It turns out Joel Freeland won’t be the only British person gracing the floor at the Euroleague Final Four in Istanbul. Cut Capers, a band from Bristol and Cardiff, will be performing at half-time of both semi-finals on Friday. BiE’s Emmet Ryan caught up with Tom Taylor of Cut Capers to find out what to expect when they perform on Friday.
While the main attractions on Friday will be the heavyweight clashes between CSKA Moscow and Olympiacos followed by Fenerbahce vs Real Madrid, the crowd will get a chance to catch its breath at half-time of both games. Tom Taylor of Cut Capers, a British band with an interesting mix of music, spoke to BiE about what to expect when his group plays at half-time of each of the games on Friday.
BiE: Tell us about Cut Capers, how did you get together and how long have you been on the go?
Tom Taylor: We formed roughly 6 years ago now (wow… time flies) in Bristol – we started out as a 5 piece for a year or so before beefing things out with a more horns and our wonderful female vocalist Jane Thomas. We’ve been touring as an 8/9 piece for the last few years – we’ve done some interesting shows in the past but this just about takes the cake.
BiE: Most BiE readers have, sadly, not heard of you. What can they expect when you play in Istanbul?
TT: When we got asked to play the Euroleague Final Four, the brief they gave us was “Upbeat International Music” so I suppose that’s what we’re gonna give them. Our style of music is kind of a mash up of swing and hip-hop with lots of different elements thrown in for good measure. Generally speaking we play music that gets crowds going! We’ll be performing a couple of our most popular tunes. Expect pogo-esque dance moves, sharp suits and tight grooves!
BiE: How did you end up playing at the Euroleague Final Four? Are you looking forward to the experience?
TT: I got a call from our booking agent saying that there was this gig in Turkey for the European Basketball League Finals, he was as excited as we were to share the news. Seemed like a totally insane offer really – when they told us we’d be playing at the Sinan Erdem Dome, I Googled it and that’s when the penny dropped… We’ve played some pretty big shows before (most notably Glastonbury Festival last year to say 4 or 5 thousand people) but this mega 16,000 seater arena will certainly be one to tell the grandkids. Safe to say we’re all very excited indeed, though it’s fair to say we don’t really know what to expect.
BiE: The crowd is likely a bit different to what you are used to, with 16,000 people in an arena. Are you nervous?
TT: Yeah as I say, not really sure what to expect, definitely excited. We’ve got a soundcheck/rehearsal in the arena on Thursday night, I think perhaps the nerves might set in once we actually step foot in there. Saying that though, performing is what we do, it’s kind of our bread and butter so to speak, so I’m sure we’ll just get super hyped up and give it all we’ve got. Ask me again on Friday morning and I might have a slightly different answer.
BiE: And finally, if folk like what they see in Istanbul how can they follow you guys after the gig?
TT: Fingers crossed they do indeed like what they see, obviously an opportunity like this to play to such a large number of people, we’re hoping to get a bunch of new basketball fans on the Cut Capers bandwagon. We’re on all forms of social media, we interact with our fans best through Facebook (www.facebook.com/cutcapers) however we are on Twitter (@CutCapers) too. We’ve also got a load of videos up on YouTube, as well as all of our music on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon etc. as well as the official Cut Capers website.
Shoutout to George Rowland for his help on this post.
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