When it comes to “totally epic weeks of music” in Sydney, rarely do you get more “epic” than the week of Big Day Out. Not only does the festival and its sideshow dictate most of your nights out, but so do the Sydney Festival shows, the emerging Laneway sideshows and even the odd “Police”-esque stadium spectacular.
For 2011, my “totally epic week” has launched with East London’s Benjamin Paul Ballance-Drew, AKA Plan B. To bring us to the point where Plan B stands before us today is quite an interesting story indeed. Debuting his hip-hop style to critical acclaim in 2006 with Who Needs Actions When You Got Words, Plan B quickly won over a nation who had found similar affection in artists like The Streets and Jamie T. But unlike his contemporaries, the world outside his homeland never quite took to B’s approach to UK hip-hop.
Fast forward to 2011 and we lay witness to a very different man indeed. Plan B, striking a commercial record deal, released the soul concept record The Defamation of Strickland Banks, which, off the back of singles like “Stay Too Long”, “She Said”, and “Prayin'”, went straight to number one on the UK charts. It has since sold half a million copies around the world.
Much like Cee-Lo Green, Plan B has found commercial refuge in some pretty solid soul music – but unlike Cee-Lo, Plan B hit the goldmine with his very first record of the genre…
So it’s no surprise that, in their first appearance on Australian soil since Strickland, B and his talented band sold out their Big Day Out sideshow at the Metro. And what a crowd he was gifted – this sideshow saw some pretty damn passionate fans hit the dance floor in an overheated Metro Theatre (thank YOU, broken air conditioning).
But before Benjamin and company took to the stage, we were treated to a performance from Melbourne’s Paris Wells. Playing tonight over a backing track courtesy of her DJ, I can’t say it was quite as enthralling as her more instrumental encounters, but her hour long exploration of Various Small Fires proved no less enjoyable – Paris relying on her vocal talents alone to win over the crowd. This was something she consistently seems to achieve with ease.
Plan B was introduced to the crowd after a half hour interval by a ridiculously talented beatboxer, Faith SFX. Rarely have I seen such a successful crowd ‘pump up’. It was so successful that I think there were some in the crowd who forgot who they were there to see! Jumping between the American movie trailer voice, parodied so famously by Pablo Francisco “….What you are about to witness”, to the well known beats of “I like to move it move it”, SFX entertained the crowd ten fold. Hell, he just about upstaged the main act.
But, as the lyrics of “Writings on the Wall” echoed around the Metro Theatre, the crowd were quick to remember who would be leading them in song this evening. And boy did they cheer in excitement. He pummeled through his new album, with tracks like “Welcome to Hell” and “Prayin'” proving a particular success. New song “Every Rule” showed that it’s not only hip hop that lies in the future for Mr. B, while “She Said” closed out the hour long main set to a singalong that almost drowned out the stage. This was one appreciative crowd.
Then came the encore, AKA the karaoke portion: Plan B ran through a medley featuring “The Tracks Of My Tears” by Smokey Robinson, “Lean On Me”, “My Girl” and “Stand By Me”, before bringing SFX back onto the stage for a ‘dubstep’ version of the classic Ben E. King number.
Keeping with the ‘dubstep’ theme, he then ran through impressive versions of “Ain’t No Sunshine” and Feist‘s “Limit To Your Love” (although he was championing the new James Blake version). This lead into Seal‘s “Kiss From a Rose”, and the now classic “Forgot about Dre”. Plan B is quite the versatile performer!
But when it came to his own material, he saved the best for last, with “Stay Too Long” closing out the night, as B jumped around the stage, crash tackling his guitarist and sending the crowd into a frenzy.
This was one impressive show. I can’t help but think a few golden oldies would’ve have spiced things up a bit though – as great as his voice is live on the soul side of town, and as much as everyone (including myself) was there to hear the new album, it was when he brought out the hip-hop flare that I really felt the show shined the brightest.
But it comes as little surprise. The Strickland album has seen Plan B’s popularity skyrocket, and it will certainly be interesting to see what he comes up with next, as he balances this style with that of his roots.
We already know that “The Ballad of Belmarsh”, a hip hop extension of his latest record, will be released later this year. So successful has been his soul experiment, however, that his label refuses to publish the thing. So where this ever-evolving performer goes from here is indeed anybodies guess… Something tells me, however, that the story of Strickland Banks is far from over… And after tonights stellar performance, you wouldn’t want it to be.
