Knife swallowers, cobra dancers and a nine piece Rajahstani brass band are not the normal sight you would expect to find in a bar on a Friday night in Huddersfield.
But those who did were in for a rare treat last Friday, when the Jaipur Kawa Brass Band took the stage in Bar 1:22 to turn the venue into an impromptu Indian mela.
They may be more used to gracing sell-out festivals around the world than performing in former textile Pennine towns, their previous gig was in fact at Glastonbury, but that didn’t stop them from launching into a turbo-energized set that soon pulled nearly every member of the crowd out of their chairs and onto the dance floor to practice their own Bollywood moves.
It was not the response you would imagine getting to any brass band that formed at the coal face of any of Kirklees’ pits and frequent park bandstands, that was for sure.
Frenetic, brash and riotious in sound, renditions of Jerusulem there were not as the band blared their way through a set that interlaced traditional Indian folk, Bollywood and gypsy beats with jazz and classical Hindustani scores, which showed that although the British Raj may be long gone, a fascination for all things brass has not.
And it was the tiny sousaphone player leading the carnival atmosphere who, just like his Hackney Colliery Brass Band counterpart’s performance two weeks ago, did not let the weight of his two stone instrument stop him from bouncing around centre stage and leading several impromptu band dance offs.
He only stopped to let another instrument-less member to step into the limelight, who transformed the band from pure musicians into an all-out circus act as he broke into an impressive juggling act and, then, more eye-wateringly, proceeded to swallow several knives.
The female compere who followed him was no less impressive, who wasted no time in contorting her body so that the soles of her feet were placed firmly on her head.
By that point it then only seemed natural that the night should end with an all out conga line, that wove its way across the floor as the band blasted out a rousing finale to a now very sweaty but very happy crowd.
An unlikely culture clash it may be but brass bands mixed with a large dose of spice are clearly the best way to warm up even the murkiest of Yorkshire summer nights.
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