The Demon Barbers (The Lock In & The Demon Barbers XL)

The Lowry, Salford

14th Oct 2012

5 out of 5 stars

We’re told that a healthy lifestyle prohibits only incest and folk dancing. The risible costumes and staid routines certainly make it hard to see the latter as anything but quaint.

The Lock In sets out to modernise the genre by combining some of the UK’s top clog, sword and Morris dancers with their hiphop dancing counterparts from B-boying, popping and krump.

The Lock In is structured more as a theatrical or dance presentation than a concert. It comprises a series of dance duels among the patrons of ‘Ye Olde Fighting Cock’. Initially the integration of dance styles is tentative. The rivals dance to the same beat but retain their own style rather than adopt that of their opponents. The hiphop dancers are highly athletic even acrobatic – spinning, contorting and twisting across the stage. The folk dancing is in the traditional style in which the trunk of the body is immobile and all of the action in the legs and feet.

The integration of the musical styles, from the Demon Barbers folk group with beatbox champion Grace Savage and percussionist Toby Kearney, is more complete. Folk dancing tends to be driven by the fiddle but in The Lock In percussion and rhythm dominate. There is even a drum solo. You spoil us.

The Lock In is infectious and gets under your skin to the extent you stop analysing and start just enjoying. It is avoids the cultural pretensions of Riverdance and concentrates on displaying the ability of the dancers. The hiphop dancing has a precision that brings to mind modern dance. The noise generated by the clog dancing merges with the music becoming the equivalent of an instrument in itself. The intricate sword dancing is fascinating and the sheer discipline involved has to be admired.

Gradually the dancing styles begin to merge with a stunning sequence of a dancer tumbling through a complex sword dance. By the climax all of the dancers are moving seamlessly together sharing the stage and their styles.

The Lock In might not achieve its lofty ambitions but it is certainly the best night out in town.

Dave Cunningham - Whats On Stage.Com

“Someone should give this show a WEST END run”

The Stag Theatre, Sevenoaks

21st Sep 2011

The Demon Barbers deliver more than you expect. Their Roadshow takes exciting English traditional music all over the country, but with exciting English traditional dance, too – percussive clog. acrobatic rapper, elegant long-sword and leaping morris. The Lock In develops this, integrating these traditions with contemporary vernacular dance – hip-hop, popping and krump. It is spectacular, witty arid immensely enjoyable.

Welcome to ‘The Fighting Cocks’. The hip-hop crew arrive, busting low, caps on sideways. One finds a pewter tankard, gives it a rub, and – as you might expect – there’s a mysterious apparition the appearance of, well, the spirits of traditional dance, I suppose – in a processional reminiscent of the ancient Abbots Bromley Horn dance. There follows a series of choreographic clashes, hip-hoppers striving to outdo cloggers, amazingly fast and precise rappers (dancers not MCs) and sword-dancers.

There are marvellous dramatic touches; the edgy bouncer confronts a leery drinker sparking an outburst of morris dancing hostile as any Haka. Rapper dancing features a ‘Betty’, a comic character in drag, the role assayed here by the Barbers’ bearded drummer, Ben Griffith, who becomes Jasmine, the pub’s landlady. Pool cues take the place of the long-swords in an astonishing display of disciplined dexterity.

Gradually the hip-hop and traditional dancer come together; beatboxing melds with fiddle and melodeon in the creation of music and dance that is contemporary and traditional, ancient and modern – and original. Damien Barber and Bobak Walker’s The Lock In is more exciting musically and choreographically than Riverdance or Stomp; it’s more ambitious, culturally more important. Someone should give this show a WEST END run.

Julian May - Songlines

Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames

15th Nov 2012

Morris dancers in the foyer beforehand, the cast racing offstage to perform an unexpected encore in the bar afterwards – and, in between, a full-on show of such blazing energy and joyous ingenuity you scarcely ponder on the apparent madness of trying to marry folk dance and hip hop.

With colour, verve and some jaw-dropping acrobatics, The Lock In, the startlingly ambitious brainchild of Damien Barber – front man with leading UK folk band the Demon Barbers – demonstrates that the two seemingly alien art forms have plenty in common. Nearly two hundred years, the Atlantic Ocean and an entire culture may separate the roots of clog dancing in the mills of Lancashire during the Industrial Revolution and the b-boying that emerged among the African American and Latino communities in New York in the 1970s and ’80s, but the vivid demonstration of their surprisingly natural parallels as expressive demonstrations of street culture are core elements in this compellingly upbeat show.

It opens with the wail of a police siren as three youths break into a deserted bar apparently intent on trouble. Flying around the stage, they discover a pewter tankard – one of several witty allusions to the clichés that still surround English folk music – and its Aladdin-esque magic unleashes the full, weird wonder of English traditional dance, as strangely horned creatures emerge through the audience, intimidatingly circling the hip hop crew before engaging them in assorted dance-offs and comedy skits, with plenty of fiery, beat-driven music.

It’s a thin premise for a dance extravaganza, but the performers’ innovative routines and relentless spirit carry you along as they hurtle from breakneck rapper sword-dancing performed with billiard cues to the sort of limb-bending somersaults normally confined to a circus.

One of the stars is Grace Savage, a champion beatboxer whose extraordinary oral effects are not only a mesmerising focal point, but provide a very human force to the hip hop connections. Dogan Mehmet, too, is an imposing, charismatic presence, both as singer and an impressively versatile fiddle player; while Barber himself is constantly central to the action, whether consumed by dance frenzy, singing the Demon Barbers “hit” Captain Ward or belting out a punkish, knockabout, breakdancing Three Drunken Maidens with one of the hip hop crew. Some of the comedy grates, but the feel-good factor and sheer dynamism of the show swiftly obliterates any shortcomings. - The Telegraph

The Brooke Theatre. Chatham

19th Nov 2012

It’s good, too, to see England’s oldest street-dance forms not just alive and kicking, but devolving. Morris men with their flowers and bells aren’t exactly up there with breakdancers as models of cool. But an ambitious new touring show, The Lock In, might just change that.

The inspiration comes from Damien Barber, frontman of the award-winning folk band The Demon Barbers, who supply the floor-shaking live music that alone justifies the price of the ticket. The show opens with the wail of police sirens as three youths – a hip-hop crew in fact – burst into a seemingly deserted pub to escape the law. After strutting their skills-set, they discover they are not alone. The pub’s regular clientele includes a trio of female Lancashire cloggers, a longsword and rapper-sword team (not that kind of rapper) and a set of Cotswold Morris men.

At first wary of each other, a keen competitiveness takes hold, aggressive, then increasingly friendly, as each faction finds points to admire in the other. Before long they’re sharing and swapping techniques, spurred on by the fiery, beat-driven music, and the plosive blandishments of beatboxer Grace Savage. You’ll rub your eyes in disbelief, but stripped of their silly outfits, even the kerchief-waving Morris dances manage to look tough and manly. The Lock In makes for a rousing night out.

Jenny Gilbert - The Independent

‘One of the best live bands I've ever seen. If you get a chance to see them - don't miss it - they are brilliant' Mike Harding, BBC Radio 2 - BBC Radio 2

“The hugely likeable Demon Barbers demonstrate again exactly why they won that Best Live Act gong at the BBC Folk Awards this year”. Colin Irwin, f’Roots
- f'Roots

"The Demon Barbers were a revelation and everyone was blown away by their style and humour. Verity Sharp has been telling me all about the Roadshow. I hope we can find another way to work with them as soon as possible." David Jones from Serious
- Serious