Big Jeff - Bristol-centric
After spying Big Jeff going hammer and tongs down the front at the first Bristol gig I've gone to in a while - a storming set by Kid Carpet at the Cooler on Saturday - I was inspired.
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/waspyone/jeff.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/waspyone/jeffheadcolour.jpg
http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/waspyone/jeffburst.jpg
What a legend.
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Local Legend a.k.a "The Bristol Yeti"
I've seen him in and about Bristol now and then. Saw him at Los Campesinos! and Future Of The Left and as the lead singer of FOTL states "he's a fu**ing ball of kinetic energy!"
You know you've made it in Bristol
When Jeff comes and dances at your gig.
Best Jeff moment: the Wave Pictures bassist having to spend their whole gig looking at the ceiling because every time he looked down he saw the flying hair and laughed so hard he couldn't play.
oh my gosh
he came to one of our gigs recently, and when i saw him in the audience i was SO EXCITED. afterwards he grabbed our drummer and started listing all these bands we reminded him of!
it was only our second gig, and we're all only 15! it was mad.
The man is a living LEGEND.
Leg-end
I remember seeing him at Million Dead and he got a free t-shirt just for being amazing. every band i have seen when he has been there are in really good moods because someone is dancing to there music.
I heard he manages a band now. cant remember the name. and he was on German TV once.
Legend!!
I wish
I'd seen that Wave Pictures gig. My favourite is always when it's a band's first Jeffro encounter and they don't know quite what to make of him...
Some classic moves in this KC video cameo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTvZcr3gM00
Yup
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomph_uk/2908997649/
At first he's a bit of a novelty
but as time goes on he gets very annoying and distracting. Just this Sunday I went to see my friend play at Start the Bus, got set up in a decent seated position (was an acoustic act early on the bill) and he decides to stand right in my line of sight and do some dance for the whole set.
Can't fault his enthusiasm and dedication, just find him a bit annoying/distracting.
And he smells
Yep
let's not beat around the bush here.
^
He's at pretty much everything I go to, his hair always gets in the way of photos, and he dances like a loon to even the quietest songs... I'm sure he's a lovely guy, but I wish he'd get out of the way of the stage.
He used to creep me out
when he'd do that at the front of our gigs, then I learned to love the big monster. Jeff is the ledge.
we have a 60% big jeff attendance record
We have played 5 Bristol shows, and he has been at 3. Its like the other two didnt actually happen.
grrr
i don't know, i find his indiscriminate enthusiasm to be pretty annoying. plus he elbowed me several times at ponytail :(
I can't open the links but this sounds like a guy who was going nuts
at mercury rev / howling bells last november at the Academy. Tallish with long hair ?
He has a big fluffy 'fro thing
Yeah, he's pretty massive. I enjoy his huge enthusiasm at gigs where it seems appropriate, but I have found it really annoying in the past - headbanging to Explosions in the Sky, Fionn Regan and Low = nah.
Yeah he was definitely there
I don't like him.
He spends as much time looking at the audience around him hoping for acknowledgment, as he does watching the band.
He has no spacial awareness and is incredibly rude.
He wears a t-shirt which says "Big Jeff Loves Music".
He totally buys into his own 'local-legend' status.
Typical 'kerrrazy' type. Yuck. Annoying.
I don't really think he's looking for acknowledgement
So much as turning around to go 'WOW, THIS IS AMAZING!' to everyone round him.
Possibly
But his myspace reads "I am a mega MUSIC Muncher, who dances wildly at gigs and has many a burning passion for people and is seen as popular beacon in the music fraternity".
He's pretty into himself.
The Big Jeff backlash
begins in earnest...
Not here it doesn't
He used to come to my band's gigs
all the time, it's nice to have someone who doesn't just stand there staring at you for your whole set.
there was
someone with the same face, but no hair that used to be at the front of gigs in bristol when i was in school there, in like 1996, i always wonder if it is the same man.
i've never heard this guy before
but it is now my sole aim in life to play a gig in Bristol in which he attends
I did some Jeff spotting
at Bestival.
He does put a smile on my face
He's a nice guy, it seems.
But he can get a bit annoying. My mate's band asked him to go to the side at their last ever gig because they wanted other people to be able to dance/ see the stage.
And good pictures
but his hair's blond isn't it? Was when I last saw him I'm sure, although that was years ago.
Thanks very much
and I think he's dyed it recently but he definitely used to be an unabashed bright ginger... which is how I fondly remember him.
...
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1301/1083536214_b15bd12e47_o.jpg
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1255/1082619807_9377e0edd6_o.jpg
I think dan_thw put it best
It's not a Bristol gig if Jeff doesn't turn up.
He can definitely sometimes lift the spirits of a nervous touring band
who think they've got a diehard fan on their hands, but I've seen him barge small girls out of the way on numerous occasions (probably accidentally, admittedly), plus there's unquestionably a note of ego to it all.
Has anybody seen him performing his own music? Genuinely frightening.
Yeah, he performs as Manic F right?
he's a lovely guy
...and it's great to see such enthusiasm.
As mentioned, he can be a little annoying if he's in your line of sight, or spraying you with his sweat, and I have asked hime nicely to move to one side in the Loui.
My only problem with him is that I think over the last 2-3 years he's started to play up to his reputation...whereas before it was all natural, now it seems a little forced at times...he seems to look around to make sure people are watching him...but I may be wrong.
Other than that I can't see why anyone would have a problem with the guy...he's really very sweet & naive, and just loves music...and is one of the more recognisable music nerds in Brizzle along with Leigh, Graeme, Beardy Man, and Two Pints Dave...all of whom will happily chat & recommend upcoming gigs
How does he afford to go to everything?
Does he get in free everywhere because of his legendary status?
wtf
he's the british Beatle Bob! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatle_Bob
hope he doesnt get one of these sites: http://www.beatlebobsitdown.com/
I can't really tell from the photos
but presumably Beatle Bob isn't 6'4"?
he's meant to be pretty tall
he used to be put on the guestlist for every venue, every night.
they dropped off one by one when they got complaints about how irritating he is.
i think he got his.. fourth? mention in plan b this month.
at mercury rev I had no idea who he was when I looked over and thought
who the fuck is that knob-end ruining the gig for all around him.
That's
him
i guess that i miss you, i guess i forgive you, i'm glad you stood in my way
i hate jeff. i always have done and always will do. but my less than friendly disposition towards that monstrosity of man reached a head when i went to the last day of glastonbury last year with the sole intention of seeing my all-time idol and personal god leonard cohen. i got there while goldfrapp were still playing, ready to swarm in when the dishwater fans swarmed out - it was a big operation, and a moderate success; i managed to get in at about the second or third row from the front. there was just one thing in my way. one thing blocking my view of the greatest poet in music. one thing in the way of me and what could have been the defining moment of my LIFE (i'm being melodramatic to make a point here). jeff. right there. dancing like a twat to famous blue raincoat (i didn't even think that was possible). and so it WAS a defining moment of my life. it summed it up better than anything could have. me, struggling to glimpse glory. jeff, in front, basking in it. the bastard.
x
er, could you not have moved ?
it was too late, the crowds had locked me in place...i'm only wee...
he put my band on
at the junction in bristol aaaagesss ago, he freaked us out when we first met him, we warmed to him by the end...
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/43/l_0f5bdff01dfd4717bf7e8c6648f8e04d
pretty sound guy but i can see why people would find him annoying. i remember watching trail of dead couple of years ago at the thekla from the balcony and just seeing jeff at the front causing general irritation.
bastard
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=5814089&albumID=372529&imageID=54008772
Huntspill
This is the guy whose birthday party you were going to have us play. Right?
The very same
it was a short live idea.
*lived
Yeah we made a joint decision
to not do that.
anybody have any idea what his day job is?
how on earth does he afford to go to everything? i can't tell whether he's got amazing taste or is just really indiscriminate. he is incredibly annoying and distracting though, especially when the band isn't even close to being apt for jumping up and down on the spot for.
rumours abound
of some sort of NHS payout for some sort of botched operation. That's genuinely not meant as a way of spreading malicious gossip, a few people have said it, and certainy his, er, solo material seems to allude to some sort of surgery gone awry. I dunno really, I've never met anybody in Bristol who knows for a fact where/if he works. Suppose I should just ask but, y'know...
I seem to remember someone telling me he doesn't work
And a similar rumour being thrown around. I've never really found an appropriate time to ask him personally!
I asked him...
he's on benefits of some kind, but he volunteers helping out with disabled children a few days a week, and spends literally all his money on going to gigs.
Awesome bloke
He doesn't pay
I first met him in a food tent whilst working at Beautiful Days.
Then a few months later I stumbled across his myspace and I thought "woah, that's a weird coincidence, it's that guy that was speaking to me at BD"
The following summer I was walking past the Other stage at Glasto and his bobbing head was plastered across the big screens. By now I was getting a tad freaked out that I kept seeing this guy everywhere I went.
My breaking point was when I turned on my television some time later and his face was there too (he was an extra on something...skins I think).
I decided to actively find out what the hell was going on and who this guy was, because I actually considered the idea that I might have fictitiously conjured up some sort of weird alter ego that was following me around and I'd be locked in a Fight Club-style, Tyler Durdan, skitzo existence for the rest of my days...
Now I know it's just Jeff.
i wish
there were more people like big jeff at gigs
Well, what's private is private
but Jeff himself has kind of told the story in a semi-autobiographical way, so I guess it's OK to share:
http://bigjeff-thecrone.blogspot.com/
ahhhh
that blog also confirms this http://www.drownedinsound.com/community/boards/music/4168000#r4408808 thanks!
He's nice.
but distracting
what a guy
his enthusiasm for everything music related is boundless!
he also put us up at his house once when we were stuck in bristol.
i believe he has some kind of rap project. would love to hear that.
So to sum it up then, most people preferred his earlier work?
irked
Big Jeff blags some gigs by asking the bands if he can go on the guestlist. There's nothing the promoters can do about it. So the people who pay to see a band often get their view obstructed and are inhibited to the degree that there's a 'Big Jeff exclusion zone'. Other people don't dance when he's at the front unless they want to risk an elbow to the head. He does seem to believe his own publicity hence the constant looking round to see if he's been noticed 'having a great time'. Whilst his enthusiasm is commendable, he drives an awful lot of people round the bend. If he contributed more i.e.paid to get into gigs, bought the band's music, hell even bought a drink at the venues, then people may get less irked.
All the bands love him
I saw dananananaykroyd supporting foals, and the lead singer from danana climbed into the crowd and kissed him on the forehead.
Also me and my mate saw him walkin up gloucester road air drumming. We said hello. He gave us strange looks and kept air drumming.
I like him.
He seems like a nice chap. He sometimes wears a Monster Magnet t-shirt. And Malcolm Middleton described him as a human metronome.