Really looking forward to conquering the January blues with this great event next weekend. The skint people of London can reach early for a 3 quid deal, so no excuses!

Split loyalties for me though – who to cheer for?

Here is the blurb and video:

TIGHTEN UP + SHIMMY SHIMMY + EXTRA CLASSIC present:
CHAMPION SOUND
SATURDAY 7 JANUARY 2012

@ The Silver Bullet

5 Station Place
London N4 2DH
Tel: 020 7619 3639

Doors: 8.30pm – 3.30pm
Gate Pressure: free till 10pm / £3 till 11pm / £4 After

We kick off the new year in fine style with an ultra-special, one-away, party-clash-type-sumting we’re calling… CHAMPION SOUND!!!

CHAMPION SOUND brings together three of the tuffest crews on the UK Reggae scene – SHIMMY SHIMMY, EXTRA CLASSIC & TIGHTEN UP – in a head-to-head, toe-to-toe, tune-for-tune Three-Way 45 Clash!!! All crews will be on rotation all night long spinning the hottest Jamdown sounds to keep the people dem dancing! Expect Scorchin’ Ska, Rugged Roots, Raw Bone Rub-A-Dub, Dangerous Dancehall, Booty-Shakin’ Bashment and beyond!!!

Representing on the night will be some of the finest selectors and MCs to ever drop a tune or bless a mic:

For SHIMMY SHIMMY up step tip-top selectors THE LARGE & ILLANJA with the mighty SEROCEE pon di mic!!!

For EXTRA CLASSIC taking to the decks will be the crucial combination of AL FINGERS & DISORDA with the ever-versatile SEANIE T rocking the microphone!!!

For TIGHTEN UP at the control tower will be resident rude bwoy selectas MISTAH BROWN & TIM P with the dynamic dual deejay talents of DADDY RANKS & RAS JAHNY (aka JOHNNY DOLLAR) dealing with mic duties.

We’ll be kicking up rumpus all night til daylight! Come and join the party!! Reach early!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Some festive fun from my sparring partner last week, Cool Hand Luke and crew. This has got to be a good antidote to the office party…

Also keep Saturday Jan 7th free in your diary for some “3 big sounds on one big lawn” action.

‘Agit Disco collects the playlists of its 23 writers to tell the story of how music has politically influenced and inspired them. The book provides a multi-genre survey of political musics, from a wide range of viewpoints, that goes beyond protest songs into the darker hinterlands of musical meaning. Each playlist is annotated and illustrated.

The collection grew organically with an exchange of homemade CDs and images. These images, with their DIY graphics, are used to give the playlists a visual materiality. Almost everyone makes selections of music to play to themselves and friends. Agit Disco intends to show the importance of this creative activity and its place in our formation as political beings. This activity is at odds with to the usual process of selection by the mainstream media – in which the most potent musical agents of change are, whenever possible, erased from the public airwaves. Agit Disco Selectors: Sian Addicott, Louise Carolin, Peter Conlin, Mel Croucher, Martin Dixon, John Eden, Sarah Falloon, Simon Ford, Peter Haining, Stewart Home, Tom Jennings, DJ Krautpleaser, Roger McKinley, Micheline Mason, Tracey Moberly, Luca Paci, Room 13 – Lochyside Scotland, Howard Slater, Johnny Spencer, Stefan Szczelkun, Andy T, Neil Transpontine, Tom Vague’.

You can now order the book direct from Mute Books.

The audio for my contribution is now available here:

TRACKLIST

1. X/O/Dus – English Black Boys (Factory Records, 1980)
2. Audrey – English Girl (Ariwa, 1982)
3. Lion Youth – Three Million On The Dole (Virgo Stomach, 1982)
4. Steel Pulse – Handsworth Revolution (Island, 1978)
5. Maxi Priest – Love In The Ghetto (Level Vibes, 1984)
6. Papa Levi – In A Mi Yard (Level Vibes, 1984)
7. Papa Benjie – Fare Dodger (Fashion, 1985)
8. Laurel and Hardy – Video Traffickin’ (Upright, 1983)
9. Macka B – Bean and Egg (Ariwa, 1986)
10. Pato Banton – Gwarn (Ariwa, 1985)
11. Leslie Lyrics – Pull Back Your Truncheon (UK Bubblers, 1985)
12. Ranking Ann – Kill The Police Bill (GLC, 1984)
13. Raymond Naptali – On My Way (Fatman)
14. Lorna Gee – Three Week Gone (Ariwa, 1985)
15. Horseman – Horsemove (Raiders, 1985)
16. Daddy Colonel – Take A Tip From Me (UK Bubblers, 1985)
17. Tippa Irie – Complain Neighbour (UK Bubblers, 1985)
18. Demon Rocka – Hard Drugs (Unity, 1988)

FREE EVENT

Stupidly good line up, brought to you by the Voltron-like Style & Swagger / Hipsters Don’t Dance / Physically Fit camp. Who are interviewed and bigged up in fine style by Time Out.

Especially gratifying to see both Curtis “Necessary Mayhem” Lynch and Wrongtom on the bill, the latter showcasing productions for his next album after “Duppy Writer” alongside the man like Deemas, who I had the pleasure of meeting a few weeks ago when we all failed to get into the Lovers Rock film. But it’s all good, frankly.

The last bash by this lot (or some of them at least) I went to at the Big Chill House was the day after the David Starkey debacle. I’d spent the afternoon doing my bit on the North London Unity March and got a bit teary on the roof as Saxon unleashed an awesome set and everyone seemed blissfully unbothered about whether or not the “whites had become black” or whatever.

Anyway, I shall keep a stiff upper lip this time, I promise. Plus it’ll be inside.

Crazy promo multimedia bits:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Earlier this year Matt Woebot wrote an excellent piece for The Wire magazine on the musical deviants of Cambridge. Tomorrow night he and the various people featured will appear in London courtesy of the ever-generous Jonny Mugwump. More details below.

It will be good – see you there…

Woebot (DJ)
Former blogger supremo turned sonic dissectionist, Woebot’s latest album Chunks is one of the highlights of 2011. This event was inspired by Mat’s article for The Wire in March this year.

The Doozer
Joe Meek productions through folk ethnography. “Guitars reverberate; drums ebb; gamelan parts move like clockwork and hand cymbals tinkle”.

Man from Uranus
Cosmic junk-shop synth sci-fi – Sun Ra and Stockhausen via jean-Jaques Perry, Esquivel and Roger Roger. “I love to make sound a visible entity- to paint with it.”

Pete Um
Anarcho-poetic, comedic anti-music. “Imagine if Quasimodo was a Home Counties Vicar dispensing slurred homilies, or perhaps if 2 Live Crew’s Luke Skywalker were producing Position Normal”.

Nochexxx
moving dancefloor synthesis into a parallel universe as heard via his records on Werk and RAMP.

More info, links and ticket details at exoticpylon dot com

Mr Mugwump has posted some handy Youtube links to introduce the artists on his blog.

Liking the “vinyl-only” vibes.

On the same night the mighty Jah Observer are playing out for the last time – next door at Mass.

(In other news: Jah Observer’s space at Notting Hill Carnival is being taken over by Stoke Newington’s own Solution Sound next year).

“The STORY OF LOVERS ROCK is a feature length documentary tells the story of an era and a music that defined a generation in the late 70s and 80s. Lovers Rock is romantic reggae that was uniquely British. It developed from a small UK scene to become a global brand through the likes of UB40 and Maxi Priest.

Lover’s Rock is a uniquely black British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems. Live performance, comedy sketches, dance, interviews and archive shed light on the music and the generation that embraced it. Lovers Rock allowed young people to experience intimacy and healing through dance- known as ‘scrubbing’- at parties and clubs.

This dance provided a coping mechanism for what was happening on the streets. Lovers Rock developed into a successful sound with national UK hits and was influential to British bands (Police, Culture Club, UB40) These influences underline the impact the music was making in bridging the multi-cultural gap that polarized the times. The film sheds light on a forgotten period of British music, social and political history.”

I saw a rough cut of the film a while back and wrote about it here. I am really looking forward to seeing the finished version at Hackney’s Rio Cinema on Friday.

It is also showing at the Brixton Ritzy and Peckham’s Peckhamplex on the same day, and possibly elsewhere – check your local indy cinema for details.

The official website has exceded its bandwidth, which is annoying but a sign that there is a lot of interest in the film!

A more general release and DVD are planned.

Grievous Angel and I did a Lovers Rock megamix a while back to get you in the mood. A second installment is in the can and will be available in due course.

It takes quite a lot to tempt me out of DJ retirement these days, but Heatwave have very kindly asked me to return to the decks for their 8th Birthday Party. I could hardly refuse although it’s a pity I’ll be without Droid at my side this time – our last encounter at the same venue is now the stuff of legend:

A cruel depiction of my last time playing at the Big Chill House by Martin of Beyond The Implode

I would hazard a guess that with a line up like that I’m going to be on early, so come down and grab a beer for some warm up skanking.

Also, some of this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More info about the event here, as well as some great Heatwave mixed and radio shows to get you in the mood.

Venue details here

Heatwave are soon to release a DVD of their epoch-defining Stageshow event, filmed by Rollo Jackson who did the Tape Crackers film I raved about earlier this year and also has a nice write up by Dan Hancox in The Guardian. I’ve seen a preview copy and it’s bloody great – live footage of legendary UK MCs tearing the place up, deftly mixed in with a whole bag of interviews.

Here’s to another 8 years of The Heatwave!

North London Unity Assembly Demonstration

GIVE OUR KIDS A FUTURE !

Saturday 13th August Assemble Gillet Square, Dalston, N16 at 1pm.

March to Tottenham Green, N15

Our communities need a united response to both the riots and the causes of despair and frustration that can result in riots.

We call for:

• A Culture of valuing, not demonising youth and unemployed people.
• Support for those affected by the rioting, including the immediate re-housing of people made homeless as well as grants for affected small businesses.
• Community led regeneration and restoration of damaged areas.
• Reversal of all cuts to youth services in our boroughs.
• No cuts to public services! Instead, investment into and regeneration of our communities, including housing, jobs, education and sports facilities.
• An independent community inquiry into policing methods in our boroughs, and an end to discriminatory stop and search.
• Availability of legal support for all those arrested by police -young people face potential sentences that will affect them, their families and their wider communities for years to come. Recommended solicitors are: Bindmans 02078334433, Hodge Jones & Allen: 07659111192

We are responding to the events of the last few days, in particular the Tottenham protest over the killing of Mark Duggan and the riots that followed in Tottenham and Hackney.

By coming together and calling for unity we want to encourage all sections of our local communities, young and old, black and white, residents and workers, to work together to find solutions to some of our long-standing problems.

We know there are all kinds of strong feelings and differing views. We do not claim to represent the whole community, but merely seek to promote unity in the communities in which we live.

Simply labelling rioters as opportunistic criminals does little to relieve tensions and provides a poor explanation for the worst riots in decades. While the shooting of Mark Duggan provided the trigger, against a background of oppressive policing, especially towards ethnic minorities, the root causes are deeper.

Our communities have been blighted by high levels of deprivation, poverty and lack of opportunity for decades. Inequality is growing and recent funding cuts to local services, particularly youth facilities, along with rising unemployment, and cuts to EMA and benefits have exacerbated the conditions in which sections of frustrated young people turned to rioting, which unfortunately has resulted in people losing their homes and small/family businesses losing their livelihoods.

Britain is a wealthy country, but with deep inequality. The economic crisis created by greedy bankers and financial speculators is further impoverishing already poor areas like Tottenham and Hackney. The £390 billion of combined wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain should be redirected to fund the services we all need.

In the last few months we have seen mass local protests against cuts, student occupations to defend free education, a half-a-million-strong demonstration on March 26, and 800,000 public service workers out on strike on June 30th.

We need to build on these and other inspiring local and national struggles. Let’s work together for a decent society, based not on greed, inequality and poor conditions, but on justice, freedom, sharing and cooperation.

North London Unity Demonstration supported by:

The Haringey Alliance for Public Services, Hackney Alliance to Defend Public Services, Day-Mer (Turkish and Kurdish Community Centre), NLCH (North London Community Centre), Day-Mer Youth, Alevi Cultural Centre, Fed-Bir: , Kurdish Community Centre: Roj Women, Halkevi, Gik-Der (Refugee Workers Cultural Association), Britania Peace Council: Hundred Flowers Cultural Centre, TOHUM, Socialist Party, Youth Fight For Jobs, Right To Work, Red Pepper.

PDF LEAFLET for printing out etc