THE
1ST
VOLUME
WRITER AND DESIGNER: DAVID WARREN @David14Warren 2
@BIGGAFISH
Bigga Fish is a not for profit youth organisation, established in 1999 it is dedicated to the education of 13-21 year olds through music and its related industries. We aim to focus the energy of urban youth, giving them knowledge and opportunities to achieve their goals. Bigga Fish is able to operate so successfully because of its knowledge of youth culture and its ability to understand and even influence the ever-developing trends within urban modern music. Bigga Fish run Bigga Club on Friday evenings from 5-8 at the Bigga Fish office and runs through many different activities. Bigga Fish has extensive experience of working in partnership, collaborating with numerous agencies and organisations including The DFES, NHS, The Learning and Skills Council West and Central, Youth Music, Arts Council, PRS, Vinspired, British Airways, London Central, West and North Connexions, Islington, Camden and Brent Youth Services and many more. In direct support of these workshops and projects, Bigga Fish develop and project manage showcase events for 14-21 year olds. The events act as a goal and direct platform for the participants who take part in the workshops and projects. The showcases are ‘’real time’’ for the young people to develop a whole range of skills from performance and confidence building to responsibility management, flyer design, event promotion and communication. Since 1999 Bigga Events have directly worked with over 2600 young people for a collective audience of over 21,000 young people Bigga Fish has a strong team in the office with CEO Nii Sackey, Operations Manager Michelle Njie and Office manager Rachel Wood, thinking bigga to ensure Bigga Fish is Bigger. WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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WHO GOT THEIR GOLDEN TICKET? AT BIGGA FISH WE LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED FOR THE GOOD TIMES AND EVEN BEFORE WE PRESENTED YOU WITH XOYO WE GAVE FANS A LITTLE TASTER OF WHAT WAS TO COME. The person at Bigga Fish HQ who came up with the idea to have TWO ticket signings must have thought they had found gold. The truth is that they struck oil regarding the hype that surrounded the afternoons Cashtastic and Krept, Konan and Yungen visited.
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Cashtastic showed up on the Thursday before XOYO to meet those whose came to buy tickets. Girls came to get their Cash mementos and left star-struck as they got their photo taken with him and even got a hug. With only 48 hours notice, Cash still drew a decent crowd to the office, so you can only imagine if the word was circulating for a week.
Saturday afternoon saw Krept and Konan turn up to the office and they brought Yungen to add to the mayhem. It was evident what two extra days was able to produce as fans arrived from 2 o’clock even though it was stated to start at four. There were hugs and photo opportunities for the girls, for the boys, a chance to pay homage to the Play Dirty camp.
All Pictures Credited to: J STAR
WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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@BIGGAFISH
All Pictures Credited to: J STAR
WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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Picture: J STAR
THE STREET TEAM ON A MISSION......... Bigga Fish is all about the young people of London, but nothing ever comes easy. The Bigga Fish street team are not so much a team but a society, inspired by the motivation of the reward of responsibility and actual rewards. Tasked with promoting the event, the Street team used every and any means to reach 8
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out to the rest of London for XOYO on the 9th of April. Nobody shied away from the job and used their social networking skills to create a frenzied interest for tickets. BlackBerrys, Facebook and Twitter were their domain for the weeks before the event and were also hands on with their approach.
Anyone between the ages of 1419 can join the street team but what makes you stand out above the rest is the commitment level. The hard-bodied Street Teamers were out posting London with flyers. No stone was left unturned with stacks of flyers dropped into JD Sports, Chicken Shops, barbers amongst other places, with the buses and trains being victims of the flyer campaign. It was not just the street teamers but also their captains, Hannah, Raven, Charlie and Skrilla, who made sure everybody was organised and looked after during the missions.
When it was all said and done the teamers who put in work were recognized at XOYO. Their status is updated now to Gold team which means they represent a crucial and reliable component to the Bigga Fish movement. Tego - Top Ticket Seller Marvin - Top Mission Campaigner Andre Naomi Charelle Fontayne Emmanuel Samuel Deborah Ayesha Stephanie Rebecca WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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WELCOME TO BIGGA CLUB.... Run by the street team captains, all street teamers are invited to join in with happens at Bigga club. The invitation is extended to any new people who are interested and want to get involved. Everybody is on the same vibe as everyone else so it makes Bigga club an enjoyable place to be on a Friday evening. The first hour is the arrival time, a meet and greet for those who turn up. This a chance for teamers who live in different areas of London to come and meet in a mutual place, joke and talk when they may not get to do it during the week. The greet part is for young people who want to join the street team and during this time new teamers will be introduced to the existing teamers and filling out the registration forms. 6-7 is time for the practical portion of Bigga club; DJ Policy touches down to run the DJ workshop. At this time Policy will be teaching how to DJ, and teamers will be able to put their skills to use by using the decks or MC’s can jump on the mic. The last hour from 7 is dedicated to training the street teamers in what it takes to be involved with Bigga Fish. For existing teamers they will be trained on flyering missions, ticket selling, ETC. New teamers will have to start from the basics but depending on your understanding of what you have to do
“Bigga Club is a place for anyone that wants to be involved in something positive, it’s a great environment where you can learn or just chill and have fun.“ Raven, Street Team Captain
and what you represent, it should not be long before you are leveling, so don’t worry about that. To round it all off everybody will be informed about the latest information and events as well as ticket settlements. There is also a ceremony for the best teamer, which means there is a small incentive to be the best teamer. So whether that will be ticket sales, networking on Twitter, engaging with other people. WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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PIicture: STAH TALENT
XOYO 9TH APRIL 2012 IF YOU MISSED IT, HERE IS THE NIGHTS TRANSCRIPT. Easter Monday was the night where Bigga Fish teamed up with BBC 1Xtra to bring the under 21 rave of the year….So far…. If you didn’t make it to XOYO on Monday, you missed an epic event with the stage being graced with the hottest talent in the UK scene right now. The gyaldem and the mandem came ready for a rave of madness and it lived up to expectation. 12
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DJ’s Target and Cameo kept the 500 person strong crowd bubbling until Jazzie & DJ Policy stepped onto the stage. The bubbling crowd turned into a hyped one and it went a little deeper when Krept and Konan came out
and brought Yungen as well. Team Play Dirty performed the bangers, Otis, 100K and Go Down South and that set the levels for the rest of the night but it wasn’t to be their last appearance of the night. Angel was the next artist up and he had the girls going mad. Mad, so much so that security had to pull the barriers back from the stage to a safe distance back. Chances were some of the girls would have actually grabbed him off stage. The night was really heating up and it was only added to by the emergence of the fully certified Charlie Sloth.
THE STAGE IS SET FOR CASHTASTIC (LEFT) THE FLYER FOR THE EVENT (ABOVE) CAMEO HYPING THE CROWD (BELOW)
Picture: Jordan Williams
Birmingham’s Lady Leshurr touched down to do her thing and the crowd were on her wavelength as she was able to switch it up to a vibzing mode.
time to leave everyone gassed in the rave. It was apparent that the ladies of the crowd were waiting for one man and when it came for his time to shine, everything turned emotional.
The night so far would have left anyone happy enough, but Bigga Fish are never satisfied with happy, it was
Cashtastic walked on to a chorus of screams and brought a bag of gas plus a host of guests to the stage. WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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Dropping Boasy from his album Stylo G was in attendance to perform the hook. Yungen then came on stage to collaborate for their version of Stay Schemin’ and finally, the flame to ignite the gas, Krept and Konan on to perform the soundtrack to the night ‘gassed in the rave’. Woooooooooiiiiiii……
Picture: STAH TALENT
After all that, you could have been forgiven if you thought that was a wrap for the night, but that was Donaeo’s job in terms of the music artists. Dropping old school, new skool and still in school tunes, he had the crowd dancing until the very end.
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Picture: STAH TALENT
If you wernt there to be gassed in the rave, we know you’re gassed of this summary. If you didn’t know that Bigga is Back, now you know. With the next event only around the corner, don’t leave it until the last moment to get your ticket otherwise your only comfort will be the next event summary. Get your tickets now for XOYO May 13. All pictures unless stated by: Jordan Williams WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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Picture: STAH TALENT
Picture: STAH TALENT
Unless stated, Pictures by:
Jordan Williams WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM
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BIGGA
YOUNG DEACON
FISH
PRESENTS... Sunday 13th May is the introduction of Bigga Fish’s first open mic event series and it is a return to the scene of the crime. Crime on your part if you didn’t attend the last event, XOYO is the venue again. Bigga Fish look to give opportunities to artists looking to breakthrough and had four quality acts performing at the last event, Young Deacon, PW, Bobii Lewis, C Rymes all getting their time to shine on stage. Street Team Sunday is a once a month event which will allow anybody to get involved with a real open stage in any creative aspect. Exploring dance, comedy, spoken word, bloggers as well as the musicians, it is a real chance for you to turn up and just do your thing. The purpose of this event is to bring through the potential stars for the main events to perform with established artists and it all starts with showcasing your talents at this event. It also gives 18
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Picture: Jordan Williams
power back to the people in the audience, as you will know whether if you are watching a star in the making. Organized by the street team and with them 100% fully involved, it means they will host it, as well as distributing tickets so if you know a street teamer contact them for further info. If not, you can call the office, tweet or Facebook message. Tickets will also be availble to buy on the door It could just be the stepping-stone you need as there’s sometimes talent spotters in the crowd, especially at the main event. The only way to get to the main event is to start at this event so DO NOT MISS IT!!!!!!
Picture: Jordan Williams
PW Picture: STAH TALENT
Picture: Jordan Williams
The feedback from the crowd for the breakthrough artists at XOYO was superb with Young Deacon doing his rap, rapping in the style of poetry. His political and social bars were not wasted on the young audience as they responded with positives salutes and gestures as if it was Nas or Mos Def on Stage. C Rymes came on to the stage with a new track he was able to record with Gyptian out in Jamaica and Bigga Fish at XOYO was the step he needed to put his music out there. C Rymes has now performed in front of 500 people and now those 500 people now know. XOYO had lots of love for PW’s performance, where he did one track where he got the crowd bubbling with
C RYMES
BOBBI LEWIS
his rap and then switched it up and had the females in the crowd going nuts when he brought out a collaborator to sing the hook of his next song. Girls were reaching out to the stage like it was Chipmunk and Loick Essien performing ‘Beast’ back in the day. When it was Bobii Lewis’s time to shine he stepped up and did his acoustic performance and delivered it well to the crowd.
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Get involved with Bigga Fish and be part of a rapidly growing organization. But more importantly than that Bigga Fish for young people is a group that has a feel of family ties, that the young people are all part of the same cause pulling in the same direction. It is not only just about the showcase events that are put on, but the extra education you receive without the boundaries being placed. Learning about money and marketing tactics are just two aspects you can learn while being with Bigga Fish. You will go a long way to find another organization that will give you opportunities to work so hands on, like the recent outing to the BBC 1Xtra radio studio at Great Portland Street and the ticket signings with Cashtastic and Krept & Konan. Bigga Fish is expanding further out and will be touring in other cities across the country soon after the success of last years tours of Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham. To find out more look get in touch with us.
Contact: 9 CLUB ROW LONDON E1 6JX WWW.BIGGAFISH.COM EMAIL: INFO@BIGGAFISH.COM
WEBSITE:
TEL:
0207 729 9944
@BIGGAFISH FACEBOOK.COM/BIGGAFISHONLINE