Remember beatboxing? Doug E. Fresh, Biz Markie? It was big in the early Eighties and there was always one kid at school who thought he could do it, splurting and blowing his way through Stick ’Em by the Fat Boys with one trouser leg rolled up to his knee. Like fat trainers and sideways baseball caps, beatboxing slithered quietly into the shadows within a decade and those of us still wiping ourselves down in the playground breathed a sigh of relief. Until now. Beatboxing is back.

It’s been on the cards for a while. In 2004 Björk, always a step ahead of the game, marked its return with her single Oceania, performed at the Olympics opening ceremony. The track used no instruments, instead featuring beats created by the young UK beatboxer Shlomo. A year later Killa Kela, one of the few British beatboxers anyone has heard of, brought out a full-length album, Elocution, with guest spots from Neneh Cherry and Roots Manuva.

Now though, beatboxing is really cranking up the cultural ante with the relaunched International Beatbox Convention being held tomorrow at the South Bank.

Part of the Ether Festival, the convention is a day of workshops and performances. The artists might not be widely known but in the beatbox community monikers such as Ek-lips (French national champion) Bee Low and Beatmaster G will quicken the heart.

“This is a credible thing, not just a party trick,” says Shlomo. “It’s a way of making music.” In the evening, there will be a showcase of talent, culminating in a performance by Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra, the world’s first beatbox choir. It is comprised of the celebrated a cappella group the Swingle Singers — four women, four men and one extra man who was leaving but didn’t want to miss out — and four beatboxers: Shlomo, 23, is an artist in residence at the South Bank Centre; Bellatrix, 18, is the UK’s leading female beatboxer and a whizzo double-bass player; Neil Thomas, 26, and MC Zani, 21, both play in bands as well as beatboxing.

At a rehearsal, Shlomo, slight, bespectacled and swamped by a huge grey hoody, stands in the centre of a circle. To each person in turn he makes a short series of more or less bizarre noises, repeating it with them until they can do it on their own, then moving on, leaving them to repeat their part. Layer by layer, the music grows until they are all singing, tooting, um-cha-ing together.

“OK, I’m going to try something,” he calls out. “When I do this, I want you all to slow down like it’s a record on a turntable.” His hand makes a downward sweep and the voices go with it — zheeeoomp. On a whim he sweeps his hand back up — the voices flawlessly reverse the sound and go back into their parts. “Oh my God! That’s wicked!” cries Shlomo.

The performer (real name Simon Shlomo Kahn) came to beatboxing via drumming: “I was just making sounds, it never was a conscious thing.” When he was 18 a friend played him a tape of the US rapper and beatboxer Rahzel, and Shlomo realised that other people were making the crazy sounds he did.

Thousands of other people, in fact. Humanbeatbox.com, run by the legendary TyTe (aka Gavin Tyte, the UK’s only beatboxing vicar. Really) is a thriving online community with more than 32,000 members worldwide. Thus Shlomo was inspired to resurrect the languishing Beatbox Convention, which hasn’t been held since 2004.

Shlomo is excited about working with the Swingles. “In my solo show I use a looping machine to build up layers in a song, so I took one of the routines from that show and used the Swingles as a human loop station. I could control them in the exact same way as a loop station, but they’re a million times more versatile. It’s like a completely amazing toy.” The repertoire of the choir wasn’t finalised at the rehearsal, but will mainly consist of original arrangements in styles ranging from Indian tabla music to Brazilian samba and improvised jazz pieces, with a nod, of course, to American soul and hip-hop.

In anticipation of a road-block of skint teenagers, the South Bank Centre is showing the whole thing on a big screen in the foyer. I’d love to tell you what the big surprise at the end is, but I can’t. But trust me, it’s fantastic — definitely worth cosying up to a hoody for.

Human Beatbox Convention, South Bank Centre, London SE1 (www.southbankcentre. co.uk 0871-6632500), tomorrow

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