Although it is easy to dismiss them as a comedy act, Pete, Bas and their friends have taken the internet by storm with hits such as Mr. Worldwide, Pint and a Fag, and Quick Little Freestyle and have since gone on to release over a dozen singles and a full-length album, but who are Pete & Bas? Where did they come from? Is it really them writing and performing? There is an air of mystery around the past of Pete & Bas, were they actually gangsters? Unfortunately, the truth isn’t this exciting.
Origins
Bas (real name Basil Preuveneers, not Basil Bellgrave which he has claimed in a BBC interview) is a semi-retired Notary Public and formerly a solicitor for his own law firm. He has also directed and starred in his own short films, as well as released an album of piano music under his own name. Pete (real name Peter Bowditch) has claimed to be both a retired postman and trading standards inspector. Unlike Bas, there isn’t any immediate proof that this is a lie – so that’s all on Pete.
The duo has said in multiple interviews that they met in a corner shop when Pete was there for work (as a trading standards inspector) and Bas was teaching piano in the back of the shop. The shop in question is the shop featured in Sindhuworld, where Uncle Bal said Bas taught him to play piano.
The Snooker Team
The Snooker Team is the name given to the friends of Pete & Bas who have appeared in multiple music videos and some album tracks of Pete & Bas. The full lineup of The Snooker Team is as follows (and no none of these have been made up): Uncle Bal, Tony Moses, Albert Allen, Patrick Karneigh Junior, Smith, Norman Pain, McMillan, Barry, Airmax90, Chris and Billy ‘The Fag Butt’ Dawkins. We have taken a look at some of the more notable members below.
Patrick Karneigh Junior (often shortened to PKJ) was the first of the snooker team to perform alongside Pete & Bas, in the single Keys & Bags back in 2019. Patrick also released his own solo album named Twins of Darkness Vol 1 in February of 2019 and went on to create the group The Northern Boys with fellow Snooker Team member Normal Pain. Unsurprisingly, however, Patrick (whose real name is Patrick Carney Junior) is also an actor, with quite a long list of appearances on his IMDB and StarNow profiles, as well as his own website.
Norman Pain is the second most prolific member of The Snooker Team with a growing catalogue of singles being released to his SoundCloud and an album released to Bandcamp named Growing Pains. Norman, similarly to Pete, has a very basic online presence so despite the likelihood based on what will be discussed shortly, there is no way to prove he is just an actor.
Uncle Bal is the last of The Snooker Team that has an online presence outside of being featured on Pete & Bas singles. Uncle Bal is the face of Sindhuworld, which is looked at more in depth below, but he has also released his own music with the single ‘Sun Shines (On You)‘ which was released a few months before the debut of Pete & Bas and was even accompanied by a now-deleted music video, although clips of it still exist online.
Sindhuworld
Sindhuworld is the most interesting and confusing part of the Pete & Bas puzzle, what does a corner shop Instagram page have to do with these now global artists? The origins of Sindhuworld itself have already been covered in depth by Vice in 2017 so we will leave that out, what we are interested in is their link to Pete & Bas. The main point to take note of is that Sindhuworld is the management/production behind Pete & Bas, which can be noted in the credits of their videos and singles. Although the connection to Pete & Bas actually goes back to before any music was released, as Pete can be seen in this Instagram post from Sindhuworld in 2017 and Bas can be seen even earlier in 2017 in this post. Sindhuworld also plays a part in the American Pete & Bas counterparts Frank & Maury, which brings us to the most damning evidence of the authenticity of Pete & Bas.
On the acting job listing website FilmLocal, there is this now deleted post by the account ‘Sindhu World’ posted in 2019. The beginning of the posting reads as follows:
We’re looking for an actor to be the face of our latest project. In short, we write, record and produce music and then get actors such as yourself to play the role of the characters performing the music. As the music is contemporary rap music, we use older actors to play the role of the performing artist (the rapper) creating a juxtaposition that has captivated and fascinated millions of people worldwide.
We began the project in London in late 2017 and have since had great success and are looking to expand internationally. Currently we have 1.1 million+ regular viewers and have reached over 30 million views worldwide with our content and have worked with: Vice, BBC, Playstation, Barclays Bank, Channel 4, ITV, GRM Daily, ARD, Spotify and many more major international media outlets.
Posted by SindhuWorld on FilmLocal
Now it doesn’t take a genius to see that this is an advertisement from SindhuWorld looking for actors for the roles of Frank & Maury, using Pete & Bas as proof that the plan works. Further proof of Sindhuworlds involvement with the project can be seen in the credits for their singles and music videos similarly to Pete & Bas. Onto the more evident point, the job posting excerpt above serves as proof that it isn’t actually Pete & Bas writing the music – which if the two main artists aren’t writing their own music this casts doubt on the fact the rest of The Snooker Team are writing their music themselves.
Ghostwriters?
The revelation above opens up the question that if it isn’t them writing the music, who is? Despite online rumors that the tracks are being written by famous grime artists such as CASisDEAD due to the flow similarities, or The Manor as Pete appears throughout one of their music videos, unfortunately, it is neither.
One conclusion, and the most logical, is that the tracks are being written by Barnaby Addison and Johnathan Gibson – the owners of Sindhuworld Limited, shown here. (Note: despite being a public record, information that can be considered sensitive has been censored). In addition, whilst writing this article, one of the Frank & Maury music videos went missing from youtube, and when trying to access the original video link it is now shown as being ‘No longer available due to a copyright claim by Barnaby Addison‘. However, the main proof of this is shown in the credits of Pete & Bas tracks on youtube, where these names are credited as the writers, as well as the same being true on a Frank & Maury track.
The final nail in the coffin is the website of Barnaby Addison’s brother, who created the comedy series Community Patrol. Again for privacy reasons we aren’t going to link the website directly as it contains information that can be considered sensitive, however, please see this screenshot from the website which states in no unclear terms that they created Pete & Bas along with Frank & Maury – with it not being unreasonable to think that they are also orchestrating the surrounding projects such as Norman Pain and The Northern Boys.
This doesn’t take away from Pete, Bas & Co. though, at their core they are entertainers and it shouldn’t matter if they are writing their own lyrics or not. It would be much more disappointing to learn it isn’t actually them performing but all proof seems to show that it is them, as there is no easy way to fake a live show and they have certainly succeeded in being entertainers regardless. The most impressive aspect of the whole group is their marketing team able to keep the image of these ‘former gangster’ old men turned rappers from being conclusively disproven, in a Milli Vanilli-style scandal.