The Tapes Have Been Found!

Throughout the 1970’s, as Britain succumbed to the likes of The Wurzels and The Brotherhood of Man, somewhere in Brighton a loose collective known as The BPA was hosting 48 hour warehouse parties and producing a series of tracks with passing musicians that became a part of musical legend.

Within the seafront HQ of The Brighton Port Authority, (originally styled the Brighton Phonographic Authority) chairman Norman Cook, later to find international fame under a variety of guises (incl Fatboy Slim), and cohort Simon Thornton were at the hub of a set of recordings that inadvertently created the roots of punk, acid house, trip hop and many other now accepted genres.

Watch video: “He’s Frank (Slight Return)” featuring Iggy Pop (March 9th release):

The BPA on amazon.co.uk

The BPA on amazon.com

That this underground gang never achieved recognition for their efforts is as much to do with the lack of focus in those heady days as the somewhat puzzling situation whereby Jamie T recorded a track before his conception and Iggy Pop, on a stop over from recordings in Berlin with the Thin White Duke, covered The Monochrome Set’s ‘He’s Frank’ a full four years before the band actually wrote it.

As for the creation of the artist known as Martha Wainwright, originally found on a beach and taught to speak English with an American accent by the chairman in exchange for her contribution, well, things just get weird at that point…

So, many years on and following the slow disbandment throughout the 80’s of the BPA in a series of half remembered recriminations and long forgotten fall-outs, 2008 saw the tapes re-appear during construction of luxury flats on the Brighton sea front.

What is revealed is an album that was and still is light years ahead of not just its time but the times in which we now live.

Across the 12 tracks now immediately recognisable names such as David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal, Ashley Beedle and Justin Robertson join a host of new up and comers (from the later sessions) to create an album bursting with diversity but held together by a sheer exuberance in the joy of creating and a willingness to discard the straightjackets of genre in order to achieve musical nirvana.

Collecting the twelve so far unearthed tracks together and taking it’s title from a much used phrase within the BPA when things got too much and escape by sea seemed the only option, ‘I Think We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat’ will be the debut from the Brighton Port Authority over 30 years since the original recording sessions.

Sure to interest both music historians for whom the band have entered the annals of rock myth and anyone who knows a good tune when they hear one, the album is not the only BPA material to have recently come to light.

‘I Think We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat’ is released 2nd March 2009.

(The BPA with Iggy Pop, Pete York, Connan, Ashley Beedle, Justin Robertson, Jamie T, Emmy The Great, Martha Wainwright, Simon Thornton, Cagedbaby, David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal, Olly Hite)

More music, photographs and images are being collated and all that has been found to date can be seen at:

The BPA MySpace
The Brighton Port Authority Official Website