Band
The Big Mackoofy are Europe’s premier Marxist, psychedelic funk band and were born out of the murky transient world of call centres and paid per hour contracts where, actors, writers, Dancers, DJ’s, Artists, Actors, writers and musicians reside.
In 2010 -Jeff Lucas, formerly of House of Rhythm, the Holy Trinity amongst others- had recently put together his own studio, and invited Guitarist Eddie Blindell-formerly of the Floorwalkers, Pouch and Freewill, singer Constantine Weir from Galliano, and later top session keyboard player Elliott Mortimer to his house and that night the first Big Mackoofy track “Lady of the Night” was born. Sessions became regular with different figures coming and going but essentially Jeff Lucas and Eddie Blindell were the main stays.
Songs were released initially on soundcloud and drew the attention of the Art and fashion world where tracks were used for exhibitions and Cat walks. They also drew the attention of Political activists and the off-grid festival crowd who would then use their tracks as backing tracks for independent films. A small following was growing, not just in the UK but across Europe and the combination off Jeff Lucas imaginative production and arrangements aligned with his hypnotic bass lines worked well with Eddie Blindell’s combination of melodic and rhythmical guitar playing- The Big Mackoofy sound was starting to take shape.
A change in direction came when they met Tony Joseph-Artist, graphic designer, rapper and singer with bands such as Red Seal and Boasty-(who was also famously once a raven for Killing Joke) who was now also working in call centres- sessions became more frequent with the 3 of them putting together a backlog of tracks whilst Politics, Philosophy, ideology and a whole range of topics were all discussed at length. Tony’s ability to freestyle and switch from MCing to Rapping to melodic singing expanded the bands musical range -they racked up a backlog of tracks and the album “God is a make-believe friend for grown-ups” was released in 2015 and was well received critically (If not commercially) and they picked up radio play in Scandinavia on the Rumble show on radio Andora. and their reputation as being a king stoner band started to grow.
Sessions continued and percussionists such as Jeremy Holroyd and Leonardo De Vintus helped lay the foundations for a more latin/Iberian feel for the next album “Marinalada” named after the village in Andalucía that had become a Marxist collective-again it was well received critically with radio play now being extended to radio stations such as Brooklyn Radio in New York -playing Afro beat influenced music.
The following was slowly growing through social media and whilst work continued on their new album named after the famous quote by Trade Unionist Bob Crow “If you fight you wont always win, but if you don’t fight you will always lose” they worked on a plan to take their music from the recording studio on to the stage. The album’s release in 2017 was a critical success and was picked up by radio stations across the US and Europe Jezz Harkin from the Brilliant Show, based in new York was a keen advocate and played tracks from the new album regularly and is now a regular stand out on Portobello Radio. The song Take the wealth from the 1% was used by the DJ float to kick off the anti-austerity march in 2016.
In 2018 they took to the stage as a 3 piece, playing at festivals such as Tropical Pressure- across the UK as well as local clubs and venues across London such as the Water Rats, Dublin castle etc, the famous but now defunct Mau Mau bar and a monthly residency supporting Maroon town at the Troubadour-captured on you tube.
On the road they were joined by percussionist Leandro De Vintmus for 1 gig in Hackney as well as good friend Dave Lawson (who would later record vocals for the track Hey Big Old Mister) and local legend, class war activist, political campaigner and ex Hawkwind member Captain Rizz at the Camden Falcon-who would later ask the band to join their independent music site TopRizz radio
The gigs were chaotic and unpredictable and the live rehearsals were all recorded and turned into their next album “ The Hackbridge Hotbox sessions”-again well received critically and plans were afoot to take the band to the US to play to their newly acquired fanbase built through the independent music and college radio scene in New York, Sacramento, Seattle and Portland-but then the pandemic struck and all plans were then put on hold.
The band continued to work through lockdown and managed to produce another album “More songs about drugs and socialism”- which again was well received critically prompting a spot as featured album by Old Indie Kid on the In Your Ears Indie show.
The latest album is now ready for release- “The Numbers factory” is more atmospheric and almost spaghetti western like- where the bands Ennio Morricone influences really stand out and blends well with more Modern influences- such as Kendrick Lamar.
We hope you enjoy.
Much love- The Big Mackoofy
