Travka in Tajikistan

The Big In The Stans web series is a standalone project as well as behind-the-scenes look at the feature documentary.

Featured on Matador Travel and Humanitarian Bazaar, the series will feature new episodes as White City continues touring Central Asia.

The web series is available for commission or feature.

Contact whitecity@biginthestans.com

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White City playin “Silver Hyena” at Hoodies from Combat Comms on Vimeo.

A behind-the-scenes look at our first ever video shoot in Kabul’s old Russian cultural centre. Hopefully the official video won’t be far behind.

Ru: I’m setting out on my own to revisit Kyrgyzstan and some of the bands we met when we were there. It’s a solo journey without Travka and Andronik, sadly, but I’m hoping to jam with some of Bishkek and Osh’s best musicians.

Consider BITS resurrected! I hope all White City’s Bishkek fans will take me out. See you there!

Here’s a reminder of our last visit

White City’s Adventures in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Vol.1 from Combat Comms on Vimeo.

White City’s Adventures in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Vol.2 from Combat Comms on Vimeo.

Thanks to Ellie Kealey and Qasem Foushanji for the photos.

Our brilliant team, consisting of Jake Simkin, David Gill, Ellie Kealey and Pedrow & Qasem from District Unknown, took us down to the abandoned Russian Cultural Centre in Karte Se, off Darulaman Road.

This imposing building took a lot of damage in the civil war of the nineties and is covered in bullet holes. Nowadays, its grounds are used as a parking lot by locals, an impromptu football pitch by kids and inside its cavernous buildings, which still bear faded murals of Lenin, Kabul’s junkies gather to shoot up, buy and sell junk and, occasionally, die.

We shot in three different locations – inside a dusty vestibule amongst a questionable build-up of dust, mud, needles and fecal matter next to the above-mentioned mural, which had images of barely-recognisable cosmonauts floating up around the great Illyich.

Then we moved to what must have been a sort of amphitheatre with huge ceilings and mangled metal arches bending over us. Daubed on the walls were more recent graffiti-efforts. A burka-clad woman sat on the stairs looking at a giant skull spitting earth-bound rockets. A broken heart throbbed opposite a spattering of bullet holes, which had gained the caption, “you missed”.

At this point, we filmed the rock-out section of the song as Pedrow and Qasem threw red smoke grenades to each other, their trails streaming only inches from my face. It was an effort to sing and not flinch!

Finally, we moved to a huge outdoor stage and attracted the usual crowd of Afghan locals, who streamed from Darulaman road to see what the crazy foreigners were up to. Even the police were clapping and cheering with their AK-47s slung across their backs. Perhaps it was we were dressed in old, Soviet flight suits and furry hats, but the animosity that can sometimes turn a crowd like that nasty, never appeared. Instead, people came up to us and congratulated us on our mimed, performance with ‘Harasho! Harasho!’, clearly thinking we were Russian.

We’ll get a proper Flickr Set up soon. These are just crappy photos from my mobile. Stayed tuned!

Consider BITS resurrected! I hope all White City’s Bishkek fans will take me out. See you there!

Here’s a reminder of our last visit

White City’s Adventures in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Vol.1 from Combat Comms on Vimeo.

White City’s Adventures in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Vol.2 from Combat Comms on Vimeo.