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The Fantastics!



Last Updated: 11/22/2009

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Status: Single
City: London
State: London and South East
Country: UK
Signup Date: 10/29/2005

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Wednesday, November 25, 2009 

Current mood:  amused
Category: Music
Three tracks by The Fantastics!, together with recordings by other Freestyle artists are to feature on the soundtrack to a new Welsh comedy film; "A Bit Of Tom Jones" (due for national UK release in Januaray 2009) featuring Roger Evans, Matt Berry, Jonny Owen, John Henshaw, Geno Washington, Eve Myles, and Denise Welch.
READ THE REVIEWS HERE
MORE DETAILS HERE
11:40 PM 
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Tuesday, September 01, 2009 

Current mood:  animated
Category: Music
This is gonna be a funky one...

(click on images for more info)

All the way from Australia - Cookin' On Three Burners
playing tunes from their new album "Soul Messin'"



And all the way from London (via Southend) - The Fantastics!
playing tunes from their latest album "Mighty Righteous"



Very nice!

More details here:




10:12 PM 
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Friday, July 17, 2009 

Current mood:  pirate
Category: Music
Saturday 18th July

THE FANTASTICS!
+
CRAIG CHARLES DJ





The Big Chill House
257-259 Pentonville Road
King’s Cross
London
N1 9NL

Tel: 020 7427 2540
Email: housemanagers@bigchill.net

MORE INFO HERE



10:19 PM 
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Saturday, June 13, 2009 

Current mood:  excited
Category: Music
10th July:

LEFTIES SOUL CONNECTION

THE FANTASTICS! (feat REV CHUNKY)



11th July:

THE SWEET VANDALS

RARE GROOVE ORCHESTRA



12th July:

PHAT FRED

THE PERCEPTIONS





More info here

12:11 AM 
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Tuesday, April 28, 2009 

Current mood:  savage
Category: Music

The Fantastics! quartet will be performing tracks from the Mighty Righteous album as part of their Jelly Jazz set - this Friday at:

Jelly Jazz


(May 1st, The Eden Art Cafe, Eden Project, Cornwall, UK).

More details
here



Get Mighty Righteous here


The Fantastics!

Freestyle Records

Hip City Ltd

7:10 AM 
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Saturday, April 18, 2009 

Current mood:  awake
Category: Music



"A truly jazz filled offering with a hint of soulful grooves. This is classic Deep Funk rhymes and beats at its best. You need this big time, absolutely"
Dr Bob Jones (Manifesto magazine)

"It's such a good album!"
Mark Lamarr (BBC Radio 2)

"The Fantastics are set to make waves in the Queen's
Country with their debut LP - a perfect groove for on the
move"
(Wax Poetics magazine)

"Great stuff - and another feather in the cap of modern
funk & soul flag wavers at Freestyle Records!"
(Dusty Groove America)

If you want to be easily criticized negatively call your band The Fantastics! BUT, the easiest way to keep things positive is to simply be... fantastic and this band has yet to disappoint"
(Primitive Sound System)


"If you can keep your shoes on while listening to this album, you best check your pulse! It kept the dancefloor so hot mine melted right off. Blue skies ahead for The Fantastics!"
Pierre-Jean Lavigne (CISM 89,3 FM)

"could become one of the classic funk/jazz Cd's ever - the groove never stops!"
Marv D (The Urban Music Scene)




9:37 AM 
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Saturday, April 04, 2009 

Current mood:  blissful
Category: Music


The Fantastics! began to take shape in early 2003 when ex Longo Allstars James Rule (drums), Pete Collison (guitar), Matt Wilding (percussion), and Tina Wilding (trumpet) got together to form Reverend Cleatus & The Soul Saviours. Bassist Raydn Hunter joined up a few months later, and ex Soul Destroyer Greg Boraman completed the line up following an on-air "Hammond player appeal" from James during BBC 6 Music’s Craig Charles Funk Show.

The first gig (at Nick Cope's'Hot Funky & Sweaty' night in London) put the band off to a fine start, but the line up was to change several times before their first release. Salt Popcorn (on the Acid Jazz Hot Funky & Sweaty compilation) featured Mark Norton of the Gene Drayton Unit on tenor sax as a quick replacement for a departed horn section - the chemistry worked straight away and the new stripped back 'quartet + special guests' line-up was kept; the band (James, Pete, Ray and Greg) working with whoever else could make the gig - generally Mark! Countless rabble rousing gigs, an EP (Soul Habit) and several successful 45's, (including DJ Format's favourite The Slip) culminated in the much acclaimed debut album 2Lbs of Funk in a 1Lb Bag (Soul Cookers Records) in July 2007, which received a glowing 4 star review in Mojo magazine.



The Soul Saviours soon found that the rigidly defined genres of 'the funk scene' began to feel more like a straight jacket than a well cut suit, and the new line up decided upon a fresher musical approach incorporating (but never mimicking) all the band's various influences. Changing their name to Rev Cleatus pres: The Fantastics, and then finally The Fantastics!, they re-launched with the Cheeba's Couch 45 on Raw Wax, and started collectively writing for a new album. This new material, along with the new found freedom, tightness, chemistry and confidence was soon regularly performed at what seemed to be the bands two second homes: the Jazz Cafe in London, and the Yardbird in Birmingham; other gigs and festivals across the UK and Europe, along with radio sessions for Craig Charles (BBC 6 Music) and Mark Lamarr (BBC Radio2) kept the band busy between recording sessions.



Released in March 2009 (Freestyle Records), Mighty Righteous, looks backwards, forwards and sideways simultaneously. The album includes some searing soulful vocals, the sound of grand piano, double bass, African thumb piano, dub effects, and the scary sounds achieved when attacking a Hammond organ and tenor sax in a frustrated rage on the instrumental funk rant of Soul Sucka. From the Hammond groove of the title track, through to the beautiful, genre defying and filmic Blue Sunday, the whole album throws off the overbearing obsession of attempting to recreate specific periods in soul, funk and jazz history, and instead lets each composition evolve in whichever way feels natural for it to shine at it's best. The albums two collaborations featuring UK soul legend Noel McKoy add something of a contemporary R&B feel.

Mighty Righteous is an album that rips up the rule book, and throws decades of hip swinging musical influences into the mix. The album emerges with something fresh and engaging to say - which is precisely what The Fantastics had in mind in the first place...gentleman....your mission is accomplished!











10:46 PM 
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Sunday, March 22, 2009 

Current mood:  giddy
Category: Music

Contemporary Funk


A Fine Selection Of Some Of Todays Grooviest Funk & Soul Bands From All Over The World

(CD/LP/Digital) Tramp Records TRCD9005

Release date: 4th April 2009



The funk on this compilation is contemporary but the message of funk is as old as humanity itself. Funk as Tramp Records sees it is a vibrant and viable music that was born from a transformative period in American history - the sound of the growing pains of a young country. 'Contemporary Funk' gathers inspired bands from today whose hearts still beat for funk's timeless truth, and connects them with this rich legacy of American music.

Today, the rhythm and earnestness of true funk can be found in all corners of the world. And this compilation is evidence that the innocence and purity of the original message remains strong. Affectation and phoniness can't seem to take hold in funk as long as the unenlightened or uninitiated players aren't trying to wah-wah their way through one-dimensional cartoon-like clichés. Afro wigs and 'booty' references only help to reinforce racist stereotypes and obstruct funk from realizing it's true potential as an uplifting music for all the people of the world.
 

More info here:
Tramp Records Website
Tramp Records Myspace


Tracklisting :
01. DeRobert & the Half-Truths - Fallin' In Debt
02. The Fantastics - Chicken Lickin' (Live)
03. Big Joe Louis & Soul Investigators - Go-Go Train
04. Karachi Prison Band - Put Some Grit In It (Part 1)
05. The Funk Revolution - Izzy Come, Izzy Go
06. The Qualitons - One Man Song
07. Mauri Bailey - Soul Pop
08. The Neapolitans - Hakusha
09. Tynnes Well & The Magic Fountains - Stop The Madness
10. The Unstoppable S. Robinson & Marvelaires - Humpin'
11. Ben Martin Trio - Brasil No.7

11:44 AM 
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009 

Current mood:  amorous
Category: Music

We'll be playing tunes from the new album "Mighty Righteous", plus some old favourites, and a few covers at South London Pacific (Kennington), Friday 20th March, so come along if you're in the area - it's a small funky venue, so should be a very hot night!

Dj tunes courtesy of Mr Mark Norton too - so good stuff is garaunteed..

More details here

South
London Pacific,
340 Kennington Road,
London

SE11 4LD

020 7820 9189

info@southlondonpacific.com



5:13 PM 
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009 

Current mood:  amorous
Category: Music


The new Fantastics! album "Mighty Righteous" is out now (Freestyle Records) on CD, vinyl and digital download.....

(click image for more details / buy):





Much more than just a "funk" album, the tunes range from spaced out blues  (The White Out, Blue Sunday), to Blue Note style Hammond grooves (Mighty Righteous), to hard vocal funk (Soul Child - feat Noel McKoy), to funked up mod-soul (a very funky cover of the Small Faces I Can't Dance With You - feat Noel McKoy), to Afro Beat, Northern Soul, and Meters inspired funkiness (Kinshasa Five, Nine Lives, Stay Hip (or Die Trying)
 

Already enjoying radio support from BBC Radio 2, 6 Music, Jazz FM, regional BBC radio, Solar Radio, BBC London 94.9...here's what the experts say about it:

"A truly jazz filled offering with a hint of soulful grooves. This is classic Deep Funk rhymes and beats at its best. You need this big time, absolutely" -Dr Bob Jones (Manifesto)

"The Fantastics are set to make waves in the Queen's Country with their debut LP - a perfect groove for on the move" - (Wax Poetics magazine)

"Great stuff -- and another feather in the cap of modern funk & soul flag wavers at Freestyle Records!" - Dusty Groove America

"If you want to be easily criticized negatively call your band the The Fantastics! BUT, the easiest way to keep things positive is to simply be... fantastic and this band has yet to disappoint" - Primitive Sound System)
 

"It's such a good album" - Mark Lamarr - BBC Radio 2
 
The band are already booked for The Beachdown Festival 2009, Jelly Jazz @ The Eden Project, Saint Paul Soul Jazz Fest (France) and are taking bookings for more gigs, radio sessions - get in touch if that's your appetite wetted and you want some Fantastics action!
 

salut!

The Fantastics!
Freestyle Records
Hip City Ltd




 

11:26 PM 
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