Hackney Colliery Band review, The Forum, London: A politically infused show from a modern New Orleans style brass band

The nine-piece east London band are changing perceptions of brass music with mash-up covers and original work, but are let down by plugs and regular interruptions to talk

The ethos of a colliery band might hark back to yesteryear, but this nine-piece New Orleans-style brass band bring their sound – which is made up of saxes, trombones, trumpets, a sousaphone and assorted percussion – bang up-to-date with electronics, making it punchy and lively with a real sense of get up and go.

And with it they’ve been changing perceptions of brass music since 2008, their jazz renditions of pop songs coming with plenty of oomph, youthful excitement and energy.

Opening with two of their own compositions, frontman Steve Pretty adamantly reminds the crowd that they don’t only do cover versions (although they are best known for them), ironically before launching into a rendition of Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box”, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

The song is probably older than most of the crowd, who throw themselves into it, only slowing down when Pretty uses the middle of a song – where the band reduce their huge sound to a much lighter hum – to extensively plug their own merchandise for a minute or so, describing items in detail… (which include baby grows and CDs, in case you’re wondering).

After the self-promotion, Pretty turns to politics and says HCB were hoping to “change the world with jazz” through their song “Bread and Circuses”, before adding, flatly: “Then Brexit happened, and then Trump happened, so we realised we couldn’t.” The song is a playful mash-up of jazz and funk that begins with the classic circus clown entrance tune and is slipped in right at the end of the band’s 2016 Sharpener album.

Pretty doesn’t stop there, and seems to make up for the band’s lack of vocals by talking at length between each song. Following three tracks from Sharpener, the melodic “Timelapse”, “Reawake” and “Cramm” he goes on to describe Kanye West as “the next president of the world”, adding “though not the one we want” as the band plays their super-charged version of Kanye’s “All Of The Lights”.

The live show is given originality by one of the trombone players downing his instrument and doing an unexpected solo rap, and later the duo of drummers are given their time to shine as the brass players step aside and let them show off.

The band ends with an encore of their much-loved mash-up of The Prodigy’s “Jericho” and “Out of Space” and finally, with their cover of 1980s American band Toto’s “Africa”, although not before admitting they’d learnt from previous shows that they’d be “lynched if we didn’t play it”.

Which is perhaps not surprising, considering it's their second most popular song on Spotify, and essentially what we are all waiting for. The finale reaches a climax with the whole band parading through the crowds in carnivalesque fashion, while “Africa” plays out – another modern twist on the marching bands of yore they are so clearly based on.