Music
Press
Listen to magnificent opener 'Caterpillar' and immediately agree it's the greatest thing Bristol's ever produced. Well, possibly. Scrappy, shambolic, fabulously raw and direct, like 'One Foot On the Grave'-era Beck sparring with Mark E Smith.Best song of the year? without question. Hal Camplin's extraordinary ear for language is nailed together here with some killer chords to spine-tingling effect.
Elsewhere, answerphone messages, home tapings and children's toys pile up in a never less than compelling collage. It's not all great. 'That Other Thing' is rubbish, like a tramp hurriedly breaking into song upon a policeman's approach.But the album's cumulative effect is akin to rummaging through the dusty bric-a-brac of an eccentric shop crammed with unexpected delights, many of them mis-priced. It's a shop that has mysteriously survived the arrival of the glittering new mall opposite and should definitely be treasured. (Kid Pensioner) - Venue Magazine
Discography
EPs Songs for Pete Singer, New Health System, Pity the Fool and Human Sweet Shop have all had BBC Bristol airplay.
Photos
Bio
Barry the Badger and Badgertrap
SUMMARY
Who/What : artist Hal Camplin performs in a one man/badger band act involving music, physical stunts (sawing in half trick, jumping off ladders, playing sports) and other forms of creativity (including painting, sculpture and installation) . Employs percussive support when required.
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Origins of Badgertrap:
2001 second operation in Brooklyn, New York and experiences Sept 11th
2002 turns back on rat race leaves London for Bristol and starts a gambling company called the Flying Foal with former punk musician James Barnett
2003 Camplin starts artist run space in Bristol called Kangaroo Kourt
2004 The Laconic Badgertrap begins with NHS ep
2005 Songs for Peter Singer ep
2006 act shortens to Badgertrap release new ep Pity the Fool
2007 Barry the Badger emerges during Artcast project and on You Tube
2008 Barry fully takes over Badgertrap act and stars on BBC3 talent show Upstaged
2009 Barry and Badgertrap release music album “Human Sweet Shop”
2010 Holds residency night called The Closet and the Plank in Bristol. Hits Edinburgh with Red Geoff and goes on UK tour with Gioconda
Barry emerged from the increasingly eccentric Bristol performance scene in July 2007 to turn a series of tumultuous, shambolic sabotages of Bristol music act Badgertrap. Camplin claims Barry took over the act with his physical presence and blundering comedy sounding increasingly like Mark E Smith when taking the mic. Camplin was given a stuffed badger by his grandfather when very young and this goes some way to explaining the obsession with badgers. There is perhaps a Batmanesque psychosis going on.
Upstaged was an eight-week show goin out online and on BBC3. Performers auditioned in two glass boxes in Bristol's Millennium Square. It helped to raise Barry’s profile in the national media.
BADgertRAP’s work is bold with imagination, surrealism, social rebellion, diverse forms of communication, dark comedy and unpredictability.
BADgertRAP attracts lovers of animals and improvised comedy,punk surrealism (in your face weirdness), DIY art and a laconic dry wit. The audience is often brimming with performance poets/ artists, students (ex or current),middle-aged drifters/life experienced, liberal minded anarchic free thinkers and dis-satisfied bland pop music haters
BADgertRAP is the only one man/badger music act in the world
A genuine 21 century surrealist who delivers wry social comment with killer melody “doing things never done before in an animal outfit”.
In current culture you can try to look at The Mighty Boosh and their surreal tangents with songs, Al Murray’s character comedy, Andy Kaufman’s zany upside down painful to watch disurbances , Eddie Izzard’s showmanship,Dylan Moran’s surreal drunken tangents mad rants, Bill Hicks’s directness and rebelliousness
Larry David’s dryness, Mountain Goat’s quirkiness, Neutral Milk Hotel’s desperate humour, Mr Blobby’s struggle with physicality, Rainbow’s childishness, Dom Joly’s bravery, Emu’s sabotage, Roland Rat’s cool, Kermit’s doubt and Gordon the Gopher’s cheekiness.
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