King of the Jam 2006 AtoZ

Mark Splinter's Beach Jam

So the world's best beatbox picnic gets better and better. This year the Jam was moved 1000 miles east to Lithuania, and extended to 4 days long. Featuring a Jam in a club, on a train, and on the beach, this really was the biggest Jam yet. Here is my report of the Beach Jam awards ceremony, the climaxof a weekend of multilingual Jamming.

We arrived late in Klaipeda on the Jam train, walked across town to the harbour, ate a kebab, and caught the last ferry to the Curonian Spit, a nature reserve in the middle of the Baltic Sea. Everybody then piled onto the bus, surprising the driver who wasn't expecting so many customers so late at night. He probably wasn't expecting his customers to Jam all the way either.

Forty minutes later and we were in Nida, a small harbour town popular with German grannies. Panic followed as various Jammers realised they had no accommodation for the night, and they left to scour the town for a place to crash. The humanbeatbox.com representatives, Archangel, BeatMuppet and Vigilante, were whisked to their tiny loft apartment in an old fisherman's cottage. The cottage was old, and the fisherman was so old he was dead, thereby leaving space for weary beatbox royalty. A ceremonial first beer was drunk, all Jammers found beds, and they probably couldn't sleep in them anyway because they were so excited about the Beach Jam.

The next day's lazy breakfast over, we started to congregate on the beach. The temperature was a lovely 25 degrees, and the sun was shining as always. However, hot weather makes lazy jams, and it took a while to get everybody in the mood. Bored with football, Archangel stepped up and kicked things off.

Joined by MowF and my own behind-the-camera stylings, the Jam magic was starting to work. Soon we were all getting sweaty in the Jam circle, and more joined in, including Remedy from beatbox.lt and of course BeatMuppet and Vigilante from humanbeatbox.com. BeatMuppet has almost no limits. Wearing an England shirt and a black skirt, he did everything from juggling to freestyle MCing, and was constantly seen keeping the beat straight with exaggerated hand actions. Special mention has to go also to Vigilante for expressing the pure spirit of Jam by just Jamming and smiling, a nice contrast to his online persona!

There was something different to the London Jams. Fewer people is good, because there is a limit to the size of the Jam circle. We had the perfect number of about 10 people, and no oversized egos. A big benefit was the total lack of noise pollution, meaning you could really hear bass kicks coming from the other side of the circle. This never happens in London with all the traffic, and it meant that the Jam didn't die or lose rhythm as much on the beach. Thankfully the wind stayed away until later.

After a really long first Jam, Vigilante suggested a Swim Jam, and we all ran to the water. I can't tell you how cool it is to Jam on a beach, then run into the sea. If you live in a beach town, you are very very lucky. Unfortunately everyone was too chilled to do much more Jamming, but there was battle to be done on the football pitch, so we set up the Jamposts and got the Jamball and formed teams, Lithuania vs England.

An epic battle followed, during which we all nearly died by running too much on sand, or bleeding too much where the sandy Jamball had taken the skin off our feet. But the score was more important. Matching each other goal for goal, we decided on a sudden death finish after the tally reached 2-2. The last goal took longer to score than the previous four, and we were all relieved when Archangel finally banged in the winner for England, meaning we could all stop running around and go swim.

The wind had picked up, and we were all such good friends, so I decided to ditch the solos. After 4 days of Jamming all across the country, there was no need to show any more skills. I had made my decision.

The Jam Handshake for outstanding Jam promotion was awarded to MowF, without whom I could not have organised such a successful Jam. Organisational skills are just as important as beatbox skills, and he has them both. Shouts go to Gon who couldn't make it... we missed you.

Finally, the Jam went to the new King of the Jam 2006: SlyGrid, a young Lithuanian who impressed the Jamjudges (me) by seeming to be everywhere ready to Jam, with his serious musician face, busting new sounds right up until the last bar. Look out for this guy in future. And big big bigups to all other Jammers, especially the harmonica and the drunken clown... you know who you are!

With the ceremonies over, we had time the next day for a Special Meeting of the HumanBeatbox.Com Overseas Steering Committee on top of a huge sand dune. Expect a few innovations to hit the site soon, thanks to the wizardry of my man Garo and the incredible BeatMuppet.

Thanks go to beatbox.lt and Mamania at Zip FM for the support, humanbeatbox.com for sending the cavalry, and big thanks to Lithuanian Railways for not calling the police.

Until next year....

Thanks SPLINTER for the review