Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers

Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers

Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers is a London-based pop and rock group that begins in 1988 and remains active. The act is best known for novelty medleys built from sampled and re-edited early rock and roll recordings, presented through the cartoon rabbit character Jive Bunny, who appears in videos and also makes promotional appearances in costume.

Formation and line-up

Although the public face of the project is Jive Bunny, the act is centred on Andy Pickles, who becomes the front man, and Rebecca Male, who is heavily involved in production. John Pickles, Andy’s father, is associated with the label and functions as the project’s manager rather than as a performing member. The original idea for the project comes from Les Hemstock, working through the Mastermix DJ service. Andy Pickles later founds the hard house label Tidy Trax with fellow DJ Amadeus Mozart.

Chart success and recordings

The group achieves a rare run of success when its first three releases all reach number one on the UK singles chart, between July and December 1989, making it only the third artist to do so. The three number ones are “Swing the Mood”, “That’s What I Like” and “Let’s Party”. “Swing the Mood” spends five weeks at number one in the UK and also gains attention in the United States.

Each of the early hits combines pop music from the early rock and roll era into medleys, using sampling and synthesisers alongside joining instrumental themes. “Swing the Mood” opens with Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” and includes Bill Haley and His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock”, Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” and the Everly Brothers’ “Wake Up, Little Susie”. “That’s What I Like” uses the theme from Hawaii Five-O and excerpts from songs including Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” and Ernie Maresca’s “Shout, Shout (Knock Yourself Out)”. “Let’s Party”, first issued in the United States as “March of the Mods”, uses “March of the Mods” or the Finnjenka Dance, and interpolates songs including Del Shannon’s “Runaway” and The Wrens’ “Come Back My Love”.

Style and releases

The European medleys use the original recordings by the original artists. In the United States, legal restrictions prevent some of those recordings from being reused, so later re-recordings by artists such as Bill Haley and Del Shannon are substituted instead. The project’s approach is often compared to Jaap Eggermont’s Stars on 45, although that project uses recreated performances rather than sampled originals.

Jive Bunny And The Mastermixers continues to record and perform under the same name, though with less chart success than during its initial run.