Masta Ace – Fresh Jive 28th November 2009

9pm onwards tonight at The Elbow Room in Leeds there will be a 7 to smoke bboy battle and later on Masta Ace performing all the hits at  Fresh Jive!

The first Fresh Jive event in a while, which is nice I know Shane Fenton (B-Boy 10Tonn) and the Fresh Jive/Speak to the Streets crew have had a busy year, so keep up the good work guys! I’m sure there are some awesome events in the pipeline for next year!

The Haggis Horns – Local funk band are also playing tonight at The Wardrobe with their new singer Lucinda Slim. If time will allow it, I might try go to Fresh Jive and then over to The Wardrobe to catch the gig for an ultimate night of pure hip hop and funk!

The Masterz Crew Showcase Battle

12 Midnight at Shed Bar Thursday 3rd December

After an absolutely awesome night out b-boying at Tiger Tiger on Tuesday, my mate Luke, a manager at Shed Bar in Leeds thought a breakdance performance would be the perfect fun and different entertainment for the Shed Bar’s 1st Birthday on Thursday 3rd December. So The Masterz Crew have been booked to get our groove on the only way we know how – B-BOY STYLE!

We’ll be warming up from about 11pm ready for the show to start around midnight – a 3 on 3 exhibition battle lasting between 10 and 15 minutes! I’m not sure of the 3 on 3 crews yet, but obviously the side I’m on will smoke them foooools on the other side! It’ll be like The Battle of Briggate all over again!

After the showcase battle we’ll stick around to jam for the rest of the night. You’re all welcome to come along to watch and party with us later … even the uncool people who were planning on staying at home watching YouTube bboying videos, you can come too!

Thursday the third of December two thousand and nine – Put it on your calendar, if there were a hook it would be totally off it!

Attention to Detail – The Hop

Wakefield 13th December

The next ATD is set to be full of festivities! With a Christmas themed fancy dress competition for the b-boys and b-girls it is definitely going to look interesting!

As well as the usual battle format which is always awesome, this time there will be special exhibition battles and showcase performances… and Fusion has asked me and Ross to do a 3 round exhibition battle with a bit of a twist. I’m not entirely sure if that’s for definite yet, but either way I’ll probably be there having fun so come down!

Just Jam International B-Boy Event Video

14th and 15th November – Newcastle, Dance City

Earlier this month I told you about Just Jam International and how much it sucked that I wouldn’t be able to make it, boohoo :’( so here is a sweet compilation from Sole Heaven of some of the b-boys who battled on the day. If I watch it fullscreen, turn the sound up and squint I can pretend I was right there in the audience…

Click here for more footage of the full bboy battles from Just Jam International.

Sole Heaven have written up a rather lovely review complete with photos too, have a gander here.

That’s the end of that chapter. Hopefully I shall see you at one, if not all, of the awesome b-boying events in the next few weeks, but for now here’s some fantastic advise for life:

” Do your kids a favor – don’t have any. ”

Robert Orben

Peace out!

Here’s the official Sony Ericsson UK B-Boy Championships video player to show you the build up and the final event. Each week it will be updated to show you lovely people a different video from around the planet leading up to the world finals, so remember to keep coming back and watching each week…

FAQ

1. How were the b-boy champs?

Continue reading and I shall reveal all…

October 10th and 11th UK B-Boy Championships – World Finals 2009

Ohhhhh yeeeeeah, London baby!

Last year 5 of us ventured down to Brixton O2 Academy to see the crew battle finals on the Sunday. Man was that an amazing event or what?! Russia’s Top 9 killed it and took home the title!

Here are a couple of valuable learning experiences from last year:

1. Although Audi A4′s claim to seat 5 people, after journeys to London and back from Leeds in one day our thorough testing confirms this is in fact a lie. It may seat 2 people and 3 garden gnomes, but 3 grown b-boys in the back is a different matter entirely.
2. Standing up to watch the entire evening of battles gives you major ‘gig back’, serious discomfort and aching in your lower back! (Which I often get while standing and watching gigs – hence ‘gig back’)

So this time we thought we’d be adventurous and go down for the full weekend. As a load of us were going, we didn’t all have to cram into one vehicle. Which turned out to be a tiny bit less painful. Happy times

Saturday at the UK B-Boy Championships

Unfortunately we couldn’t see anything more than a sea of various hair styles and hats with flailing legs over the top on the stage in the main room on the Saturday because it was a low stage and they didn’t have the projectors set up as they do on the Sunday at the Brixton O2 Academy.

Normally one might be a tad aggravated that they’d paid £20 ish for the Saturday ticket just to see an array of the backs of peoples heads. However, there happened to be a smaller IBE room where the footwork battles, seven2smoke and cyphers were going off. So we stayed in there and had a close up view of all the action. We saw some intricate footwork, a 1 armed b-boy busting out mills and headspins – RESPECT, and an intense 20 minute long seven2smoke battle. I took a few videos on my phone, I might update this post with some footage if I get time…it depends if there’s a demand to see it. Do you want to see the footwork battle final and the seven2smoke battle? Leave a comment and let me know.

Sunday at the UK B-Boy Champs

After an awful nights sleep due to being ill with a mega cold and headache we had a leisurely stroll around Camden Lock Market and Covent Garden. To be honest I didn’t think it was all that great, but that could be because I felt like I was going to die!

Was it just the places we went to or does London have a much higher ratio of ugly people to attractive people than Leeds??

After the mandatory Nando’s visit in Brixton we queued right around the venue to get in. Damn that was a long ass queue but I made it in alive!

The popping and locking battles were quite impressive. The B-Girl crew battles were awesome! The Solo B-Boy battles were dope! But you know what we’d all gone there to see…

Healthy Sports Supplements Perfect For The Training B-Boy!

Let’s get ready to rumble! The main event  – the crew battles

The UK’s Soul Mavericks were up first against Russia’s Top 9. It was close, but to be honest I thought Soul Mavericks took it, obviously last years winners can’t really go out in the first round though.

As you’d expect, each crew brought along some bad ass moves and complex routines. So I imagine it’s pretty tough to judge, maybe that’s why some of their decisions were absolutely retarded!

Jinjo Crew from Korea went up against Endangered Species from USA in the semi finals. The USA pulled out some crazy moves and were very good, but Jinjo Crew smoked them! Yet the judges voted for a tie, so there were 2 more rounds from each crew. Here’s what happened: Jinjo Crew absolutely killed it! Endangered Species crashed one of their sets and pushed one of Jinjo’s members across the stage. The crowd booed and the host, Crazy Legs, stepped in to prevent anything from kicking off. So the judges voted for…USA… I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many people booing before, the entire audience sounded like this: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! And so on…

After a day of meandering around London and standing up for hours my back was absolutely killing me! Cracking it every few minutes didn’t really relieve much of the aching, so I spent most of the event sitting in the bar watching the battles live on the HD TV screens, maybe the best view possible other than actually being on the stage – no annoyingly tall people stood in front!

The Ukraine were pulling out some crazy moves and had awesome style to go with it but they didn’t make it through to the final either.

So it ended up being Top 9 vs Endangered Species going head to head for the title. We watched the battle but had to leg it to catch the last tube train back to the car before the result was revealed. Fortunately an attractive lady jumped on the tube just after us and it turned out she’d also just been to the event and caught the results…

The winner and the crowd favourites: Endangered Species. Ha ha, crowd favourites -  I jest, apparently everybody booed them again when they won!

As if you’d want to win if you got booed 3 times during the event They had some super bad ass moves and were generally really good, but I’m definitely not the only one who thought they shouldn’t have made it through to the final and that Top 9 took it.

Ah well, I’m not a judge.

Overall it was a fun diddly weekend. Shame I was ill…but I survived! I highly recommend you go next year, even if just for the Sunday. You will definitely enjoy it more so than anything else you might possibly plan for a Sunday in October, like Church or nursing a hangover after Freshers week – NO! Don’t do that, go to London and watch some of the best b-boys on earth get their funk on, you won’t regret it, Brownies honour!

“I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short.”

Blaise Pascal

Tune in next time when I’ll probably talk about something absolutely incredible, as always.