When they play 51st State Festival this weekend, Basement Jaxx will be on a bill with many of the artists that inspired them to make their distinctive sound.
The festival dedicated to US House, Garage, Soul, Disco and Caribbean sounds features the likes of Louie Vega, Kenny Dope, Jocelyn Brown and other luminaries from the early days of house music.
“We loved that New York, Chicago, Detroit sound,” says the duo’s Simon Ratcliffe. “It was so different to British dance music, which was more punk and rave.
“The dance music coming out of the US was so exciting; it was sexy and cool, it had this polysexual, anything-goes feel. We tried to marry the British and the US sound together.”
It was a winning formula. Basement Jaxx went on to have success globally with anthems like Red Alert, Rendez-Vu, Where’s Your Head At? and Good Luck.
Now they’re bringing their favourite tunes to Trent Park for 51st State Festival. “We love playing festivals because you get a big audience and a good cross section of people, who are usually up for a party. It’s fun,” says Ratcliffe.
But there’s bad news for fans of the chaotic, vibrant epic live show: “We’ve decided to give it a rest for a while. We didn’t want to work it too far, because it would get tired.
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“We’re doing DJ sets – it’s much easier to tour with a USB stick rather than all the trucks and set we needed for the Basement Jaxx live show.”
He adds: “51st State seems to be celebrating the heritage an it’s an honour to be on a line-up with these artists.”
51st State Festival, 5 August, 10am-11pm, Trent Country Park, Cockfosters Road, Enfield. Tickets £55-£75 plus booking fee
