What Is Samba Punk?

In the Beginning ...

Co-founder, Jack Arade-Parede. was awoken one morning to the sound of samba drumming outside his tent at WOMAD in the early nineties. He joined The Edinburgh Samba School in 1994 and his partner in crime, Gare Rama, joined the following year. Both were brought up on punk music and ideals and decided to form a band that crossed samba with punk, Over the course of 1995, they spent countless nights discussing the concept in the Kings Arms, and gathered together like minded sambistas and formed Bloco Vomit. The rest is history...

Members of Bloco Vomit have varied musical backgrounds and tastes, but they all share one thing - samba. Most of the "voms" play, or have played with The Edinburgh Samba School (TESS). In the UK and many parts of the Europe, samba fever is spreading. Each major UK city hosts at least one samba school or "bloco". There is now a thriving samba network out there and a lot of cross overs.