THE CONCERT TRIPS

I like most kinds of music. I have a radically diverse collection of CDs (those are shiny discs that hold music that were really popular for a couple decades beginning in the mid 1980s) that include classical, country, a cappella, pop (in all its flavours), dance, world beats, rock (classic and modern), alternative, synth, new-age, new-wave, oldies, orchestral, polka, house, choral, handbell, brass ensemble, punk, bluegrass, disco, and metal. Oh, and some in German, Zulu, Gaelic, Spanish, Afrikaans, and a smattering of other languages.

Notice in the above list, there’s no rap. I don’t have a rap CD, unless you really want to stretch the limits of that definition to include Austrian singer Falco.

…and it’s true that I still don’t have a rap CD, but only because Pete and Bas haven’t released anything on CD, since that format was outdated when they dropped their first music collection (Quick Little Mixtape) in 2021 and their first album (Mugshot) in 2024. Considering that they didn’t even start rapping until 2017, when they posted the “Shut Ya Mouth” video to YouTube just for fun, it’s pretty impressive that they released those two records and 34 singles in those 7 years, especially when you account for Covid, when nobody was doing anything, least of all two older guys in the ‘most at risk’ category.

Before I get too far into this, I should explain why I have such a deep connection with these two. I literally credit them with saving my life - if you subscribe to the idea that a person’s attitude and outlook can positively or negatively affect their health, and I do.
I had just gotten a second cancer diagnosis and was undergoing a month of radiation. Physically, that process wasn’t that bad, but emotionally, it was absolutely brutal in ways I still can’t describe and I started sliding into depression. When I’d try to learn something new or think about long-term goals, the first thought that would pop into my head was “why bother? You’re gonna be dead soon, anyway.”

If you know me, you know that’s not my normal frame of mind. I didn’t like those thoughts, but I couldn’t shake them… and they were getting worse, not better. It was about that time that I accidentally discovered Pete and Bas. I say “accidentally” because I watch a lot of videos on YouTube and for some reason YouTube’s algorithm put them on my screen. I didn’t know what to think, but I knew that I was thoroughly entertained. And when I finished that video and started looking up their other stuff, I found that while I was watching their videos, I was no longer having the dark thoughts. I don’t know why, especially since their lyrics are about mob life, in a completely unflinching way. I put the whole experience into a song and video:

I looked into their backstory - Pete (the shorter one) discovered rap when his granddaughter changed all the radio stations in his car to rap stations. His best mate Bas, whom he met in the back of the Sindhuworld corner shop, where Bas was giving piano lessons, rode in the car with him one day and said, “what are we listening to?” After a bit, Bas (who was already a writer and a musician who plays several instruments) said, “I like the storytelling and all, but I could write better lyrics than this.”

So Bas went home and wrote “Shut Ya Mouth”. Their grandkids, who go by Nine and Dex, were already involved in rap production, so they got them to provide the backing track and Pete and Bas learned the lyrics. They made a video just for fun and posted it to YouTube on the “GrimeReportTV” channel. It went viral almost instantly. It’s still fun to watch, but their skills at writing and performing were light years behind where they are now. There are hints of the wordplay they’re now famous for, such as when Pete sings, “Watch! - Got time on my hands”, and they’d already adopted their signature suit/tie “old school mobster” look, but the lyrics weren’t fully gangster yet. Interspersed with the mob talk are “old man problems” like when Bas sings, “where are my specs at? Nobody move!” and later Pete sings, “I just bought my granddaughter an iPhone. She asked for an iPhone. What’s she gonna do with an iPhone? I ain’t got a clue with an iPhone.”

It’s also obvious that they weren’t used to being in front of the camera, but that also makes it kinda charming. Flash forward to 2022, just five years later, and they’re not only comfortable in their craft, but they’ve honed their delivery and writing exponentially. Their video for “Sindhu Sesh” is a masterclass in writing and delivery. The lyrics are crammed with so many layers, double (and triple) entendres, complex rhyme schemes, and other wordplay that I spent an entire 14-hour flight from Doha to Seattle breaking down just this one song. And delivery? Most rappers hear the backing track, find a rhythm or two (the “flow”) that works with the track, then write lyrics to match the flow. Sometimes, they might switch up the flow a time or two during the song.

In “Sindhu Sesh”, Pete and Bas switch flows two dozen times, if my count is correct. They didn’t just find a flow that worked, they found twenty-four of them. Add to that the fact that their back and forth patterns (switching from one singer to the other) start out with Pete and Bas both getting 16 bars before switching, then eight, then a fun of 4-bar stanzas, giving the song a feeling of ramping up the speed as the mic gets passed with shorter intervals.

Then Bas takes a full eight bars out of nowhere and they trade eights twice before launching into a blistering 2-bars-each run at the end that hits with rapid-fire precision that most rappers could only dream of pulling off.

So they started new careers in a field they had no experience in, even though they were both 70 years old, and not only did they not make fools of themselves, they killed it. Many established rappers will tell you that Pete and Bas are their favourite rap duo and would put them in the top five best of all time. And… AND they pulled this off while Pete was battling cancer. Not only did Pete win that battle and become cancer-free, but he never stopped making music and videos during that process. Two of the videos during that time, “Longthorne Shotgun” and “Quick 1-2” show Pete without his trademark hat because the cancer being treated was on his head. You can see the spot in the “Quick 1-2” video:

But you know what else you see in that video? Pete breaking out of his mobster character and letting loose and having a laugh. It’s not something you normally see in their vids, when they’re in character and being the villains.

This. THIS was how a person should approach life with cancer, especially when you’re still unsure of how it’s going to turn out. Not with moping and worry, but by taking life by the throat and living it. And laughing. Whenever possible, laughing.

It changed my outlook almost overnight - and not in a subtle way, either. After a few weeks of consistency, with their music and videos flipping my mood to positive within just a minute or two, I felt the need to reach out to them. I found a website and it had a web form that you could fill out, primarily for the purpose of hiring them to do a show. Even though I figured that whatever I put into that form would go to some tour manager or other secretary, I filled it out anyway, just in case. This is what I wrote:

Just wanted to say thank you. I'm a 58 yr old man living in Canada. I've always hated rap music, but I ran across a reaction video to Plugged in with Fumez and it blew me away. Went down the rabbit hole and binge-watched every video multiple times. I'd put you in my top ten fave musical acts, no question. Bought the album - my first ever rap album purchase, unless Falco counts as rap. 

On a personal note, I've got two kinds of cancer, one lying dormant just waiting to kick in and kill me, the other zapped with radiation for a month and still trying to keep it at bay with meds. Hit a pretty low point when they told me it had metastasized and I only had a 30% chance of surviving five years. 
But in my digging around for P&B backstory, I read that Pete just beat cancer and got right back up and into the game. That, combined with the two of you not being afraid to try something new at this stage in life inspired me to keep going, not give up, flip the bird at cancer and say "fuck you, you're not gonna win this one, bitch." 
I hope the two of you keep going for many years - the songs just get better and better. I love the Shut Ya Mouth video, because you can tell that the two of you are good mates in that one. Fave song is either Whirlybird or Goodfella. Both bangers! 
Nothing much else to say, but you just never know how something that you do can affect someone else in a very good way, even when they're on the other side of the world.
Toss back a pint for me.
Jim in Canada

I was beyond surprised to get a personalized response from Bas two days later. Here’s what he said:

Hi Jim,

Lovely to hear from you. Keep fighting the dreaded cancer. It looks as if you have a great positive attitude like Pete has. I’m sure you will survive for many years yet and when they say 30% chance of living for five years – what could they possibly know? I know many people who were told that 20 years ago and they’re still going fine.

Hope you keep following us for a long time.

Love 

From Bas and Pete

That’s a class act, right there. They didn’t have to take time out to send me an email personally, but they did. And I went from ‘fan’ to ‘superfan’ just like that.

And so I made up my mind that somehow, some way, some day I would meet them in person, shake their hands, and tell them ‘thank you’ face-to-face.

That’s how we got where we are now. Scroll back up to the top to see trip reports for the concerts as listed there.