Ahead of the Great Estate Festival which takes place at Scorrier House in Cornwall over the Jubilee Bank Holiday Queen’s extra long Coronation thingy weekend, we chatted to a wonderful band called CABLE STREET COLLECTIVE. We chatted about loads of things including musical influences, an amusing festival story involving a wayward sax player who arrived late and, of course, their top three tips to survive a music festival. For all of this and more, read on….

Please tell me who you are and what you do....

We're a seven piece band from London who are fed up with the shower of shits currently in charge of the UK. Our name comes from an anti-fascist protest in 1936, when the people of the East End stopped Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts marching down Cable Street. What we do, mostly, is create music that makes people dance their arses off.

When did you form and how many people are in the band (It looks like there's a few of you!)

We played our first gig at open mic night in a squat on Cable Street back in 2012. Things grew from there. There's now 7 of us - lead singer, two guitars, bass, sax, trumpet, and drums/percussion.

What style of music do you play?

I guess it's kind of indie rock, but with a heavy southern African influence - it sounds like a total cliché, but it's not super easy to slot us into a genre. That used to be something that bands aspired to, but in this day and age, it's actually an irritant cos we don't slot easily onto algorithmically assembled playlists - it's not music for robots, apparently! 

Who would you say are your musical influences?

We've always been heavily influenced by Congolese guitarists from the 70s and 80s, like Diblo Dibala, or Mose Fan Fan. As we wrote this latest record I was listening to Tuku Music by Oliver Mtukudzi on repeat, and our friends Kongo Dia Ntotila had just put out a live EP which was on heavy rotation in the band wagon. Then there are lots of canonical British and American songwriters who've influenced us too. If you listen carefully to our latest record, there's even a nod to Queens of the Stone Age on there. 

A little bird tells me that you're releasing a new album on 3rd June, please tell me more about it, where and when was it recorded, who produced it and whether you'll be playing tracks from it at The Great Estate Festival....

We are indeed! It's called Battle Lines, and was basically written during the pandemic, with lots of the song writing sessions happening over Zoom and email. It was a big adjustment from our normal way of writing, which is pretty collaborative. But we quickly got used to sending snippets around to each other, working on them individually, and then pooling ideas when we could meet up. 

We recorded it over several sessions at Colibri Sound Recorders Studio in East London, overseen by the multi-talented engineer and producer Mo Hausler, who has the best ears of anyone we've ever worked with.   

Do you know what day/time/stage you're playing at the Great Estate Festival?

We're on the Stage on the Green, 8.35PM to 9.35PM on Saturday night. Can't wait!

What can the audience expect from your live show?

It's pretty high energy - the rhythm section absolutely crush it, and I can all-but guarantee face-melting solos from Dom on trumpet and Sam on the sax. Our front woman Fi has an amazing voice, and is also great at getting the crowd going. So hopefully we can send people off into the night with sore legs, a smile on their faces, and a tune or two stuck in their heads. 

The bill is looking pretty good for this year, who else would you recommend the festival goers make a beeline for?

I've always been a big fan of the Manics - the way they work politics into what are basically pop songs - so we'll definitely be watching them. Otherwise, there's Mad Dog Mcrea, who we've loved for years - their live show is incredible - and local crew The Roustabouts, who we shared a stage with in St Ives last year. They're awesome. Pretty excited about seeing some of the artists I hadn't come across before too - particularly N'famaday Kouyaté. 

Tell me a funny story about a festival that you've attended in the past...

We played a late Secret Garden Party set three or four years ago, with a dep sax player. He got lost and turned up at like 11PM, so they wouldn't let him into the festival. God knows how he got round security in the end, I think he might have jumped a fence, but we'd already played half the set by the time he rocked up – he got one hell of a cheer from the crowd when he stepped on stage though!

Give me 3 bands or artists that you would like to headline at your own festival (you can choose ANY band/artist dead or alive)

I think we’d definitely need one of Diblo Dibala’s bands on the bill for an injection of pure soukous up top. So either Loketo, or ideally, we’d persuade him to reunite with Kanda Bongo Man. Then I’m going to cheat by saying we’d get Gorillaz to headline, with all their latest guests - that way you get about 20 amazing artists in one. And finally we’d have Jon Hopkins playing a wonky set in a forest somewhere until six in the morning to finish everyone off. 

Lastly, tell me your top three festival survival tips?

1. Wet wipes

2. Toilet paper

3. Ibuprofen

We’d like to thank Tristan from The Cable Street Collective for taking the time to chat to us and we look forward to seeing his 14 legged groove machine doing what they do best at The Great Estate Festival. As he said above, you can catch them on the Stage on the Green from 8.35PM to 9.35PM on Saturday night, they can’t wait, I can’t wait, I hope the audience can’t wait either, it’s gonna be a belter!

Keep up to date with the band’s musical exploits at the following places;

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