Tag Archives: Rally & Broad

Only a few weeks to go until the Bongo’s Fringe break!

10 June 2015 -

Holidays (700 px)As you may already know, since we moved to our new home underneath George IV Bridge, the terms of our tenancy require us to vacate the premises for the summer months (Sunday 12th July until we reopen on Saturday 5th September this year), so The Underbelly can move in to use the space for the Fringe.

NB Without a venue, we’re unable to run any of our regular nights (or any Fringe events).  We don’t have any control over this, nor do we have any involvement in what happens in the building during this period.  The Underbelly is a completely separate business from The Bongo Club.  It was here first and thus it takes precedence at this time.  Sorry, folks, but ‘them’s the breaks’, to quote an old favourite by hip hop legend Kurtis Blow.

This does mean that things are likely to get pretty bouncy around here, as we get geared up for our enforced leave of absence, not least at Messenger, far-and-away our longest running night (established in 1987 and running at the Bongo since 1996), which is on the final night before we close (Saturday 11th July).  Here’s how their last dance before summer went off last year:

The next few weeks are also likely to be a lot of fun, as people make the most of the final parties of the season from our other residents:

There’s a free party from resident techno dons Substance this Friday 12th June; Saturday 13th is the penultimate Messenger party with MC Ramon Judah; Rally & Broad cap a tremendous season for them early eve on Fri 19th, while bass supremos Electrikal get geared up for a busy summer on the festival circuit later that night; Saturday night party-starters Mumbo Jumbo keeps things bouncing on Sat 20th; soul-jazz and funk boys Four Corners and grime dons Big n Bashy have their last blasts of the trumpet on Fri 26th and Sat 27th respectively, while garage/techno/house party Headset and soul champs Soulsville have their final blow-outs on Fri 3rd and Sat 4th July.

 

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Queen of UK performance poetry Francesca Beard plays Rally & Broad, Fri 23rd Jan

15 January 2015 -

Rally & Broad

Ah – dear January.  You are so often a month of long, dreary Sundays, broken resolve and rapidly-dwindling New Year hopes…

But not at R&B HQ! This month, we’d like to start as we mean to go on in 2015: by unapologetically apologising, with oor tongues firmly in oor cheeks. A celebration of the apology in its many varieties (I’m Sorry I Ate All Your Cheese; I’m Sorry I Broke Your Favourite Tea-cup/ Heart/ Mind; I’m Sorry I Voted That Way; I’m Sorry it’s the National Bard’s Birthday and We’re Totally Ignoring It, etc). Come hear the confessional, the reverential, the spittingly-caustic and the wittily marvellous in oor January line-up.

Welcome to The Apology Shop…
Featuring:

Francesca Beard
FRANCESCA BEARD!

The indisputable Queen of UK performance poetry in a rare Scottish date! She’s sorry she is not up more often. To make up for it – check out her masterclass the next day at the Counting House!  Read her full biog here.

Hector Bizerk
HECTOR BIZERK!

The unapologetically experimental hip-hop duo!

Emily Dodd
EMILY DODD!

You won’t be sorry to miss this wonderful woman with her unique interactive spoken word stories!

CHRIS WILLATS!

Up and coming Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter. Apologies, Henry’s Cellar Bar; we’re nicking one of yer music programmers for the nicht.

JESS SMITH!

We recently judged the UK University Slam Championships and Jess Smith was on the winning team! That would be the Edinburgh Uni team. We’re sorry if ye may think that means we were biased. Come see her and ye’ll see we were not…

Tickets: £5 (on the door)

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Bongo Lives! ’14 FESTIVAL (27th Apr-4th May)

15 April 2014 -

 

BongoLives_brochure_front

One year on from re-opening in the underground and The Bongo Club is well and truly settled in our new home at 66 Cowgate. After the success of the inaugural Bongo Lives! Festival in 2013, we’re back for another celebration of the arts and music we all love.

As this year also marks the 20th birthday of our sister organisation Out of the Blue, it seemed like a great reason to have an even bigger celebration.

Without you, we’re nothing.

Community is at the heart of everything we do and the aim of Bongo Lives! 2014 is to celebrate the community that is the backbone of any vibrant arts and music scene. Without the love and hard work of our supporters, The Bongo Club and Out of the Blue wouldn’t be the stalwarts of the Edinburgh music and arts scene that we are today.

If Edinburgh is a village, as the local saying goes, our village is made up of people who support the arts through thick and thin. We’ve had our ups and downs at both Out of the Blue and The Bongo Club but we’re still here and we’re not planning on going away anywhere soon!

With the vital support of many people, we intend to flourish as an integral part of Edinburgh’s cultural landscape for thousands of local people and visitors alike for many more years to come.

Big Narstie

CLUBWISE

Check out the special guest acts playing at Four Corners (Diesler of Tru Thoughts / Ninja Tune fame) on Fri 2nd May, Big n Bashy on Sat 3rd May (Base Defence League, featuring grime artists Big Narstie (pictured above), Big H and Logan Sama), plus the one-off, May Bank Holiday special with house/techno player Saytek on Sun 4th.

The Black Diamond Express portrait

GIGWISE

Bongo Lives! is all about The Black Diamond Express (pictured above), Thurs 1st May, which is sure to be hopping as they prepare for their big Canadian tour in June plus an evening curated by the excellent Braw Gigs, Sat 3rd, featuring Muscletusk headlining.

Rally & Broad

THEATRE/CABARET

We’ve four companies and seven events in total (including the ‘Wonder’ Workshop), not least the mighty Rally & Broad (pictured above) and Creative Electric with newcomers Illicit Ink and Edinburgh Stage School supplying the rear-guard action.

Kirsty_Whiten_gate

ART/JAZZ

There’s the launch of Brian Kellock and Dick Lee‘s inspiring Spirit Of Jazz workshops and a brand new Bongo commission for Kirsty Whiten (see picture above) – much-loved former Bongo/OOTB regular and rising star of the international art world.

With all our regular midweek club nights, I Love Hip Hop (Tuesdays), Champion Sound (Wednesdays), Hullabaloo (Thursdays), also running as usual, if you’ve not made it down to the ‘new’ Bongo Club in the last fifteen months, what better opportunity to do just that? See you at the bar!

Slainte

OOTB_aerial

OUT OF THE BLUE IS 20

This is just the start of these celebrations (set to continue for the rest of 2014) down at The Drill Hall but the Arts Market and Open Studios (Sat 3rd May)are sure to be a real highlight for many.

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