Chris Morris, Derren Brown, Massive Attack… Just some of the genuinely made-it-big household names you could have read about first in little ol’ Venue in the days when they were itty-bitty on-the-rise local heroes. So who’s next? As another 12 months of opportunity dawns, Mike White, Steve Wright, Joe Spurgeon and Sally Middlebrook pick out the – oh yes – eleven up-and-comers they reckon are going to make it big in 2011.

KILL IT KID

Who? Bluesy Bathonian rock wonders. They got their lucky break when PJ Harvey’s right-hand man John Parish was invited to Bath Spa Uni to show off his recording prowess with a guinea-pig band – that band was KIK, and soon they’d cut an EP which scooped them a deal with One Little Indian (home of Bjork, amongst others). Since then they’ve holed up in Bear Creek Studio, Seattle and laid down their eponymous debut album with fabled producer Ryan (Foo Fighters/Gossip/Strokes) Hadlock, and a tsunami of critical gush followed: “An outstanding British record, 9/10,” said Clash Magazine; “A hook-laden riot.... impressive stuff, 8/10,” said NME. The album was nominated for Xfm's New Music Award 2010, and the band were spotted by Burberry Acoustic while playing at South By Southwest in Texas in March, leading to co-vocalist Steph modelling for Burberry’s Face of The Future.

What do they do? Their first album was a heady, violin-swooned slant on canyon-deep delta blues rock, co-fronted by Chris Turpin and Stephanie Ward. Their twin voices are what really set KIK apart – his a cavernous and unlikely meld of Anthony ‘and the Johnsons’ Hegarty and (whisper it) Tracy Chapman, hers a satiny soulful shimmer above. They’ve now lost the violin player and, as we go to press, are hunkered down in a studio in Shoreditch to make album number two with star-ascendant producer Leo Abrahams, whose recent collaborations include Brian Eno, Brett Anderson, Paloma Faith and Florence & Machine.

FFI: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/KILLITKID

THIS IS THE KIT

Who? The musical project of Bristol/Paris-based folkstress Kate Stables and her partner in rhyme Jesse Vernon.

What do they do? Dapple sunlight onto your soul, that’s what. Kate sings and plays guitar, banjo, trumpet, and percussion. Her long-time collaborator and regular live companion Jesse Vernon adds guitars, violin and percussion. Back in 2005 Rob da Bank swivelled his influential lugholes in their direction and was moved to press a 7” single called ‘Two Wooden Spoons’, which found its way onto his Sunday Best label’s compilation ‘Folk Off’, alongside Animal Collective, Sufjan Stevens and Tunng. The critically mooned-over debut LP ‘Krulle Bol’ followed, with that man John Parish (see above) on production duties. Since, they’ve gigged with The National, Vetiver and Vashti Bunyan, Jeffrey Lewis and Jose Gonzales. This autumn saw the release of new album ‘Wriggle Out The Wrestless’ on Bristol label Dreamboat Records, with contributions from folk princess Rozi Plain, Jim ‘Portishead’ Barr, Francois and the Atlas Mountains and The Liftmen.

FFI: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THISISTHEKIT

EKOPLEKZ

Who? Atmospheric electronic pioneer Nick Edwards.

What does he do? Late of many bands of this parish (featured in Venue since 1994, at least), Nick also made a name for himself as the celebrated dance music blogger Nick Gutterbreakz. His current incarnation, Ekoplekz, is causing a stir with its meticulous analogue crafting of complex, filmic soundscapes. He proved a star turn at the Arnolfini’s recent In Between Time festival, and is the latest signee to magma-hot local dubstep imprint Punch Drunk.

FFI: HTTP://EKOPLEKZNEWS.WORDPRESS.COM/ 

THE MONTPELIER BASEMENT

Who? We can’t tell you. It’s a secret. OK, er, ‘Dan’ and ‘Elly’. They’re very good with food.

What do they do? Clandestine dining experiences, in a cellar somewhere in darkest BS6... They’re so underground (literally and figuratively) that we’re sworn to secrecy over who runs this, and where exactly it is. You email your details, keep your fingers crossed for an invite, and then await instructions. It's a bit of a cross between a restaurant and a dinner party, so expect to chat with all of your fellow guests. Eat up to eight courses of seasonal British food with the emphasis on produce from the South West and don't forget to bring loads of nice booze to wash it all down with. The grub, needless to say, is excellent.

FFI: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

JENNY AMBROSE, ENAMORE

Who? Sexy but ethical lingerie maker Jenny Ambrose, who runs Bath-based skimpies-emporium Enamore.

What does she do? Jenny started off as a more or less self-taught dress-maker, working with hemp and ‘upcycled vintage’ materials. A couple of years into the business she met another designer who was working on lingerie, and expressed an interest in applying her eco-friendly principles to underwear. They collaborated, and Enamore underwear range began. Since then, Jenny’s silky and slinky creations have graced the pages of Elle, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and the Guardian, and set pulses a-racing on various TV shows too.

FFI: WWW.ENAMORE.CO.UK

AL TOURETTES

Who? Ascendant bassmusic baron Alec Storey.

What does he do? Al’s dad’s a musician, and when he left an old drum kit lying about, his nine-year-old son picked up the sticks and started knocking out beats. He’s been knocking out beats pretty much ever since – DJing d&b and techno from the age of 15, and composing his own electronic oeuvres on an old Atari a couple of years later. After studying creative music technology at Bath Spa Uni, he began to release records on a number of underground dance labels across Europe. Then, in 2008, he crossed paths with former coursemate Appleblim (not his real name) and became fascinated with the wonderful things that can happen when techno and dubstep meet. A 12” on Appleblim’s Apple Pips label soon followed, then an exclusive mix for Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC Radio 1. Since then he’s been pumping out more releases, rocking all the spots from Shambala Festival to Nuits Sonores in Lyon and Space in Ibiza (he’ll be back there this year), and even adding his deep, electro-dubstep beatsploitation to Darren (‘Requiem For A Dream’, ‘The Wrestler’) Aronofsky's new film 'Black Swan' starring Winona Ryder and Natalie Portman (in cinemas from 21 Jan).

FFI: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ALTOURETTES 

GUS HOYT & JACK PHILLIPS

Who? Jack Phillips and Gus Hoyt. Jack and Gus are (two of) the brains behind FreeBus project; Gus is also Green candidate for the council elections in Ashley Ward (so might actually win).

What do they do? They’re part of a team working to set up a free-to-ride, charitably run bus service in Bristol.

FFI: WWW.FREEBUS.ORG.UK

JAMES HILDRETH

Who? Somerset County Cricket Club’s big-scoring middle-order batsman

What does he do? Hits balls with a bat. And pretty well he does it too. After making his debut for Somerset in 2003, the former Millfield (top-notch local sports academy) student scratched around for a few years before becoming a top-of-the-team-sheet regular these past few seasons. He biffed a whopping 303 not out at Taunton in 2009 (the first person to score over 300 runs in an innings for Somerset) and was instrumental in the Cidermen finishing as runners-up in all three major domestic cricketing competitions last year. He was named joint player of the year for his county, finishing the season with a tally of 1,440 championship runs (at an average of 65), bettered only by Yorkshire's Adam Lyth. The England selectors took note. Tousle-haired Hildreth was picked to tour Australia with the England performance squad (kind of like a nursery for the main team) alongside the Ashes-retaining heroes over Christmas.

FFI: WWW.SOMERSETCOUNTYCC.PREMIUMTV.CO.UK

KARIN KROMMES

Who? Luxembourg-raised, Jamaica Street-based artist with a passion for planes.

What does she do? Karin’s art gets under the skin of military aircraft, exposing the organic, insect- or alien-like mechanics of their engines, and the sagging cushions and tangled straps of their ejection seats. Her oil paintings show the innards of aviation in all their intricate detail, moving in swarms through a white void. Her installations draw similar parallels between human flight and the natural world: entomology cases in which paper aircraft silhouettes (taken from aircraft recognition booklets used by the military and hobby plane spotters) are pinned alongside moths, beetles and dragonflies.

FFI: WWW.KSK.LU 

STAND + STARE

Who? Seven-strong performance troupe founded by siblings Barney and Lucy Heywood. One of the picks of last year’s Mayfest, they’ve recently decamped from their native Stroud to Bristol. 

What do they do: S+S create immersive performances that tell emotive stories and invite their audiences to play a significant role. Bristol got its first look at the company with last year’s Mayfest show ‘SS Arcadia’, housed in an empty shop unit on College Green which has now become their temporary home. S+S converted the empty lot into the interior of a luxury cruise liner: audiences/passengers sampled the liner’s various indulgences including theatre, art, music, dance, food and, um, hairdressing. Soon enough, though, a story unfolded, including the captain’s fight to save his ship from the scrapheap, a tour of the seven true wonders of the world, and an imprisoned stowaway who changed the fate of everyone aboard. Next up is ‘The Children of Modernity’ (Bristol Old Vic, 12-15 Jan), another immersive piece in which audiences will help to find a child who has gone missing from a 1970s commune. Other 2011 plans include theatrical cheese tastings with Trethowan’s Dairy, pervasive experiences for bars and theatre lobbies and development of an extravagant participatory adventure dubbed Project Europa.

FFI: WWW.STANDANDSTARE.COM

FIN TAYLOR

Who? Rising Bristol comic, nurtured under the wing of the irrepressible Mark Olver and now looking ahead to a busy and potentially career-defining 2011.

What does he do? Er, he like, gets up on stage and makes people laugh with things he says, and stuff? ’Cept, crucially for our purposes here, he’s rather good at it. Taylor took a sketch show up to the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe: a short while afterward, on arrival at Bristol Uni, he went along to Olver’s new-comics night Oppo and trotted up on stage. It’s all snowballed from then, with a string of gigs around Bristol (Oppo, The Square, student halls of residence etc) and a debut gig at Komedia, Bath in March. Further ahead, Taylor and Jared Hardy (another Brizzle comic on the rise) are taking a show to the Leicester Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe.
 

Copyright Mike White, Steve Wright, Joe Spurgeon and Sally Middlebrook 2011

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