ReBels Music Live

Click here to join the LiveStream from 7:30pm on Friday 19 March 2021

Join our incredible ReBels Music professional artists as they perform along with other dynamic musicians and artists from the city. This Livestream session will feature an eclectic mix of music genres including house, folk, jazz, beat boxing, close harmonies, beat poems, funk and more.

Celebrate the amazing Plymouth music scene, with live and pre-recorded sets from

Benny Lau-Crispin: DJ Set (Live)

Benny Lau Crispin is a Director of Milk Box Music Group Ltd.

Based at their recording studio ‘The Granary Studio’ in Callington Cornwall, the company has grown to offer a range of services from music engineering and recording, production tuition, record label management, distribution and promotion services aimed at up and coming musicians and producers from all over the South West.

He has toured Europe and many of the biggest festivals performing in acts such as Panda and Two Tribes and his music has been signed to some of the worlds leading dance music labels including Toolroom, Anjuna Deep and Love & Other.

Daisy Higman: Soloist (Live)

Daisy is an experienced theatre-maker, composer, writer, voice artist and musician living in the South West. She identifies as a disabled artist and is passionate about inclusive arts practice.

Daisy trained as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, has an MA in Professional Voice Practice from the Birmingham School of Acting. She has taught voice at Bristol Old Vic and Plymouth Conservatoire, and regularly teaches theatre skills at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, as well as leading Far Flung Dance Theatre’s Coffee Cup Choir. Daisy also runs workshops in vocal improvisation. She is a graduate of TRP’s Lab Company Scheme, Graeae’s Write To Play and is currently a member of Extant Theatre’s Directing Pathways and TRP’s Eggbox Writer’s Development scheme.

Alex Hart: Folk Musician (Live)

Alex Hart is a singer/songwriter from Ashill in Devon. She currently lives in Plymouth and has been a professional musician for 15 years. She has been lucky enough to play at some legendary venues around the UK, Europe and the USA either solo, with Martin Barre from Jethro Tull or more recently with Seth Lakeman.

When Alex was 18 she was signed to a small record label in the UK and the US and released her debut album ‘On This Day’ which had regular air play from Radio 2 and local BBC Radio stations. In the summer of 2013, Alex released a cover of Angie Stone’s ‘Wish I Didn’t Miss You’ which went to No.2 in the dance charts and was supported by Pete Tong on Radio 1.

After a few years of touring with Martin Barre, Alex decided to release an EP which she recorded in Plymouth with her band mates. It goes back to her folksy, country sound. The EP is called ‘For The Summer’ and is available on all streaming and download platforms including physical copies from her website.

Alex has been working and collaborating with lots of amazing songwriters and musicians including Terry Britten who wrote ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’ for Tina Turner. She appears on many other musicians’ albums too!

Jason Singh: Beatboxing & Rhythm Mixing (Live)

Jason Singh is a sound artist, producer, DJ, facilitator and performer.

He is a solo artist and collaborator whose creative output spans across a wide range of art forms, music genres and education practices.

His work includes: sound installations, nature soundscapes, radio shows, sound design and sound explorations using biodata, ceramics, textiles and museum objects.

Referred to as “the human sampler” by Cerys Matthews (Radio 6), Singh also vocally recreates birdsong and natural environments. His work has been called “beautiful, strange, calming music” by nature writer Robert Macfarlane and has also featured on the 2019 BBC Lost Words prom, BBC Radio 4’s Pick of the Year, Springwatch and Countryfile.

Singh’s collaboration include a diverse range of organisations and artists including BBC, V&A Museum, Kew Gardens, Chester Zoo, BFI, Celtic Connections, RNLI, Music for Youth, National Trust, Tate Britain, Yazz Ahmed, Shabaka Hutchings, Sarathy Korwar, Nitin Sawhney, Talvin Singh, Rokia Traore to name but a few.

Dr Funk: funk bass (Pre-Record) 

Multi-instrumentalist, live-looper, jazz funk bassist Dr Funk brings busking into the 2020s. He makes the four-string sing. He surfs. His dream is to own a 67 Mustang Fastback. He’s not actually a doctor.

Dr Funk lives to play the bass. That’s really all you need to know. Slapping, popping, strumming, riffing, he elevates the humble rhythm instrument to levels of melody and showmanship that are more commonly associated with the lead guitar. Inspired by legendary bassists – Marcus miller, Victor Wooten, Louis Johnson – Funk is the type of player who could jam on a groove for hours, building it up with his loop machine and keys. Fellow musicians stop and play with him. Crowds
gather. Intrigued ears fished by Funk’s playing, pausing and taking time out to enjoy a stranger’ssoundtrack.

It’s one of the most honest, unfiltered forms of performance you can imagine, and it’s one that the good doctor has known since he was 15. Since moving from Sunderland to Cornwall in search of surf, gigs and good times with his band of schoolmates – south west festival favourites The Big Sets – it’s the only job he’s ever had. Over the years he’s taken his unique style across Europe and, most recently, he’s taken his work across the world as one of the most popular viral street performers online.

His videos regularly amassing millions of views, Funk was unwittingly brought to the world by an impressed music fan with a video camera. For a while he was unaware he’d even gone viral. But over the years, especially during 2020/21 when street performing has simply not been an option, Funk has brought his style to the thriving live stream culture and adapted busking for the modern age.

Starting up random live streams when he fancies (just like he’d take to the street) he plays away as word of mouth spreads. A few shares later, he’s attracted thousands of live viewers around the world… All watching as he puts his own twist on much loved rock, funk and pop classics or improvises, creates whole new songs, organically crafted loop by loop.

It’s here, in these improvised moments, where we see and hear the future of Dr Funk. Constantly writing, he’s gradually building his own repertoire with releases and collaborations planned throughout 2021. Capturing the magic of his impromptu performances but taking them to much bigger stages, and taking the artform to exciting new places, Dr Funk continues to stop you in your tracks.

Rose Kimberley: Jazz Musician (Pre-Record)

Originally from Cornwall, Rose started recording her own music in 2002. In 2015 she released her first solo EP with an accompanying homecoming tour of Cornwall. 2018 saw the release of the new sounding, highly acclaimed self titled album, this time with a UK tour including a packed out album launch show at the popular venue The Boileroom in Guildford.

Rose has had great success through BBC introducing with countless air play, interviews and live studio performances as well as BBC festival stages. She was also selected as ‘Artist of the Week’ for the Georgey Spanswick show, reaching over a million listeners.

Additionally Rose is a successful session singer with international touring experience having worked on Meghan Trainor’s European ‘About That Bass’ and Lindsay Stirlings ‘Music Box’ USA tours. With a reputation for her bluesy tones, Rose has also sang for the critically acclaimed Nat Martin Band; being featured on their EP ‘Time is a Healer’ along with several live shows. Plus she was complemented in a Blues Matters Magazine review as having ‘strong and soaring’ vocals.

Also an experienced music educator Rose has worked for the likes of ACM and The Music Works along with her own successful vocal studio. In 2020 she co-found the new and exciting music education hub ‘The Music Box’.

Caitlin Brawn: Singer Songwriter Acoustic Solo Performance (Pre-Record)

ReBels Rhythm & Word: Beat Poems (Pre-Record)

Aya El Morshdy: White Sea of Heaven Acoustic Solo Performance(Pre-Record)

Click here to join the LiveStream from 7:30pm on Friday 19 March 2021

Support Barbican Theatre’s work with young and emerging artists… on and off the stage

If you’d like to make a donation to help support Barbican Theatre and the young and emerging artists (on and off the stage) we work with please click on an amount below (or enter your own value) Barbican Theatre pay all artists and event crew who run these free livestreams so your donation will ensure we can continue to offer paid opportunities for freelancers and young / emerging creatives.