photo: Marco Raaphorst

Here we are in the year 2012 with a new Scritti Politti line-up which is able to perform the classic songs in a superb way. They are a small group: drummer Rob Smoughton, Dicky Moore on guitar, Green on vocals and guitar and Rhodri Marsden on keyboards. Plus a computer, of course.

I felt it was about time for setting the record straight and finding out how these old songs were reconstructed for live gigs. So I asked keyboardplayer Rhodri a couple of questions. And guess what? He was happy to answer them!

Tell us a bit about the reconstruction of these old Scritti songs
Rhodri: I think it’s well documented that Green doesn’t enjoy listening to his old material! So what often happens is that I create a MIDI file with all the parts as I THINK they are. Green then works through it and corrects any mistakes I’ve made, and then creates / chooses all the sounds for the parts on his Mac. So by the end of that process we have a recreated Scritti song in Logic Pro which we then use to work from.

I see that you’re using laptops on stage, tell us about it
Rhodri: Actually, we’ve just slimmed down our setup massively in the last few days. Until recently we had four laptops onstage (very old ones, Powerbook G4s); one for live keyboard, one for live drums, two backups in case anything goes wrong. But the new MacBook Pro can handle everything, so that halves the number of computers onstage. Phew. I use a Nord Electro 2 keyboard to trigger my sounds and Rob uses an electronic drum kit, a Roland V-Kit. Green and Dicky both have amp simulators rather than real amps. So it’s really quiet onstage, which is lovely. You can hear all the detail.

Drummer Rob Smoughton is also playing samples on his electronic drumkit?
Rhodri: Yes, Andy (Houston, Green’s engineer) and I spent a lot of time creating virtual instruments for each song we play, using the sounds that Green’s been working on. One drumkit instrument per song for Rob, about ten for me! Some of the songs, like Wood Beez, are a real challenge to play, getting all the parts triggered from one keyboard.

Where do you draw the line between live-playing and laptop?
Rhodri: We started using backing tracks recently; firstly to get a fuller sound, secondly to keep the timing rock solid. Rob plays to a click in headphones, and the parts that we physically can’t play with four human beings come from the laptop – most of the time it’s just bass. Some songs there’ll be hardly anything pre-recorded (Skank Bloc Bologna only has that fast glockenspiel, for example); we play as much stuff live as we possibly can!

(thanks Gavin!)

And do follow @scrittipolitti on Twitter for updates!

From the Applecart Festival 2012 Website: Whether or not Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside is the brainiest man in pop music (The Guardian, Feb 2011) is a question that can wait for another day. One thing that is definitely unarguable is that his band’s back catalogue is utterly flawless – an audacious stroll from post-punk to perfect pop, block party hip hop to astrally projected soul music.From the early single on Rough Trade (the label he remains on to this day) ‘The Sweetest Girl’ through his purple patch in the mid 80s which saw ‘Wood Beez’, ‘Absolute’ and The Word Girl’ go top ten through working with Miles Davis on ‘Oh Patti’ to his Mercury nominated White Bread, Black beer in 2006. Thirty years on from his epochal debut, Gartside is playing The Apple Cart. Expect a fair few songs to remember.

Ticket information, a nice map and other info can be found here.

John

Scritti Politti will play live at 2 venues coming up!

First they plan to play live at the Lexington on March 13th. This was planned and tickets were offered via “The Word Magazine” (seams appropriate n’est pas?) The link to We Got Tickets says it is sold out. Perhaps a look into the secondary market is worth a look for would-be concert goers. Thanks to Bibbly-o-tek visitor DD for bringing this to our attention!

Also Rhodri tweeted recently that they will be performing live at Bush Hall on April 25th. This show sold out very quickly so a second date has been added.  You can catch them a day earlier, on the 24th!  At the time I posted this article, tickets were still available for the 24th here.

An interesting tidbit: (from the Bush Hall website) Scritti Politti have since slimmed down to a 4-piece, with Green playing alongside Dicky Moore, Rhodri Marsden and Rob Smoughton. The show will feature songs from both the past and the present; it marks a proper return to live work for the band, with a handful of festival appearances scheduled over the summer.

Note: Rob Smoughton was the drummer from Hot Chip during their 2010 tour.

John

Due to reasons beyond the control of the British Music Experience, the promoter and Roland Gift, this event has been cancelled. Ticketmaster will automatically refund all tickets booked for this event to the credit/debit card used to book.

If you would prefer to speak to Ticketmaster directly, please call their Customer Support Team on 08444 999 999. The lines are open Monday to Friday from 10.00am to 8.00pm and Saturday and Sunday from 10.00am to 4.00pm. Please have your booking reference and credit card details ready. Link here for more info. 

John

Scritti Politti joined the social network FaceBook and Twitter today in an effort to promote band related news and information regarding upcoming UK music festivals that they plan to participate in moving forward. The FaceBook page can be found here and the Twitter feed can be found here.  Thanks Rhodri Marsden for posting this on Scritti Politti Share the Love’s FaceBook page.  To date this has been the most active FaceBook page devoted to Scritti Politti. Rhodri Marsden is Scritti’s current keyboard player and one of the original “Traitorous Three” (which were really five) back in 2006.  Bibbly-o-tek.com welcomes this development as fans will be able to get Scritti related news faster than ever. Congratulations on having an official presence on these social networks!

Scritti Politti is scheduled to play live the 2012 Green Man Festival this August in Wales. Click here for a link for more information.   For tickets click here.  Click this link for a  really cool time lapse video from Green Man 2011.

This show has been CANCELLED!

Click the pic above for a full-sized version of the poster.

The Co-operative’s British Music Experience live show on February 25th, 2012 at the 02 in North Greenwich London will feature Roland Gift from Fine Young Cannibals.  Special guests include Jack Hues from Wang Chung and Green Gartisde (along with Rhodri).

Click here for more information and tickets!

(Music fans find Scritti Politti on YouTube and FaceBook – Scriiti Politti Fans visit Bibbly-o-tek.com)

 …a dog’s a dog and a cat’s a cat….

As far as I know, this was the worldwide debut of this song…

Click here to watch the video.

Thanks for helping us with the song title, Rhodri!

John

PS- The graphic I found online is a dog and a cat with a green background. Seamed fitting. Too cutesy?