As grime continues to thrive, it’s finding itself positioned in ever more interesting contexts; the ICA, the Barbican, Sadlers Wells even. It’s possible then that the good patrons of the Royal Albert Hall had no idea what hit them last night, when BBC 1Xtra’s black tracksuit-clad Late Night At The Proms descended upon the palatial palace of opera and classical music. Or perhaps they did – this isn’t the first time BBC 1Xtra have put on the ambitious Late Night At The Proms aka the Grime Symphony. Dizzee headlined in 2009 and Wretch 32 – also tonight’s host for the evening – in 2013. Part of a BBC Late Night With series (the Ibiza special was particularly awesome), the concept reimagines music as we know it with a great, big, bad 52-piece orchestra.
Performing to a skanking sea of gunfinger throwing fans (and Lily Allen, Grime’s constant companion recently, is the Smile singer planning a Grime album?) formidable conductor Jules Buckley led a spell-binding 75 minutes of the Metropole Orkest’s strings, brass, percussion and woodwind that was, in short, pretty spectacular. It turns out that you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Freak Of The Week underscored by the tuba.
Opening with Stormzy, the Lewisham lyricist set the tone perfectly, with Where Do You Know Me From transformed by swaggering violins and ominous trumpets, before the Ruff Sqwad referencing Shut Up had the string section working overtime.
The vast majority of tracks lent themselves brilliantly well to an orchestral reworking; highlights included Fekky’s update of Dizzee’s Still Sittin’ Here, Little Simz’ Bars Simzson, as well as Krept and Konan’s aforementioned tuba based Freak of The Week, with the menacing Don’t Waste My Time threatening to strip the Royal Albert Hall of its gold gilt. The whole of Lethal B’s set was particularly brilliant – Pow! and Rari Workout were as close to elegiac as you can get over 140BPM.
With each act performing just two or three tracks, the evening served as a Greatest Hits of sorts, albeit of the last two years. Conspicuous by its absence were classic cuts from the scene’s early era. Bar Pow!, an instrumental of Wiley’s Wot U Call It and the appearance of Shola Ama who did You Might Need Somebody, the night needed the addition of a Newham Generals, Wiley or Skepta – who was, or perhaps wasn’t, booked to play and either cancelled or didn’t. Either way, it’s a pity that the orchestra didn’t make use of Kano who was on hand as a special guest for Chip’s set.
Not perfect perhaps, but a brave, impressive idea that worked for the most part and one that should absolutely be revisited. Proof of its success was found in the fan’s faces lit up by the rare opportunity to see some of their favourite acts in a curiously intimate, if not intimidating grandiose, setting. And the performers, afforded the rare treat of having what would normally be a prohibitively expensive backing band transforming their sound from the streets to high society.
Watch the 1Xtra Proms here and read i-D’s Coming Of Age feature on Grime here