The biggest party at Fringe just got bigger

Massaoke celebrate their ten-year Fringe anniversary this August, bringing their live band sing-along party, MASSAOKE: GREATEST HITS LIVE to McEwan Hall for the first time.

For the uninitiated, the show features an energetic band of spandex-clad rockstars playing medleys of well-known songs from across the decades and encouraging the crowd to sing along with them, guided by lyrics and videos on a giant screen above the stage.

From humble beginnings in the Pleasance Ace Dome in 2014, under the name of Friday I’m in Love, the show has grown into something of a late-night Fringe institution. 2015 saw them switch venues to Gilded Balloon’s Nightclub for a couple of years, during which time they rebranded to Massaoke and featured guest performances from many a now-famous comedian. A quick YouTube surf will reveal 8 year-old clips of crowd-surfing by Joe Lycett and Joel Dommett, Al Murray bashing away on the drums and vocal performances from the likes of Aisling Bea, Ed Byrne and Sara Pascoe.

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Since then, the show has found its home in Assembly’s Palais Du Variété spiegeltent and evolved into a high-octane, crowd-powered party that feels more like a club night than a live band show. Indeed band take a DJ-style approach to their set-building, cramming over 50 songs into 100 minutes, smashing hairbrush anthems together into high-energy mega-mixes and mashups that keep the crowd guessing.

MASSAOKE: Greatest Hits LiveMASSAOKE: Greatest Hits Live
MASSAOKE: Greatest Hits Live

On the tenth anniversary of their first Fringe performance they will be playing Underbelly’s McEwan Hall. “This has been the dream from Year One,” says Justin Hawkins-esque frontman Mac Savage. A night out at Hot Dub in McEwan Hall inspired us to bring Massaoke to Edinburgh Fringe in the first place, so to be playing that venue ourselves is incredibly exciting. We’re going big with the production this year. Our aim is to blow people away with an arena-level show – lights, pyrotechnics, the works!”

And what kind of hits can we expect from a ‘Greatest Hits’ Massaoke show? Drummer Mat Factor explains: “All styles and all genres! We always like to put a rock twist on things, but there’s everything in there from hip hop to disco to pop to rave to heavy rock. We’re bringing together all our favourite solid gold classics and adding in a few new surprises. We’ve been having so much fun creating this show and trying to figure out how we can make everything bigger, better, more fun and just epic in every way. This one is going to be on a whole new level and we can’t wait to put the show on in this amazing venue and see how people react to it.”

LISTING INFORMATIONVenue: Bristo Square, McEwan Hall

Time: 23.00. Running Time: 90 mins Thu & Sun, 120 min Fri & Sat

Dates: 1 - 25 August, Thu – Sun

Tickets: Thu & Sun £15; Fri & Sat £20

Bookings: underbellyedinburgh.co.uk

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