Bristol: Wild Bunch

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Great music is born from a collision of societal and political change. This series explores the origin stories of some of the UK's most vital musical movements. In this episode, we visit Bristol. The 'Bristol Sound' has been described as "possessing a darkness that is uplifting, a joyful melancholy", but it couldn't have existed without the 'Wild Bunch' parties of the 80s, These were the spark that grew to create Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. The sound of Bristol can't be separated from the story of immigration. Illegal sound system parties, directly inspired by their Jamaican counterparts, were commonplace. Bristol's goldilocks size, coupled with its collision of cultures, incubated the 'Wild Bunch', the name for a loose gathering of musicians, DJs and graffiti artists. The Wild Bunch parties were a direct descendent of the earlier sound system events, and threw together hip hop, reggae, funk and R&B with ambient electronic sounds. The Wild Bunch eventually became the musical collective that defined trip-hop. Three Wild Bunch members - Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles - formed Massive Attack, alongside Tricky. Producer: Victoria McArthur Narrator: Vanessa Kisuule Researcher: Juliet Conway Sound mix: Lee McPhail