Birmingham show for Boy Azooga
The slightly bonkers Boy Azooga is coming to Birmingham to promote the release of their debut record this week.
Released earlier this year, 1, 2 Kung Fu is piloted by Cardiff lad Davey Newington, a young man with much musical heritage. One of his grandfathers was a jazzer who played drums for the Royal Marines. His dad played violin and his mum clarinet - and they met in the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales. Davey himself also enjoyed orchestral engagement, playing in various Welsh Orchestra’s and Jazz bands as a teenager.
Operating as Bongo Fury, he recently became the rhythmic pulse for Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon. And now Davey returns as Boy Azooga.
Davey’s vocals and arrangements carry the tunefulness of The Super Furry Animals. But the palette extends far beyond. Davey recruited friends Daf Davies, Dylan Morgan and Sam Barnes to form the Boy Azooga live quartet, an ensemble that swings smoothly from filmic instrumentals to a churning, rave-tinged rock that hints at both Can and Happy Mondays. Touchingly, too, his father appears to provide the strings.
“The album is not all one thing for sure,” says Davey. “The whole point of Boy Azooga is to be a celebration of loads of different types of music. I wanted the album to be more like a mixtape or something. We wanted to include loads of contrasting styles.”
Other influences on the album include Sly & The Family Stone, Caribou, Black Sabbath, Outkast, Van McCoy, Ty Segall and The Beastie Boys. He puts his vast range down to an influential art teacher.
“Mr Clark was pretty cool," he said. "He knew I played drums, so he told me I should check out Can because they have really interesting rhythms, so I bought Can’s Ege Bamyasi in Spillers Records in Cardiff [the iconic outlet which claims to be the oldest record shop in Britain].”
And what about that name?
“When we were growing up,” adds Davey, “we used to watch the film The Little Rascals at my gran’s house. In that film they chant ‘Azooga-zooga-zooga’ so the name comes from that. My cousin is in a really good Edinburgh-based band called Man Of Moon. When me and him text each other we always sign off with ‘Azooga-zooga'. I’d wanted to call the band Bo Azooga after Bo Diddley, but my girlfriend told me BO was not something good to have in a name.”
To listen to this eclectic sound, catch Boy Azooga at the Castle & Falcon in Birmingham on Wednesday. Tickets, costing £7.70, can be bought here.
