Baka Beyond Interview

Since 1993 Martin Craddick and his wife Su Hart have been deeply involved with the Baka people of Cameroon. They have sampled them, made music with them, made music inspired by them, recorded them in the rain forests and created an amazing back catalogue of genuinely afro-celtic music. In the process they have helped the Baka, promoted their cause, built a music house with them, helped them build a school, taken them on tour and put on a festival in Cameroon.

Baka Beyond, the musical project that has grown from all this, is undoubtedly unique. Not just doing the odd benefit for the Baka, helping the forest people has been the band’s Raison d'être for seventeen years. But they are not just people with a good heart, they are also bloody good musicians who put on a damn fine show. We sat down earlier this year for a chat with Martin. It would be impossible to cover everything they have done in the last two decades, but we hope it will whet your appetite and set you off on a journey to find out more.

2008 FESTIVAL LISTING

The 2008 Peppermint Iguana Festival Listing has been uploaded to the main website.

Last year's festival season was interesting, to say the least. We had some really hot weather, but we also had some of the worst summer flooding the UK has seen for decades. As a result some festivals proved to be a little bit ‘challenging’. On top of that the forces of law and order forced some festivals to go for slightly over the top security to ‘target harden’ them against terrorist attack! What will they think of next?

For the last year or so we have some really cool grass roots festivals sprouting up which has been great news for festival goers who are now presented with so many festivals happening it is physically impossible to attend them all without getting involved in multiple cloning. This is not so great news for festival organisers though, with there now being so much competition that some festivals have been struggling financially.

The challenges listed above, and others, have resulted in a few casualties this year; Eastern Haze, a festival with tremendous potential will not be happening again; Ashton Court has closed the gates for the last time after 35 years; The Big Green gathering will not be big this year, in fact it will be non-existent, mainly due to the ‘target hardening’ nonsense we mentioned above. Amazingly after several years of selling 150,000 tickets within a few hours, even Glastonbury (PLC) is struggling to sell tickets for this year’s event.

Some festivals are surviving though and some have sold out already. There are also a few new events this season, and looking at the calendar there are events just about everywhere in the UK, so there is no excuse for anyone to not find them stood in a filed soaking up the music at least once this year. Just make sure you take your wellies and your factor 15 sun cream and expect the unexpected. Remember, there is no such thing as bad weather, merely inappropriate clothing.

INNER TERRESTRIALS INTERVIEW

Inner Terrestrials’ website proudly proclaims that they are ‘London’s most havin’ it punk band’. A bold claim maybe, but one that would be difficult to argue with. For 15 years they have been bombarding gigs, parties, squats and festivals with their sonic arsenal of punked up ska dub and folk. Their politics are every bit as uncompromising as their music and they do their best to shake the system as much as they shake dance floors.

In February 2008 the I.T. battle bus rolled into Newport, we managed to catch up with guitarist and vocalist J to discuss the current state of the ‘underground’, both musical and political. Check the PEPPERMINT IGUANA WEBSITE for full interview

TOFU LOVE FROGS INTERVIEW (and stuff)

No car and a potentially unwelcome garage bill means self imposed house arrest, cleaning the kitchen and updating the website. Hence ……

TOFU LOVE FROGS INTERVIEW: Yes, the Tofu’s are back. Those of you that have been with us for a while will have fond memories of gigs they did for us ‘back in the day’. They were fast, they were furious, they were entertaining and they were messed up on drugs. Has old age got the better of them? Are they shadows of their former selves, just old codgers going through a mid life crisis? The simple answer is no, the only difference is that they now have to take more drugs to get where they used to be… and they do. Read about why they split, what they have been up to, why they got back together and what they plan to do in the future. Expect tales of drugs, losing fingers in boat accidents, weddings at Nenah Cherry’s house, anarchy and e-bay.

GIG GUIDE: A gig guide was always an integral part of the concept of the Iguana Website, which makes it rather odd that we have been online for nine months and have only just got around to it. It is in its early stages and as we type only has dates for February, but keep an eye on it, we be getting there slowly (Cue Al iguana shaking his head in disbelief of the amateurishness of it all). If you hear of anything we should add, let us know.

VIDEO BLOG: After a long period of inactivity we are now posting daily video blogs… well, every couple of days anyway. Check out some of the hottest new bands and some golden oldies

That be it for now, we wont detain you any longer, you are no doubt all in a rush to head on over to http://www.peppermintiguana.co.uk. You will find links to all the new stuff on the front page. While you are at it.. why not join the mailing list? Go to the bottom of the home page and bung your e-mail in.

PEPPERMINT IGUANA WEBSITE: on line at last!

http://www.peppermintiguana.co.uk/

Enough talk, here it is, the PEPPERMINT IGUANA WEBSITE on line at last

It still aint finished, it will always be a work in progress with new updates coming all the time, but at the moment there are some MAJOR gaps in the site. Ultimately though, we are the only ones that know what those gaps are because at the end of the day the only completed version of the site exists in our head so nobody else knows what is missing. Rest assured there are a lot of funkalicious things to come.

However, we have decided to chuck it online as it is so you can see what we have done. Cos the current site editor is a bit of an amature, depending on which browser you use the bloody pages will look different whcih is a right pain, but there you go, its more proffesional looking than 'Sniffing Glue' was! Hopefully the site being on-line will act as a motivation to us to finish decorating before too many visitors arrive. Please do come back regularly because now it be here, we will be adding things every night… unless we are out doing something else! Mind the wet paint!