After sending their demo disc to the organisers’ UK street team, the Asylum Seekas have been asked to perform at Hip Hop Kemp 2010 in the Czech Republic tonight. (Picture by Alex Digard, 1011472)

GUERNSEY hip-hop artists Asylum Seekas will be taking to the stage at one of Europe’s biggest festivals this evening.

The group won the chance to perform at Hip Hop Kemp 2010 in the Czech Republic after sending off a demo to Kemp’s UK street team as part of a competition that would see the most impressive band winning a place at the festival.

Asylum Seekas lyricist Jim Rowe, 30, said the group could not believe they had won the chance to perform at the three-day festival.

‘It’s a massive festival. There’s going to be more than 160,000 people there and anyone who is into this genre of music will know about it.’

Mr Rowe will be joined in the Czech Republic by fellow group members Andy and Martin Yabsley, John Murphy and Tom Collinson.

‘If it wasn’t for John we would never have got the opportunity,’ said Mr Rowe.

‘He was originally going to the festival to watch it but he saw the advert for the competition and said that we had to send our demo in.’

The band have been together and performing for the past 10 years. They started producing and recording their own music in 2003.

Mr Rowe believes it is a massive opportunity. Not only will their music be heard by a wider audience, but backstage they will be rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the hip-hop world.

‘We’ll be around other artists and able to speak to loads of promoters.

‘We’ll be giving out a lot of our CDs and doing a lot of networking to see where we can go from here.

‘I hope if we go there and smash up the set that we will at the very least be able to go back next year.’

DJ and producer Andy Yabsley, who along with Mr Rowe is the other founding member of the group, said the achievement of being on the same bill as the likes of Roots Manuva, Foreign Beggars, Sage Francis and Talib Kweli, should not be underestimated.

‘We have done Guernsey and Jersey Live before, but they’re on a local level.

‘This is so specialist and all about hip-hop,’ said the 28-year-old.

‘Edo G, who is one of the great hip-hop artists from America, describes it as the biggest and best hip-hop festival in the world.

‘That’s because the European hip-hop scene is huge and its underground following is massive.’

Mr Rowe added that the appearance would make all the hard work over the last 10 years worth it.

‘We are really proud of what we have done because we have put a lot of hard work into it. Every week we are working on something and sometimes it doesn’t come off and you think to yourself about whether you should jack it in, but then an opportunity like this comes along.

‘It makes all of that time we have put in worthwhile and encourages us to do even more.’

• Hear a recent track by the Asylum Seekas here.