Ain’t Nowt Bigger Than Barry!
Ok Ladies and Gentleman it is official – Bigger Than Barry are on their way to conquering the world! After the success of their recent club nights based in little old Birmingham UK it seems they are now taking the Barry massive to Leeds and Nottingham, oh plus they have a range of filthy things planned for this summer.
I feel that now it is a great time to get a lowdown on Bigger Than Barry and find out who the hell is behind this Barry madness and also which deletable tunes are rockin’ their boats currently.
So here is an interview….
KMD: So tell us the Barry story…how did you guys get it together?
BTB: Barry started in Dec 06 at the Ben Johnson by Bob, Mac & Sam. Originally it was just a free party to get everyone in the mood for christmas for all our friends and friends of friends. We wanted to make it a bit of fun and Barry Austin in the news at the time for being the fattest man in Britain, so we thought lets throw a party that’s Bigger Than Barry… we all pissed ourselves so we thought it was a good idea.
Anyway that party was a mad success & the mix of music we played was well received, so we thought we would do another one in February. We started to charge £2 to cover the dj’s we were playing and it turned out a bigger success than the one before. A real nice buzz developed, so we really started to get into it and signed up Scott’e Bleepz to the team (Birmingham’s renowned electro DJ).
Scott fitted into the gang instantly and we started to throw monthly parties, which just got massive! Our best so far was at the Ben Johnston (Pikey Rave Mark 1) – it was the first time we threw a proper themed party and it was mental! Everyone got involved the vibe inside was pumping, we had big problems with capacity though we were packed twice over, at that point we decided to move things to The Rainbow because it was bigger. Our biggest gig to date was our 1st birthday party at the warehouse in Dec with 900+ people, it was crazy, we had live art in the second room from Trav and his crew in the main room, the place was jumping.
Our biggest this year was held at subway (800+) and we put on Dexplicit, Food Soundsystem, Tombcrew.
KMD: What is the ‘Barry’ philosphy?
BTB: Party raves and fun. The whole name is tongue in cheek and with our themes we try to get people to relax and go with the flow. Everyone loves a theme
KMD: Whose in the Barry massive?
BTB: The Barry massive is everyone involved with Barry, big props to Lucy Yeah, Tombcrew, Vinyl Is, Tapedeck, Desh 1, Trav and everyone else who has spread the word. A lot of people have helped us and that kinda of thing is never forgotten. ‘Barry massive’ is basically everyone involved and comes to the night
KMD: What do you think makes your nights so popular?
BTB: We reckon because its all fun and we put on some badboy dj’s and keep the kids dancing. Our crowd is diverse & it’s always a good vibe
KMD: What tunes currently float your boat?
Macca : Lady in red
Scott: Hideaway – Mystery Jets (Switch mix)
Sam: Zomby – spliff dub
Bob: South Rakkas crew poison dart
KMD: Any plans for barry merch?
BTB: Yeah people keep sending us amazing designs, so we are gonna hopefully put out some t shirts, well when Sam can be arsed.
KMD: Your based in Birmingham England – so what would you recommend a girl or guy to do when visiting? Any places to check out or local bands?
BTB: Birmingham is definitely worth a visit: there’s some good shops like Candystore & ATOO for the fellas, and all the chicas seem to be hittin the big yellow vintage shop, Macca got some real tight Addidas shorts there the other day! As far as music, there’s definitely a buzz in Brum right now; The Scarlet Harlots have got a big sound, as have bands like Mirror Mirror, Johnny Foreigner and Mayday. The live scene is perhaps in need of a little love however. There are too many older people running venues who don’t really care, and the venues are a bit boring, well besides The Rainbow
KMD: What does the future hold for ‘Bigger Than Barry’
BTB: Big tings! Now that we’ve been promoting the night for well over a year & have built up our contacts, we feel its time to step things up for our Baz. We intend to put on bigger & bigger acts each time & seek out new & unusual venues. We believe in moving Barry around location wise to keep it as fresh as possible. We’re
still growing Barry in Leeds and Nottingham and we would love to maybe get a venue in London, although its totally a different vibe down there.
KMD: This summer looks rocking for you guys, any more things in the pipeline?
BTB: Barry is definitely the look you’re after this summer! We have three massive beach parties planned, and we will be having some Barry days out for the massive as well.
KMD: If money was no object, what guest would you have playing at a Barry event?
Macca: Roots Manuva
Scott: Daft Punk. standard!!
Bob: Will Young
Sam: Madonna
KMD: What advice would you give to any other budding promoters?
BTB: We grew our scene through friends and friends of friends so never take their support for granted. Its hard work, people think Barry makes £ but we don’t, we worked out how much we made an hour from a party once and it ended up about £1.20/ hr each. We didn’t do the math again after that!
Also work with other promoters, some promoters can be divs especially when your doing things a lot better than them, but we get on with 99%. The Vinyl is kids come play most of our parties and we return the favours, same with Tombcrew and Naked Lunch.
The next Barry Beach Party is June 14th at The Rainbow Warehouse to buy tickets look here.
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