Big Wig Festival – it’s gonna be EPIC!

PUBLISHED March 13th, 2013 01:32 am | UPDATED January 21st, 2016 07:43 am

For me festivals mean waves of nostalgia, rock gods and a sea of hands as I remember reckless summers misspent at Glastonbury but ….listen up Nomads, something awesome is a’comin, and it promises to be very cool. Singapore’s first Urban music festival is a mere few weeks away, and we are very, VERY excited.

With a killer line-up of international headliners like Pharoahe Monch, The Bizarre Ride live with Pharcyde, Four Dub featuring Akil the MC of Jurassic 5 and Hydro Phonics, Chrom3, Deejay Theory, Captain Planet, and The Cuban Brothers plus the support of our coolest homegrown acts like Wicked Aura, Kevin Lester
with DJ Koflow, and Pushin’On, I think you’ll agree that this is shaping up to be an exquisite aural extravaganza wrapped up sweetly in Soul, Funk and Hip Hop beats!

Held on the 6th April at Fort Canning Park, this inaugural event not only has a stellar line-up but just to raise its cool points a few notches, Big Wig also has a purpose built skate ramp, live graffiti art, and a performance from our favourite bad boys, Radikal Forze crew, Singapore’s pioneering B-boy crew. If you’ve seen these guys in action, you’re feeling my excitement, if you haven’t, prepare for jaw-dropping aerials, slick moves and some serious game-face! The only problem is, after you’ve watched them, you’re bound to quickly realise that the funky chicken simply won’t do, and it’s time to up your dance skills!

If all of the above, hasn’t got you whipped up into a frenzy, then let me introduce the Cuban Brothers, who are performing at Big Wig and also took time out of their crazy, party a go-go schedule to answer a few City Nomads questions. If you’ve not heard of them before, let’s just say that the Hollywood elite, worldwide festivals and just about anyone who’s anyone has hired the Cuban Brothers to add a little crazy Caribbean ole! to their dos. These irrepressible showmen know how to get a party started!

I heard you’re all about the nonsense! Explain?!

We’re all about leaving the hum drum everyday behind and letting your hair down and having fun. There’s nothing like hanging out with your bredren….laughing …getting melted…maybe meeting someone of the fairer sex or multiple of the fairer sex and who knows?? One life One love!

Where did the inspiration for Miguel Mantovani come from? Is he who you secretly want to be?

I was DJ’n in Majorca at BCM circa 93 and living in this hotel and every day I would see this cat Pedro or Spanish Pete as I called him entertaining the junior guests around the pool or rocking discos for them and stuff, he was so fantastically sub standard and unusual looking dude about 5ft and in his mid 50s but so enthusiastic and warm….I just found him hilarious and would catch myself watching the dude do his thing when I was supposed to be at my job. It wasn’t till a few years later that I realised I was channeling him when I started playing out as Miguelito…a ridiculous but lovely man.

Sorry to ask you again, you must get asked a lot, but performing with James Brown… just how amazing?

Sharing the stage with my heroes James brown, Prince, the native tongues collective, George Clinton etc has been unreal. All through our career we’re lucky enough to have had all of our deams fulfilled so yes we have pinched ourselves many times and shared looks of  ‘whaa the faaaaaaa?’ as blessed to be performing internationally making money having fun.

Your performances are legendary for hyping up the crowd, you know Singaporeans are a little restrained right? What can we expect ?

Simply the greatest show on earth. We are a band but we are also entertainers who love to get down…dope music, next level b-boyin, poppin, locking and check out the new album Yo Bonita!! to hear me sing and MC with a truck load of special guests…Fun and Action friends with a bit of wrongness..ok more than a bit of wrongness.

What has been the most memorable day/event/or gig that you’ve played in your career so far?

We’ve been hosting Bestival since its inception in 2003 and I’ ve watched it grow from 6000 cats to 70 000 onsite last year…it’s one amazingly dope party.

Who are your musical influences?

There’s so many, we’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with them on our travels. As well as Senor James Brown,  we toured with the Pharcyde and Q-tip in Oz 2009 so it’ll be great to link with those talented cats again especially dope they are performing Bizarre ride…..true classic amigos.

So, who’s in?  Time to get your party on!

Big Wig Festival is on Saturday the 6th of April from 3pm onwards at Fort Canning Green.Tickets to Big Wig are available through Sistic here or through Paypal via here.