Rad to the power sick
If you ever met them ambling about on Mare Street, you’d probably think the guys behind Sex Beat are your typical hackney bike creeps who have nothing better to do with their time than cruise around London Fields on their fixies looking for their next can of Löwenbräu, but you’d be wrong.
Beneath their love of vests, bowl cuts and Suicidal Tendencies, Sex Beat are in fact some of the hardest working promoters you’ll ever hope to meet in London. Responsible not only for a lot of those killer shows you read about happening in Brixton, Shoreditch and beyond, they have helped introduced Crocodiles and Ariel Pink to our shores and look after the likes of Spectrals and Jeremy Jay on their semi-regular jaunts across country. They’re also the guys behind those crazy pop punk nights at the Old Blue Last where girls take their tops off and guys careen about like 14-olds after one too many cans of White Lightning.
Once a year the guys throw a massive wiener roast appropriately called Radfest, where everybody gets to get trashed and party to a consistently amazing line-up of bad ass bands. Taking place at Corsica Studios on the 8th of August, this year is looking to be the baddest ever with headline sets from New York ball-breakers A Place to Bury Strangers and West Coast cool dudes Ganglians, a gold-dust London appearance from super-hyped Municipal Waste throw-backs Cerebral Ballzy and the return of everyone's favorite slacker-core mumblers Graffiti Island. Throw in a record fair, screen printing workshop and a BBQ, and it will probably be rad to the power sick.
Basically, you should start thinking up excuses for your stinking Monday morning hangover now.
Sexbeat started a few years ago now, how did it come about and how come it moved to London?
It started in a call centre in Leeds 2006 - we had enough of answering calls so started a rock n roll party where we could dance to Black Flag and French kiss girls. We moved to London to try French kiss more girls, unsuccessfully.
How did you get into promoting shows? I mean people start bands to get laid, what do promoters get out of the deal?
Some people like watching bands play live, I like watching bands getting laid.
What’s the craziest thing that you’ve ever seen at one of your shows? (We saw a dude jump over the bar and hit someone at one in Brixton, but you weren’t there)
I saw a guy knee slide at a show last night. Strong look.
Who do you rate band wise right now?
Cerebral Ballzy are where its at right now for me. Like Bad Brains but better at skating.
What tips can you give to anyone looking to start putting on gig?
It doesn't matter what bands you put on, as long as there are a nice set of tits on the flyer.
Apart from the killer line-up and the cheapish booze, why should people come to Radfest?
Well, I'm glad you asked me that Dom. People should come to RADFEST to see me slide on my knees.
Radfest is happening on August 8th at Corsica Studios. Check out Sex Beat's blog for more details.
Image by Zac Ella and Chris White.
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