Mutant Vinyl

To end the evening we had Mutant Vinyl. Mutant Vinyl is the brilliant project by Bournemouth legend Ed Pope. I’ve never seen his band properly, only having seen him do a DJ set for the first time at the Big Collab (which was excellent, by the way), and having seen him play in Cella Creeps and County Hospital a couple of times. Mutant Vinyl are a big love of Bh-One’s, so it seemed pretty perfect for them to end the night, and the event in general. Ed was joined by a 3-piece band, which featured guitarist-Marc from Cella Creeps. Having been very impressed by everything I’d seen from Ed thus far, I was really looking forward to finally catching Mutant Vinyl, and I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t disappointed at all. Muntant Vinyl have a really cool sound, which blends elements of trip-hop, reggae, dub and rock, and makes it really interesting and extremely catchy. With a lot of reverb and delay on Ed’s vocals, it really brings out the best of his abilities. A lot of chorus and phaser were used on the guitar lines, which really added to general sound that Muntant Vinyl possess. The crowd were absolutely loving it, and you can tell why; Ed is a natural born frontman, and his stage presence is incredibly huge for a local band. If Mutant Vinyl don’t take this nationally, I’m going to be very surprised. Ed is a multi-instrumentalist, and he showed us his abilities on the bass, sax and guitar tonight; being awesome at all of them. The band played an 8-song set, which featured a cover of Kings of Leon’s ‘Knocked Up’. It sounded great, but I thought that maybe they didn’t need to even include a cover. You can see why they chose to; Ed made a speech about the sense of community in the room that night, and invited a guest female vocalist up to sing with him. Following on from this, the last song of their main set included Martin Roberts, who plays with Disco’s Out Muder’s In and commands the Moozik project, on trumpet. This song was the excellent ‘Acid Honey’, which is still in my head today due to it’s incredibly catchy sax-line. It was a great song to watch, as Martin and Ed both soloed in the breakdown and created a great brass sound. Martin even ended up playing some weird-as-fuck kids toy, which was really cool! This was the last song of the main set, and obviously, the band were commanded back up for an encore. For the encore, Ed took the chance to go a cover of the Clash’s ‘Guns of Brixton’, which was also another joy to behold. He was on bass for this one, and you could tell he was having a great time, ending the track jumping into the crowd chaotically. A great end to the show, and I’m really happy that I’ve finally got to see Mutant Vinyl. - This Scene Isn't Dead blogger

"Last weekend I went to The Water Rats Theatre to see MUTANT VINYL and I was blown away. The four piece band, conceived by frontman Edwin Pope, fuse Rock, Funk, Metal, D&B…to make an awesome sound & style. They’ve supported the likes of ‘Scouting For Girls’ and ‘Electric Six’ and played gigs all over the country – sharing their crazy creations with crowds from Liverpool to London. The band are tight, precise and yet extremely relaxed, looking completely at ease on stage in front of the lights. Pope is a man of many talents; when he’s not singing the catchy melodies and strumming away on his guitar, he’s blaring out beautiful riffs on the saxophone (which is one of my favourite instruments). The best unsigned band I’ve ever seen. These guys are going to go far." - Who Is Scout? blogger

"7.30pm, 200+ inside the Bournemouth O2 Academy, enter Mutant Vinyl to a stage adorned with an impressive MV backdrop; first Ed’s backline, draped in black & white, followed by the man himself, dressed in black with blue leg-strap decoration. Huge applause. Straight into ‘Pinks Dagga’, newly composed and an impressive opener; no first tune nerves or initial sound issues here. More huge applause, whoops, cheers etc.

Now, Mutant Vinyl are not the finished article, they’ve been gigging as a (ever-changing) band for less than a year. But, for a young, exciting foursome, oozing with raw talent, heads exploding with ideas and energy just pouring out with beautiful abandon, Mutant Vinyl are an absolute joy. It’s that energy and youthful abandon which makes them so hugely watchable, and tonight was a perfect example of what has made these guys possibly the biggest live local attraction. Having seen dozens of bands attract dozens of friends to their first few gigs, there are very few who turn those friends into fans, and then actually see those numbers grow to those that have come to the O2 tonight.

See, Edwin Pope simply has what it takes. These songs are bloody good; his groovy, funky dub is not just up my street it’s down my alley too, and as a musician he’s quite frightening, but what makes his potential so great is his natural ability as a performer. Hugely watchable, it’s his air of unpredictability and sheer physical presence which, coupled with his undoubted skill as a musician gives him unlimited potential. He’s not yet a Prince, but there’s something of ‘the Artist’ about him. It wouldn’t be a Mutant Vinyl gig without some sort of breakage or malfunction; tonight it was mostly restricted to a faulty guitar strap. Maybe had Ed decided to jump (as he appeared to be threatening) from those stage-side speakers, we could’ve witnessed damage beyond his guitar, which was flung as ‘Acid Honey’ (his final song) climaxed. Mutant Vinyl came and conquered, but these are very early days… if Edwin Pope has the patience to wait, big things will surely come his way" - Tony Foster, BhOne