we don t do bhangra and i d say, well, i don t do bhangra either . because you re indian, 0h, he must be the bhangra guy . there was an assumption. but that kind of changed, and a lot of us made an effort to change that by getting into the club scene in london, by trying to make music that felt like it fitted in with more of a cool scene that was more mainstream. and so there were quite a few bands that were doing that myself included, talman singh, cornershop, fundamental, asian dub foundation. it would be greatjust to give a flavour of what you are doing, and perhaps from one of your most successful projects beyond skin was the album. we re just going to have a quick look at a little flavour of one track that you then played again 20 years after the release of beyond skin. this was homelands, where you performed and it s an indication of how successful you ve become at the royal albert hall. let s have a look. music plays.
because music doesn t really lend itself to the idea of having those same limitations that you have in normal communication, because of the world being so politicised. which i didn t realise as well. i was thinking as you were talking there, i was thinking, music doesn t know racism. well, music does know racism in the way it s practised and the way people respond to particular forms of music, to musicians they bring their cultural attitudes with them. so in 1990s london, when your career was beginning to take off, were you finding it a place with open doors or some closed doors? well, i think this was the thing, because music is a pure universal language and so what happened was, yes, people closed the doors to that because they feel threatened or confused by it, or they don t understand it. so yeah, i phoned up record companies a few times, i d phone them up and just say what my name was, and they d just say, well, we don t do bhangra and i d
so with music, ifelt like i had the right to explore because music doesn t really lend itself to the idea of having those same limitations that you have in normal communication, because of the world being so politicised. which i didn t realise as well. i was thinking as you were talking there, i was thinking, music doesn t know racism. well, music does know racism in the way it s practised and the way people respond to particular forms of music, to musicians they bring their cultural attitudes with them. so in 19905 london, when your career was beginning to take off, were you finding it a place with open doors or some closed doors? well, i think this was the thing, because music is a pure universal language and so what happened was, yes, people closed the doors to that because they feel threatened or confused by it, or they don t understand it. so yeah, i phoned up record companies a few times, i d phone them up and just say what my name was, and they d just say, well, we don t do b
because music doesn t really lend itself to the idea of having those same limitations that you have in normal communication, because of the world being so politicised. which i didn t realise as well. i was thinking as you were talking there, i was thinking, music doesn t know racism. well, music does know racism in the way it s practised and the way people respond to particular forms of music, to musicians they bring their cultural attitudes with them. so in 1990s london, when your career was beginning to take off, were you finding it a place with open doors or some closed doors? well, i think this was the thing, because music is a pure universal language and so what happened was, yes, people closed the doors to that because they feel threatened or confused by it, or they don t understand it. so yeah, i phoned up record companies a few times, i d phone them up and just say what my name was, and they d just say, well, we don t do bhangra and i d
companies a few times, i d phone them up and just say what my name was, and they d just say, well, we don t do bhangra and i d say, well, i don t do bhangra either . because you re indian, 0h, he must be the bhangra guy . there was an assumption. but that kind of changed, and a lot of us made an effort to change that by getting into the club scene in london, by trying to make music that felt like it fitted in with more of a cool scene that was more mainstream. and so there were quite a few bands that were doing that myself included, talman singh, cornershop, fundamental, asian dub foundation. it would be greatjust to give a flavour of what you are doing, and perhaps from one of your most successful projects beyond skin was the album. we re just going to have a quick look at a little flavour of one track that you then played again 20 years after the release of beyond skin. this was homelands, where you performed and it s an indication of how successful you ve become at the r