Apparently some of you ignored my advice earlier this year to get to the Showtime event. It was one of those legendary evenings that I can now taunt you about for the rest of your lives. But all is not lost – you can now shock out to its ridiculous line up in the privacy of your own home.
The footage of hype MCs is interspersed with some great interviews.
Rollo Jackson has excelled himself this year with this and Tape Crackers (also now available on DVD from TTT) – both films documenting UK soundsystem / ‘ardkore continumm music in their own sweet way.
Showtime is a fantastic calling card for The Heatwave, who have taken things to another level in 2011. Check the trailer and then order from here.
Madd Raff was a blast the other night. It was an absolute pleasure to play an eighties revival set with Cool Hand Luke, alongside Benjamin Heatwave on mic duties. The venue was a little basement bar off Great Portland Street, very close to my first ever DJ gigs at the students’ union of the Polytechnic of Central London in the late eighties.
Twenty years later and I’m there playing records to people twenty years younger than me. Which means that some of my tunes came out before they were born. I’ve laid it on a bit thick about being the oldest raver in town this year, but I’m quite relaxed about that. I go to ska and rocksteady nights where music from the early sixties get played, often by people old enough to be my parents.
As Steve Barrow points out in the Dub Echoes DVD – capitalism always promotes the new thing as being the best thing, and tries to divide the young and the old. There’s a resurgence of “generational resentment” at the moment in the UK. One reading of the UK riots was old peoples’ fear of “feral youth”, which is the latest instalment of a long line of subcultural moral panics starting with teddy boys and going right through to hoodies.
I think what’s new is young peoples’ resentment of the old, though. For the first time living memory, this generation of school/college leavers will be significantly worse off than the previous one. Lower incomes, longer working lives, less secure jobs and little prospect of owning property look like being the norm.
Music can’t really patch up these economic differences, but I guess it can show that people have more in common than they thought. Each new generation finds a way to briefly escape hardship in darkened rooms as the bassline drops. Each new wave of dancehall builds on the foundation of the music. But sometimes dancehall mutations become so radioactive that more mature heads find it difficult to recognise them.
Unlike some of my contemporaries, I have no vested interest in remaining an “expert” on dance (or any) music - as all this has been a hobby rather than a career. So I can be relaxed about it and enjoy the ride. On Wednesday night Luke and I were followed by Heatwave’s Dan Bean, who flung down some 2011 bashment anthems. At least I assumed they were anthems, as everyone went mental. I had no idea what most of the tunes were, and had a chuckle to myself about my lack of desire to find out. It felt quite liberating just enjoying being a room full of people going mad to JA music without mentally filing every tune away in my Bumper Trainspotter’s Book of Music.
Photo courtesy of The Heatwave
I remember trying to sneak a few current bashment riddims into reggae sets in the early noughties. It never worked - I even managed to clear the floor on a couple of occasions. Now it seems like a corner has been turned – for clubbers, my old man’s music has been restored to its rightful place as a warm up or chill out selection. What people really come out for is the new fangled music, which is how it should be really. I saw a girl running down the stairs at Dancehall Jamboree a few weeks back, so she could get on the floor and skank out to the Liquid riddim.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that there’s a bit of hype about bashment at the moment when you consider the alternatives. JA music has all the colour, character and vibes that are missing from most dance music right now. But it’s also testament to the sheer hard graft put in by people like The Heatwave and newer crews like the bewildering nexus of Hipsters Don’t Dance / Physically Fit / Shimmy Shimmy / Style and Swagger.
All this intrigues me. I like having a broad overview of Jamaican music since the 1950s, although if truth be told you’ll mainly find me listening to stuff from the last century. But unlike some of the old guard, you won’t find me wringing my hands about the terrible state of JA tunes nowadays.
I like Steve Barrow’s ideas about unifying the young and old under one b-line. But I’m also quite pleased that bashment ravers can still annoy the old gits and purists.
Agit Disco has just been published by Mute Books, compiled by Stefan Szczelkun, edited by Anthony Iles The launch takes place on 8th December 2011, 6.30pm – 9.00pm at The Showroom, 63 Penfold Street, London, NW8 8PQ.
‘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’.
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)
Uncle Dugs on Rinse FM with a blazing 1991 selection.
But even better than that, he gets Kool FM founder Eastman in for an extended interview. (interview commences at about 1:37:00)
Some proper history, covering North London reggae soundsystem, early raves, Jungle Fever, and the full story of Kool FM.
An amazing bit of oral history, loads of details and tales of scrapes. If you liked “Tape Crackers”, this is the side of the story told by the station crew rather than the listeners/punters.
Kool FM is about to celebrate 20 years in the business.
Back once again with a seven inch selection by me and post production tweaking, polishing and shining from the man like Paul Meme (check the link for Paul’s new postpunk and techno mixes also).
You would think from some of the coverage of Lovers Rock that songs about love and relationships were unique to that particular late 70s London reggae subgenre. But of course heartache has been a staple of Jamaican music since before reggae even existed.
This mix deviates slightly from “pure” Lovers Rock – as if such a thing was possible. It includes tunes from the sixties to the noughties, UK and JA productions.
There’s some pop madness, some sweet soul and some boshing one drops included. Enjoy!
Tracklist
1. Audley Rollins – What’s Your Name (Matador 7″)
2. Alton Ellis & Phyllis Dillon – Remember That Sunday (Treasure Isle 7″)
3. The Silvertones – Two Time Lover (Studio One 7″)
4. Harry Hippy – Cover Me (Pioneer 7″)
5. Ronnie Davis – I Won’t Cry (Love 7″)
6. Gregory Isaacs – Sunshine For Me (African Museum 7″)
7. John Holt – If I Were A Carpenter (Striker Lee 7″)
8. Chantells – Waiting In The Park (Phase 1 7″)
9. Terry Linen – Your Love Is My Love (Raggedy Joe 7″)
10. Leroy Gibbons – To The End Of Time (House of Hits 7″)
11. Tony Curtis – Let’s Go (House of Hits 7″)
12. Bobby Kray – Silly Games (Sun Land Mix) (no label 7″)
13. Lukie D – Young Love (Special Delivery 7″)
14. Gyptian – Pretty Darling (Special Delivery 7″)
15. Oba Simba – Whistling Bird (Special Delivery 7″)
16. Tairo – La Vie Qu’Je Mene (Special Delivery 7″)
17. Ava Leigh – La La La (Virgin 7″)
18. Toni Braxton – Yesterday (Sticky’s Lovers Remix) (Atlantic 7″)
Track by track
1. Audley Rollins – What’s Your Name (Matador 7″) 2. Alton Ellis & Phyllis Dillon – Remember That Sunday (Treasure Isle 7″) 3. The Silvertones – Two Time Lover (Studio One 7″) 4. Harry Hippy – Cover Me (Pioneer 7″) 5. Ronnie Davis – I Won’t Cry (Love 7″)
I don’t know much about these tunes, they are just things I’ve picked up on the off chance over the years and loved. The first three all came from the bargain bins under the spiral staircase in Rough Trade in Covent Garden. For about 20 pence each. Finding random records for 20p is something that is disappearing along with many of the record shops mentioned in this post.
6. Gregory Isaacs – Sunshine For Me (African Museum 7″)
7. John Holt – If I Were A Carpenter (Striker Lee 7″)
With hundreds of Gregory love songs to choose from, the one that leapt out isn’t about his tumultous times with the ladies at all! “Sunshine for me” is about staying humble and keeping thing in perspective, in stark contrast to the invulnerable blinging gangsta supervillains one hears so much about. But how will that sit with the laydeez? John Holt poses that very question in a cover of American crooner Bobby Darin’s 1966 standard.
8. Chantells – Waiting In The Park (Phase 1 7″)
Another tune about male vulnerability with incredible vocals. Many of us have been stood up, but I suspect we haven’t hung around in the park all night expectantly, even if we were “promised something that’s nice”.
9. Terry Linen – Your Love Is My Love (Raggedy Joe 7″)
This was an absolutely massive tune around the turn of the Century, loving up the millennium! The sort of cover version that sorts the people who love music in all its pop glory from the record nerds. Everyone knows the Whitney version, right? What I hadn’t realised was that the song was originally a reggae-lite affair, written by Wyclef Jean. Terry’s take is much more to my liking. To be honest, most things not produced by Wyclef are more to my liking, but his bonkers selection of dubplate specials always raises a smile.
10. Leroy Gibbons – To The End Of Time (House of Hits 7″)
11. Tony Curtis – Let’s Go (House of Hits 7″)
These turned up at a visit to Dub Vendor in Clapham Junction a couple of years ago. Beautiful upbeat modern productions and some killer vocals as well.
12. Bobby Kray – Silly Games (Sun Land Mix) (no label 7″)
Much was made of Mr Kray around 2007 when this debut was released. In fact me, him and Ava Leigh (more of whom in a minute) were all quoted in a piece The Times ran on white people in reggae. I’ve not heard much of him since – and I daresay he is sat somewhere pondering my whereabouts also…
I think I probably picked this up from Dub Vendor in Ladbroke Grove on one of my trips up west with a box of Woofah for Honest Jons. “Silly Games” loops back to the Janet Kay original on our Lovers Rock Volume 1 mix. I believe Dennis Bovell is involved with this tough relick too.
13. Lukie D – Young Love (Special Delivery 7″)
14. Gyptian – Pretty Darling (Special Delivery 7″)
15. Oba Simba – Whistling Bird (Special Delivery 7″)
16. Tairo – La Vie Qu’Je Mene (Special Delivery 7″)
More modern riddim magic, from the same Dub Vendor haul as the “House of Hits” tunes above. I like the way this mixes up superstars like Gyptian with complete unknowns. The backing track is based on Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je T’aime” which is audacious, and I like the way that performing a literal cover of that tune has been resisted.
17. Ava Leigh – La La La (Virgin 7″)
Ava was another great white hop, who briefly fared quite well (compared to Bobby Kray at least). “Over The Brdige”, her collaboration with Manasseh, was one of my top reggae tunes of the noughties and it’s rumoured that she did this tune with London soundsystem stalwarts Abashanti-I. Youtube is littered with some good tunes by her, and you’d think that she would do OK post-Winehouse and alongside Joss Stone. Alas, it doesn’t seem that Ava’s initial momentum has been maintained by the biz thus far.
“La La La” was on her first single for Virgin in 2007, backed with “Mad About The Boy”. Both tunes have subsequently been reissued and repackaged (in the words of Morissey) but not re-evaluated just yet.
18. Toni Braxton – Yesterday (Sticky’s Lovers Remix) (Atlantic 7″)
I must confess to not being a huge fan of La Braxton, so this remix by Heatwave collaborator and 2step DON Sticky was a proper bolt from the blue. A seismic production which gives the diva vocals a much better background in my humble opinion. Sticky should be remixing everyone like this, by law. Rihanna next, please?
“Only Glenroy’s records get played on Glenroy’s soundsystem!”
Young ‘uns and those outside the UK may not know that Grange Hill was an eighties kids’ TV series set in a London secondary school.
It was hugely popular and responsible for lots of school children outside of London adopting comedy mockney accents.
I’d completely forgotten this 1984 episode featuring a reggae soundsystem, but here it is thanks to youtube and Ras Stan on the Blood & Fire Board. Glenroy flings down some raw rub a dub and lovers rock as a backdrop to the end of term shenanigins.
I’m amazed it hasn’t been sampled to death already, frankly.
Reggae’s influence didn’t just appear in Grange Hill with Sir Glenroy Hi-Fi either – this reminded me of another episode in which a rasta pupil at the school did an exhibition about his faith which lead to a brief exchange with the Headmistress about Haile Selassie: “to us, he is Jah!”.
For a lot of suburban white kids these episodes of Grange Hill, and perhaps a 5th generation VHS tape of Babylon would have been splinters of light coming through doorways which lead to other worlds…
I fell for my own hype on this one – figuring an 11:30pm showing of a reggae documentary would only attract the usual fan-spods, if that. So I didn’t book tickets and we turned up to find a huge posse of London’s finest, all dolled up to the nines and queuing up excitedly to get in.
Easy to forget how much Lovers Rock still means to people who were actually there – this was a humbling reminder!
“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.”
Mans like Abu Zaki and Woebot hipped me to this. A nice relick of the Stars riddim by Mr Benn featuring Champion on deejay duties. I’m assuming this is the same Champion as the microphone veteran at London’s Tighten Up nights. That Champion (aka Champian) has proper heritage – MCing in London back in the eighties and making what I think is his vinyl debut on Part One of the (still obscure, but can a reissue be long now?) Live At DSYC LPs on the Raiders label.
The vid was done to promote the rather fine artwork and animation of David Cox. There’s also this one:
I think they both show a nice flair for doing idiosyncratic animation, which I love – I was a big fan of Vision On and Sesame Street as kid, largely because of the short cartoon clips that I later realised were quite trippy…
UK reggae has seemed increasingly detached from current affairs in recent years, but anyone who’s checked my eighties mixes will know it hasn’t always been this way. I guess the focus has moved to a more international market which means the particularities of life in specific areas of London or Birmingham don’t get a look in.
Plus of course, music is shaped by the society and economics around it. Perhaps Dan Hancox’s excellent article about Grime and the riots marks the beginning of a cultural shift (or perhaps it’s wishful thinking by youthful lefties like Dan, and knackered old ones like me).
Either way, I’ve been looking out for songs about recent events and have collected some of the better efforts below for your delectation. These are mainly thanks to the good people of the Blood and Fire board. I’ve not had much luck looking for things myself, but there do seem to be a bunch of people re-tagging their tunes on Youtube to tie them into the recent disturbances.
(Any further tips on 2011 riots tunes would be much appreciated, especially if they are any good – leave suggestions in the comments box if you find any…)
A skippy upful roots stepper, with suprisingly incisive lyrics (dissing Cameron for being on holiday), some good Darcus Howe samples and pretty great video.
Mournful, and melodic with a nice xylophone thingy. Reminds me a bit of Manasseh’s recent productions, which is a high compliment. Some different Darcus Howe and an articulate member of the public get sampled.
Dub Investigation are from Dublin, incidentally – a city with worries and troubles of its own. Indeed, the fucked up economy of the Republic of Ireland is one of the main reasons for Woofah not coming out and for its esteemed editor having to paddle twice as fast just to keep his head above water.
3. The Blackstones – Heat In The Streets
Languid one drop, in which the youth are instructed in no uncertain terms not to disrespect their culture or skimp on education. I think the Blackstones were a UK group who recorded at Studio One, but not entirely sure. Please note I have avoided googling them to bolster my credibility!
(Apparently this actually came out two weeks before the riots, so cue lots of “prophecy fulfil” type of talk… don’t call it a cash-in!)
4. Big Youth – London’s Burning
Mad Professor production – nice to see some legends stepping up but this isn’t my favourite by any means. Looking forward to checking the dub though!
5. Fresharda – 2011
Some contemporary dancehall, complete with vocoder! I actually quite like this – consciousness wins though I guess.
Dan Hancox linked to this from his ace Guardian piece, but I’ve included it here for completeness. I think Fresharda was probably first out of the blocks in terms of riot songs, but the lyrics are quite general so he may have had it in the can already…
6. King Hammond – Riot In London Town
And finally, the ridiculous King Hammond with a tune recorded in March. A perfect pastiche of 1969 Skinhead Reggae which gets huge points for namechecking Clissold Park, Stamford Hill and Manor House as well as many other London haunts. Well cheeky, this one makes me smile a lot.
Bubbling under
From the not quite as good, to the downright cringeworthy. Includes some jaw-droppingly bad lyrics, but also the occasional genius moment.
Incidentally, that old William Burroughs quote “riot sounds produce riots” – that’s been rendered a bit redundant in the era of 24 hour media overkill, hasn’t it? Old Bill reckoned a group of you could wander about with cassettes of riot noises playing and people would get so agitated that they would actually riot themselves. But everyone in the UK has now heard more riot sounds than they know what to do with on the telly, with mainly zero result.
In the more innocent days of 1989, some courageous souls tried out Burroughs’ idea every day at The Festival of Plagiarism in Glasgow, “with mixed results”.
I was up there, but the experiment was too early in the morning for me, so I missed my opportunity to see it all for myself, as did the wonderful people I was staying with. But this did have the unexpected bonus value of us all being slagged off by Stewart Home for being “bohemians”, the first and I think only time that word has been used in connection with me.
