Grandmaster Flash Spins in Australia

Hip hop legend Grandmaster Flash has confirmed he'll be flying out to Australia in May to perform a special show at Sydney's Pavilion Theatre.

The original Bronx legend, together with Kool Herc and Afrika Bambataa, invented what's become America's biggest cultural phenomenon, through painstaking experimentation with tapes, loops and decks, though speaking to Skrufff recently, revealed a surprisingly conservative approach to today's technology.

I'm a little afraid of devices such as Vinyl Scratch (MP3 deck simulator) because it relies on something other than you, ie a hard drive or a chip," said Flash.

"I'm not saying I won't ever use one but right now I still feel I have to touch the vinyl and the turntables. I need to feel more in control."

Producing seminal rap anthems "Grandmaster Flash & The Wheels of Steel' and 'The Message' his big crossover break came when Debbie Harry name-checked him on Blondie's Rapture single, released in 1981.

"She came up to see me in the Bronx and said that she was going to put me in a record," Flash recalled.

"I thought 'Yeah, right', then two months later she did it so I definitely have always appreciated her for having the will and the heart to come and see me. She jammed with me, she was very happy about it, she went home, wrote about it and put it into a song. Cool."

http://www.fuzzy.com.au (Tickets are available now)
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