact that Mr Bataan sat beside the stage offering signed photos and albums throughout her set, Goldie Locks didn't lose a single member of the crowd and even got them singing along to her version of NERD’s 'Provider'.
James Pants was the epitome of cool when he took the stage to introduce Joe Bataan who he had picked as a dream collaborator when booked by Karen earlier in the year. He smashed his role of lead cowbell on the Bataan tracks and graciously conceded most of the show to the legend – leaving the latin reworks of his own tracks to the end of the show.
Joe himself was clearly thrilled to be performing in the UK after taking 29 years to get over here and play to what has always been a very dedicated audience. He threw all the energy he had into performing for his fans and telling them stories about his career, and the crowd threw all their energy into enjoying what was undoubtedly a very special and historic performance. Kicking the show off with an unrehearsed ballad, Joe teased the audience and the rather surprised band – Grupo X - who brilliantly kept up with every curve ball their effervescent bandleader threw at them! Made up of some real talent – including Finn Peters (who has now performed at 3 different Broad Casting shows with 3 different bands! ) Grupo X did a stunning job of interpreting the genre-defying breadth of Joe’s catalogue and along with Joe’s wife Yvonne on backing vocals & Joe's amazing percussionist Peter "Chuckie" Quintero, kept the show tight from top-to-tail.
One of many favourite moments from an incredible night was when Joe himself led the entire audience on an unplanned Conga line. Unfortunately there was no way of translating that moment into audio – but you can listen to the Joe Bataan set here and catch the James Pants latin tracks as well as his DJ set here on Red Bull Music Academy Radio. A big thank you to Red Bull Music Academy & Red Bull UK for making such an incredible night possible!!
Listen to the live show On Demand on Red Bull Music Academy Radio!!! >
