dionne charles - vocals, toby sendall - guitar, simon hill - bass, alex kirkwood - drums, georgina carroll - flute, sigi beare - bari / alto sax, lee nicklen - keys, will rumfitt - trombone..
Influences
Proper heavy funk n soul from the late sixties and early seventies: The Meters, James Brown & the JBs, Dyke and the Blazers, Fela Kuti, David Axelrod, Sly Stone, Marvin Gaye, Marva Whitney, Syl Johnson, etc... We're also inspired by the new wave of funk that's going on: Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, (everything on Daptone records), Speedometer, The New Mastersounds, The Soul Destroyers, Poets of Rhythm, etc. We also love all the Keb Darge Deep Funk compilations and not forgetting the Ultimate Beats and Breaks stuff too.. We love hiphop too; stuff from the golden era '88 to '95 and also a lot of the new stuff like Edan and the Stones Throw Records shnizz.... You get it?????
Fronted by soul sensation Dionne Charles; the guitar, bass, keys, drums, congas, flute, sax and trombone lay down the deeply funky tunes. Inspired by the late-sixties sounds from the likes of The J.B.s and The Meters, Baby Charles know how to deliver the soulful goods.
Their fans include some of the highest ranking funk djs including: Snowboy, Keb Darge, Jazzman Gerald, Monk One, and especially Andy Smith, who snapped up their debut 45 for his 'Let's Boogaloo Vol 4' compilation, and got them to play at the album's launch party at Cargo. Mark Lamarr was so impressed by their debut single, he invited the band to record six tracks live in session for his God's Jukebox show on Radio 2.
In July 2007, Baby Charles supported The James Taylor Quartet at the Soul Cookers Hammond Funk Festival in Saint-Paul, Marseilles. That same funky month, the mixing of the band's debut album was completed and sent to Mark Lamarr, who played their cover version of the Arctic Monkeys track 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' on the Jonathan Ross Radio2 Show. Mr Lamarr has also kindly written the sleeve notes for the Baby Charles debut album, which is due for release by the Italian label Record Kicks in March 2008.
You can download our latest single here, go on!!!
Visit our store to get hold of our Music: http://www.babycharles.co.uk/store
Also, you can vote for us at the Indy Awards:
http://www.indyawards.co.uk/2008/artist_voting.php?artists=BABY%20CHA
To get tickets for the Dex Club checkout this link :
Hola! Looking forward to seeing you guys live @ Beachdown... I'll be spinning there in the Disco Shed, sometime over the weekend as well... hope you can make it over to play in Barcelona sometime... Salut!