Tanya Vital on Bradford's Bassline Symphony

The concert has been curated by Tanya Vital, the Yorkshire actor, voiceover artist, playwright, event producer, and founder of Vital Culture UK, an award-winning creative agency. As a bassline enthusiast, she has fond memories of city clubs such as Boilerhouse, TFU and Penningtons.

“I used to love Penningtons, it was such a beautiful venue, but then sadly one after the other they all seemed to close down and then town got very small, it all went down to the Centenary Square area,” she recalls. “Then they started renovating the North Parade area and it’s slowly coming back.”

Back then, the key local DJs and producers were figures such as Jordan and Beanie and Big Ang. “They were well-known in Bradford, and then the scene just started to get bigger, especially in Leeds and Sheffield, where Jamie Duggan came in,” Vital says. “You had other DJs like Nev Wright, Shaun ‘Banger’ Scott and then it went on from there.”

As the scene grew in popularity, the venues became targeted by police and councils over anti-social behaviour – yet still it survived. “It seemed to be a working-class genre and with alcohol and whatever else, there were occasions with people fighting, but no more than any other genre,” Vital says.

“But bassline seemed to take the brunt of a lot of authoritarianism and crackdowns, which killed the scene a little bit, but you just have to drive through Bradford now and you’ll hear people playing bassline in their cars. We’re still playing tunes from 20 years ago.”

In the last five years, bassline has enjoyed a resurgence thanks to the likes of Bad Boy Chiller Crew and Bailey P. “Obviously, it’s similar and it’s got roots to the kind of stuff that we were listening to 20 years ago but they’ve very much made it their own,” says Vital. “We’ve got Bad Boy Chilelr Crew and Bailey P, who’s from Bradford and has had some charting songs. TS7 is still going strong, touring all over the world. It’s definitely evolved into something new.”

Bassline Symphony is “a mixture of old school and new school”, Vital says. “There will be some old school bangers in there that people of my generation who are too old to go to clubs now will remember and we’ve got some of the new gen stuff for the young people, too.”

She is thrilled that the concert will take place at St George’s Hall. “To fit an orchestra we don’t have that many places in Bradford – and it’s a full orchestra, so I’m really nervous and excited at the same time,” she says. “I guess the main idea behind the event was London has got grime and garage, Manchester had Happy Mondays, and Yorkshire and Bradford we had bassline. I wanted to really put us on the map, celebrate our music culture and heritage in an interesting way.

“I’m an arts kid, I’m an actor and I see all the cuts that are happening in schools and the lack of resources and access to arts and I just thought it would be an interesting way to bring real-live instruments and a real-live orchestra to people who don’t get access to those things in a way that they can enjoy and relate to.”

Bassline Symphony takes place at St George’s Hall, Bradford on Friday May 9 at 7.30pm. https://bradford2025.co.uk/event/bassline-symphony/