chaphop

Madam Misfit

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A photo of Madam Misfit wearing a peacock outfit performing at Sci-Fi Weekender in Great Yarmouth in March 2023.

I’m going to talk about one of my favourite artists of the moment: Madam Misfit. She’s been at the past three Sci-Fi Weekenders and is always popular with the crowd (although we missed her this time as she was on really late). Her first appearance saw the smaller venue (‘The Spaceport’) filled to bursting, and so she’s rightly been on the main stage for her two most recent events.

I first found out about Madam Misfit through her collaborations with Professor Elemental (who we have also seen numerous times). Her music sits between Electro Swing and Chap Hop, combining singing and rap elements in songs that are very easy to dance to. As well as Sci-Fi Weekender, you can often find her at Steampunk gatherings, and co-hosting her Carnival of Chaos, a variety show.

Most of her music is on Spotify, but there’s also a few singles that are exclusive to Bandcamp, including her latest, Power Up. Also, if you want her song ‘Crap Romance’ (a parody of the Lady Gaga song), then you’ll need to buy her first album, The Elixir of Swing, on audio CD. Some of my favourite songs of hers are her cover of the Inspector Gadget theme tune, and the theme tune to The Wombles where Misfit plays the oboe.

Like many independent artists, you can also support her on Patreon – her third album should be coming out soon.

Professor Elemental

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Professor Elemental

Sunday’s visit to Thought Bubble wasn’t our only Steampunk-related outing last week. On Thursday, we went to see Professor Elemental, again in Leeds at The New Roscoe.

Christine and I have been fans for a while, but this was our first opportunity to see him perform live. His music is in a rather niche sub-genre called ‘chap hop‘ – imagine hip-hop, but with moustachioed English gentlemen rapping about tea and splendid trips to the seaside. Consequently, Professor Elemental has a major following in the steampunk community.

Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers

Local band Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers were the support act, in somewhat reduced circumstances as their drummer had a family medical emergency. Their music is wonderfully whimsical, with songs about David Attenborough, model railways, tweed jackets, and the folk who live on their local street. Whilst a rather different style of music to the main act, it fitted the offbeat nature of the gig.

Professor Elemental came on later, having sat in the audience for the support act; this was a small venue and there were only around 50-60 attendees. After powering through a medley of songs, he improvised a rap based on word suggestions from the audience, which included ‘antiquity’, ‘flange’, ‘antidisestablishmentarianism‘ and ‘nipple’. It was an impressive feat. Audience participation was also requested for his newer song Don’t Feed The Trolls.

Christine and I had come straight from work, and the weather was inclement to say the least, so we had left our steampunk outfits at home to save them for Thought Bubble, but many others were dressed up in appropriate attire. At one point, someone dressed as a giraffe crawled across the stage, and that probably wasn’t the strangest thing that happened.

Whilst it helped that many of the audience were genuine fans, it was a great, intimate gig – equal parts enjoyable and amusing. Professor Elemental isn’t on tour, per se, but he has a few more live gigs coming up around the country in the run up to Christmas – I’d definitely recommend going to see him.