“Formed out of a hybrid of University bands, Dukebox blends soulful reggae with chomping brass, big beats and big vocals.” Taken from their Myspace page, ‘Dukebox’ is a university band here to play some tunes, have some fun and entertain. They play a selection of famous songs from covers of The Beatles to playing a good mix of their own material. But what is the best thing about playing on campus? I spoke to Ole the trombone player in the band and in his experience campus is a great place to play and the audience are always really enthusiastic. Because we’re playing to students, there’s a lot more licence to prat about and it just feels a lot more like the “home” crowd. He also said that they feel they get a good reception at bars and they’re all different and added that it was hard to pick a favourite but said they’ve played Pendle more than anywhere else.
The future for ‘Dukebox’ is uncertain, not because they aren’t a fantastic band but with various degrees and jobs will take them to different parts of the country but as Ole admits that they didn’t get together to make it big but just to play some banging tunes and have a bit of fun. After watching Dukebox play I can say that they do have a fantastic live act, which keep the bar entertained and are well worth going to see if they’re playing your college bar or you feel like being ambitious and heading to another. He finishes by adding, “We just want to keep having fun, keep people dancing, and keep lying to people that Alex wrote the entire Beatles’ back catalogue.”
