Kate Tempest's 'Brand New Ancients' Vs. Ben Drew's 'ill Manors'

Both Kate Tempest and Ben Drew believe they have a role to play in the extremely difficult task of portraying a young generation, angry and disillusioned. Kate Tempest is a 26 year old musician and poet. She was born and grew up in Brockley, not far from the theatre where I saw her perform her show Brand New Ancients, and in many ways this was her ‘coming home’ gig. She combined simple narrative, acapella rap, and atmospheric music to an unstoppable effect, telling the story of the ‘everyman’ in a way that it has never been told before.

Kate tells the story of everyday heroics, and how these age-old stories can help us make sense of our own lives. Towards the beginning of the show she says something along the lines of “everybody has a parable of a friend who could have gone somewhere but took too many drugs. Everybody has the parable of a drunken old man sitting on the bench in their local park”. She goes on to make the point that everyone has an important and interesting story to tell, whether or not this story is immediately assessable. This idea struck me, because one of the reasons I love London is the sheer quantity and diversity of people, each with a special story to tell.

Kate was described by the Guardian as having a “genuinely galvanising presence”. During the show you feel as if you’re watching something sacred. Kate’s messiah like quality leaves you speechless and feeling as if she has been put on this earth to tell her story (or perhaps, more importantly, the story of others.) I’m aware of the hyperbole in these statements, but they are hard to avoid when used in conjunction with this poet! I’ve even heard Kate Tempest referred to as a “21^st century Shakespeare”, and although this term has been applied to other artists before, with Kate it seems to be closer to the truth. 

 ‘ill manors’, the first film made by musician Ben Drew, A.K.A. Plan B, is a tale of survival on London streets. It tells the story of battling against drugs, gangs and violence, which is not new at all, and has in fact probably been overdone. The film is powerful, despite its tendency to slip into the clichéd story of fighting for respect on the streets. Drew interweaves different characters personal tales of hardship, using six songs from his latest album to narrate the story of particular characters.

Drew comes close to telling the story in a new way, by promising in the film’s opening sequence that he will be the sole ‘narrator’ of this struggle. However, apart a few songs, Plan B’s voice is not heard enough in the movie. If Drew expressed his own voice more, with characteristic insight and intelligence, he could have reached a new level of understanding about life on London streets that the film ultimately shrives for and fails.

Kate Tempest and Ben Drew both attempt to narrate the average Londoners disillusionment through spoken word. Brand New Ancients left me inspired, and the only criticism I had was that the show wasn’t being performed to school kids across London, so they could be sprinkled with her gold dust. ill Manors on the other hand left me relatively hopeless, because Drew depicts a world where hope is hard to come by.

Judge for your self...

Plan B – ill Manors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8GvLKTsTuI

Kate Tempest- Brand New Ancients http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1a8iFSXCHLw#!