Notorious for casting convention aside, and remaining one of the UK’s most forward thinking and rule breaking live bands, Red Snapper embrace a unique blend of live, euphoric Afro-Jazz,Future Funk, Dub, Dark Hip-Hop and fragile soundscapes.
Formed in 1994, drummer – Rich Thair, double bassist – Ali Friend and guitarist – David Ayers, released three EPs on Rich Thair and Dean Thatcher’s label Flaw Recordings. The first EP ‘Snapper’ featured Beth Orton on vocals.
Over the initial years the band released the sonically pioneering albums; Reeled and Skinned, Prince Blimey, Making Bones and Our Aim Is To Satisfy Red Snapper (Warp records), touring globally and supporting the likes of Massive Attack, Bjork, The Prodigy, De La Soul and The Fugees. They also acquired a reputation for innovative and expansive remixing – reworking tunes by Trouble Funk, David Holmes, Sabres of Paradise, Garbage, Lamb, S-Express, Edwyn Collins amongst others.
After a break, in 2003 the band released the eponymous ‘Red Snapper’ and then A Pale Blue Dot on Lo Recordings, at which point Tom Challenger joined on Saxophone and Clarinet.
The album ‘Key’ was released on V2 Records in 2011 and featured vocals by Eliza Carthy and Gavin Clarke (Clayhill and Unkle).
In 2013 Red Snapper composed a new soundtrack to the 1970’s Senegalese, psychedelic road movie ‘Touki Bouki’ which had been restored by Martin Scorsese. The band toured Europe performing the soundtrack live to the film, culminating in the celebrated sell-out show at The Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s Southbank.
In 2014 the album ‘Hyena’ was released on Lo Recordings featuring all the music from their original film score.
In 2016 Red Snapper toured a performance of the full 1996 album ‘Prince Blimey’ for the first time ever to mark its 20th anniversary. It was incredibly well received as the album was recognized as being ground breaking but still very musically relevant.
In 2019 their track Spikey, from the V2 released album ‘Key’ was featured on the soundtrack for El Camino, the Netflix Breaking Bad film directed by Vince Gilligan.
The long awaited album ‘Everybody Is Somebody’ released in 2022 was considered by many as Red Snapper’s best work since the 90s, featuring a wealth of guests and notably MC Natty Wylah who featured on the single ‘The Warp and The Weft’.
The release was promoted with live dates around the UK, London’s Jazz Café, Ramsgate Music Hall, Hug and Pint, Glasgow and The Jam Jar, Bristol all selling out. These live shows were hailed as some of the band’s best live performances and as a result Rich and Ali decided to record the final sell out show at London’s Moth Club.
Rich and Ali have recently created Red Snapper reworks of Kraze Muneataf Tanzen by Amine Mesnaoui and Flo by Aus.
They have contributed a brand new track to the Andrew Weatherall charity album ‘Flightpath Estate 2’.
‘Live at The Moth Club’ featured the original founder members and rhythm section, Rich Thair (Drums), Ali Friend (Double Bass, Vocals, Gato Drum).
They were joined by their current live line up of Tom Challenger (Sax, Clarinet and Keyboards), Tara Cunningham (Guitar, Vocals) and Natty Wylah (Vocals), JamesWard- Sired (Trombone) and Christian Mock (Front of House sound Engineer).
