Being 747, following a few years on the rock circuit (and running Leeds indie Wrath Records) have taken a new approach to getting their music across – a kind of concept musical, Amoeba to Zebra, which aims to educate kids in science and evolution – via the medium of ROCK.
All of which leads to several questions…
who?
Dave: We are Dave Cooke (on vox/guitar), Steve Morricone (vox/bass/keys and narration), and Paul Morricone (vox/drums). And for the duration of the Fringe we have Dave Procter to assist with props and throw snakes at us during ‘Life In The Trees’.
Steve: We also usually have in our ranks two dinosaur skulls, a giant prehistoric sea-scorpion called Pterygotus, an ammonite the size of a lorry-wheel and a menagerie of smaller animals. Due to space constraints at Edinburgh, we’re going to have to leave the auxiliary members behind (sad face).
when?
D: In the beginning Being 747 was just me with a papier mache plane on my head. Steve and Paul joined in 2001 – attaching themselves like twin jet engines. Apparently they had been looking for something outside their comfort zone, and very different to The Scaramanga Six (the Morricone’s other guise). And so Paul adopted the unfamiliar role of drummer, and Steve played keyboards, and bass guitar at the same time (just to complicate things further).
S: During that time, we’ve put out a couple of ‘normal’ albums (if you can call them that) and toured all about the place, but we’ve concentrated solely on the educational stuff for the last few years.
where?
D: We started in Leeds, and were already part of the Leeds music scene due to the reputation of our previous bands. I later followed them to Huddersfield, and we became progressively reclusive, as we devoted more and more time to developing Amoeba to Zebra, which we’ve been working on now for at least 5 years.
S: Whilst holed-up in our decrepit old textile mill practice room, we often peer through the bars and throw our own excrement at passers by.
what?
D: Edu-pop, Edutainment, Encyclopedic rock……whatever it’s called …….. We like to write songs about unusual subject matter, and setting an academic brief allows for plenty of this. It feels like we have opened to the door to a room full of tongue twisting scientific terms – some real gems that deserve a place in the echelons of rock.
S: Can I also add in ‘Attenboroughcore’?
why?
D: I love the fact the Amoeba to Zebra has become more and more theatrical. We’re had to make it that way in order to hold the school kids attention, as some of the songs flirt with self-indulgence, and the narration is educational. the show has had to evolve into a theatrical beast in order to survive. We have learnt to goof, to wear silly costumes, we have had to learn to put on a show, and so the natural next step was the Fringe! We’re very excited by the direction that we’ve taken with this band, there are many more shows in the pipeline. I think we’ve really hit on something!
S: The driving factor behind moving into semi-theatrical/concept-rock was more of a sideways attempt to apply our creative and performance skills to something that is ultimately more worth-while. It also has the bonus side-effect of being successful (we make a living out of this!) completely outside the usual turgid music industry trappings.
Of course, mere words cannot describe A-Z fully. See for yourself at the Amoeba to Zebra website or if in Edinburgh, catch the show between the 9th and 13th August (plus a one-off on the 29th).