Fandjango Exclusive Interview ahead of their Manchester debut!

Hailing from the rolling hills of Lancashire in the shadow of Pendle hill this 5 piece put their own stamp on modern day pop, rock & hip-hop! Fusing well known songs with gypsy, swing and jazz flavours to create their own unique sound.....

It is my huge pleasure to interview frontman "Tri" Tony Dixon ahead of them bringing their jazzy, high-energy gypsy flavour to Prohibition's Mad Hatter's Tea Party at the Bread Shed, Manchester, this Friday.

Tell us a little about your fabulous 5-piece. How long have you been going and how did you all meet?

"We have playing and performing pretty heavily together for the last two years and we've known each other almost 10 years from playing in different bands together. Round about college time we all started mixing together so it was easy to find the correct members for what we needed. "

What drew you to this particularly unique and fun style of music?

"I personally love electro swing bands such as caravan palace and parov stellar but always believed it to be a big stretch to put together something like that. As musicians were all aware of Django Reinhardt who we try to let influence our sound and after seeing festival bands doing a similar thing we knew it was something we had to try. "

If someone was just starting out listening to gypsy jazz/balkan beats, what other bands/acts would you recommend they check out?

"As I mentioned earlier Django Reinhardt really started everything in the early 20s. Bireli Lagrene is a chap still playing today (to my knowledge) he consistently blows my mind whenever our guitarist points him out to me. If I'm to mentioned bands in the same field our good friend Oli plays with Flash Mob Jazz down in Brighton who are incredible!! During the festival season we?ve seen Manchester based Gypsies of Bohemia and Leeds based After hours and Jenova Collective who are all full of energy with a great sound. "

What has been your favourite event to play at so far?

"I think for all of us it was bestival playing in club dada. We?ve had other great festival gigs don?t get me wrong but there the crowd was incredible, it sounded great, the stage guys made us feel so welcome. There were a lot of good things going on that made it awesome. "

What event/festival have you not yet played at but would dream of doing so?

"There's all always Glastonbury which everyone mentions but to name a few smaller festivals blue dot, greenman or some abroad such as snowbound and outlook. "

What do you believe having the right `look` or outfits contributes to your experience and the audience's?

"I think it makes the band seem memorable when they have some form of dress to perform in but also we like to think we're a bit silly and express that. "I believe you hail from my neck of the woods (I'm from Lancaster!). Can you help us fellow north-westerners out on recommendations of events/nights/festivals where we can get more of your fun and funky style of music? "

I believe you hail from my neck of the woods (I'm from Lancaster!). Can you help us fellow north-esterners out on recommendations of events/nights/festivals where we can get more of your fun and funky style of music?

"Beatherder is a good local festival based in Gisburn we also grew up with the colne blues festival in August bank holiday. An event we often go to in Manchester is called space cassette which really excels in wild eccentric bands. "

This is your first time playing Prohibition. Have you played Manchester before? Are you looking forward to the event?

"We haven't played in Manchester as Fandjango but we have played around in other bands in numerous venues. Prohibition looks like it's gearing up to be a fun night and with the mad hatter theme it seems to fit well with our style. "

And, finally, where can people go to find out more about you, your music and any upcoming gigs?

"We have all forms of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, instagram where we try to be funny and informative but we have a website with videos on www.fandjango.co.uk as well as YouTube. "

Tickets are no longer available for this event