Hope For Christchurch

Fat Freddy's Drop, the band that gives you "Hope for a generation", is playing live at the Civic in Christchurch this Saturday September 25.

It will be a rare live appearance by the band that is currently spending time in a beach side studio recording a live studio album that is being anticipated as one of the biggest albums to drop this year.

The CD and double vinyl album due for release this summer on their independent record label, The Drop, follows a series of 12" vinyl releases, the soulful Hope, down beat Midnight Marauders and This Room, and the Gold-selling CD, 'Live at The Matterhorn'.

Previous South Island appearances by fat Freddy's Drop include Kaikoura Roots Festival, Rippon, Whopper Chopper Seaside Extravaganza, Alpine Unity, and Destinations. Earlier this year the crew spent six weeks overseas on the second leg of their global voyage.

The Hope For A Generation Summer Tour 2004 through UK and Europe included gigs in Cannes, Berlin, Cork, London, France, Scotland and Spain, finishing up with a bonus head nodder in Detroit on the return journey home.

While in London Freddy's nailed a recording of Willow Tree, This Room and Midnight Marauders at the BBC's Maida Vale studios, an exclusive set for Gilles Peterson's influential WorldWide show on Radio 1. Both Peterson and Berlin's Jazzanova DJ's have been dropping Freddy's latest 10" vinyl on their decks, a limited edition remix of Hope by NYC producers 3 Generations Walking aka MKL & Soy Sos (Spiritual Life).

Fitchie says Freddy's loved re-acquainting themselves with their European home base, East Berlin. A Monday night gig at Café Moskau, an underground club renowned for it's history of after hours 'entertainment' of Communist party members, featured the wildest Freddy's sing along crowd ever.

The Berlin faithful were chanting "Fat Freddy's Drop, Fat Freddy's Drop, Fat Freddy's Drop" at the end of the show, but Fitchie says that after two and half hours on stage, including two encores, the band had to shut the sound system down. He says, "it was like "the horn section's lungs were bleeding, there was nothing left".