reggae roundup #3 – four essential events

23rd September: Save the Spirit of Broadway Market 

Reggae dance
music by Jah Youth (Roots Ambassador)
& guest sounds

West Indian Food by Jah Spirit

Saturday 23rd September: 8PM – LATE

At Chat’s Palace, 42-44 Brooksby’s Walk, Homerton E9

ONLY £5.00 IN ADVANCE (£7 ON THE DOOR)

Proceeds will help to keep Spirit in Broadway Market E8 and to prevent his eviction from the shop & home he built from scratch before Hackney Council sold him out to off-shore developers.

Great Food, Bar – and a good night out in aid of a good cause

More information on Broadway Market and Spirit – http://34broadwaymarket.omweb.org/modules/wakka/HomePage 


21st October: The Hidden Voice of the Black Experience in London

What happens when you get a group of 15-17 year olds to reserach a hidden history during the 70’s and 80’s? The answer may suprise you! join us at the Albany for a 45 minute documentary and exhibition based on their shared experiences.

This event will also feature a signing of the book Dr.William (Lez Lyrix) Henrys book ‘what the dj said: a critique from the street’

SATURDAY 21ST OCT 06 2pm-5.30pm 

Entry FREE

To be held at the Deptford Albany, Douglas way, Deptford, London SE8 4AG

21st October: IF IT’S LYRICS YUH WANT, YUH BELLY AH GO FULL THE ORIGINAL LONDON STORY!!

Come and listen to the best line-up of pioneer british reggae mcs ever to perform together in one dancehall. Youve heard them on cassette now hear them live and direct for one night only as we bring you TIPPA IRIE – PAPA LEVI – TOP CAT – TENOR FLY – MIGHTY CHAMPION – LORNA G – SISTER AUDREY & PETER HUNNINGALE.

Saturday 21st Oct 2006 10pm-late Tickets 7.00 , 5.00 concs

To be held at the Deptford Albany, Douglas way, Deptford, London SE8 4AG


25th October: London, Reggae and the Sound System Culture 

Following on from a discussion which took place on 19th July, with Jazzie B, David Rodigan and Stuart Baker of Soul Jazz at the Gramaphone Bar & Lounge, you may recall that I announced that the Mayor’s agency for London, the Greater London Authority had agreed to host a further debate on the subject of reggae and sound system culture in the capital. See below for some information regarding the event. 

To register to attend, you need to contact 0208 539 7913 info@3ci.co.uk (this is not the UEN, this a company working on behalf of the GLA for the registration of this event). I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU _REGISTER TO ATTEND VERY EARLY_ AS THIS EVENT IS OPEN TO MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC AND IT IS EXPECTED THAT PLACES WILL FILL VERY QUICKLY. (I would also try and ensure you receive confirmation of attendance)

Please feel free to forward this onto anyone you feel may be interested in this event. 

London, reggae and the sound system culture – update 

An event which highlights London, Reggae and the ‘Sound System’ culture, will be taking place on Wednesday 25th October from 6.00 to 9.30 pm, at City Hall (close to Tower Bridge) home of the Greater London Authority (GLA) as part of their Black History Season programme of activities. 

Arranged by the Urban Enterprise Network (UEN) this unique event will present an evening of imagery, and bring together a formidable panel of industry experts sharing their experience and insight, to celebrate the development of the reggae, roots and dub music movement in the capital. 

The evening will feature discussion on the history of sound systems in London, the originators, influences, its impact from a social  perspective, reggae and the current music media, and how the culture of reggae music is viewed today. 

This event will; 

  • Celebrate reggae’s diverse and international appeal
  • Highlight the history and impact of reggae music on the London music scene  
  • Enable a wider audience to fully engage, understand, and enjoy the history, culture and influences of the reggae scene  
  • Celebrate the history and associated culture, and key figures in the capital’s reggae scene.  

Panellists confirmed so far include: 

  • Stuart Baker, Soul Jazz records  
  • Jazzie B  
  • David Rodigan  
  • Hugh Francis, Head of Business Affairs & IP, Jet Star records  
  • Trevor Sax, Saxon Sound  
  • Dotun Adebayo, Journalist & Presenter BBC Five Live  
  • John MacGillvray, Dub vendor records   

I am also awaiting confirmation from a number of other invited panel guests. I hope to see you on the 25th October. 

Jeffrey Lennon 
Director
Urban Enterprise Network 

 

reggae round up #2 – reading and www

Martin’s BASH review is characteristically surreal and revisionist.

After shutting up shop at the beginnig of the year, Gladdy Wax now opens up shop on t’internet: http://www.reggaeunlimited.com/

Nice interview with Steve Barker of On The Wire (and dub reviews in The Wire) fame over at: http://beatsgratis.blogspot.com/

Mr B from Microphonic seems to manage to attend the events I can’t.  Check out his reviews and photos of Jah Shaka at the Greenwich Museum and the Dub Club rebirth.

See Jah Works Promotions for a passionate, partisan and personal history of UK reggae soundsystem runnings.

The new Riddim magazine focusses on recent dust ups, chronicling recent beef between Beenie Man and Cham, Beenie Man and Bounty Killer and Family Man and Rita Marley. Plus news, reviews and a free CD. Check it. 

blissblog on Bob Dickinson

A month or so ago I got an email from Bob Dickinson, the original keyboard player (and violinist!) in Magazine, before Dave Formula replaced him. Dickinson was from an avant-garde classical background: when he saw the famous notice in the Manchester Virgin store from Devoto looking to recruit members, he had “just finished doing a 6-hour version of Gavin Bryar’s ‘Sinking of the Titanic’ at the Peterloo Gallery (with Dick Witts)”.

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_blissout_archive.html#115514034502880773

I interviewed Bob Dickinson nearly a decade ago and had no idea about any of this. Or rather, I interviewed a Bob Dickinson who I now believe is the same one.

In the mid-90s, before the proliferation of the internet – a lot of people seemed to have access to DTP stuff and photocopying. There was an explosion of zines of all sorts of hues. I gravitated towards a kind of post- situ/neoist/mail art/occulture ultra-left milieu which included things like the Association of Autonomous Astronauts at its more accessible end, and the Equi Phallic and Neoist alliances at the other. I can’t begin to tell you how prolific and energised that scene was. Some of the texts are anthologised in Stewart Home’s Mind Invaders: A Reader in Psychic Warfare, Cultural Sabotage and Semiotic Terrorism (Serpents Tail) , alas without their graphics.

The East London Section of the London Psychogeographical Association combined left-communism and paganism and inspired a large network of similar groups across the world, as well as novellists such as Iain Sinclair.

 

Manchester Area Psychogeographic produced a number of one-sheet newsletters. The “group” at that stage seemed to consist only of Bob Dickinson (as was the case with many of the groups in the scene) and I interviewed him for a zine of mine that ended up not being printed. I did put all of it and some other M.A.P. texts online, though.

Bob also produced a show for BBC Radio 4 about zines which featured some of my efforts. He got a mention in Radio 1 DJ Mark Radcliffe’s book in relation to producing his show I think as well.

A renaissance man, if it is all the same one, and the connections seem to be all in place (MAP wrote about early Factory and I think Nico in Manchester…)

Since then psychogeography has become a massive industry, as an academic discipline on the one hand, and as a more literary version of tourism on the other. Both of these scenarios have attempted to remove the more confrontational aspects which made psychogeography so appealing in the first place.

BASH#7

Doing a bit of extra publicity had clearly paid off – the place was filling up just after me and a slightly worse for wear Martin had arrived and grabbed seats.

Jason-From-Transition-Mastering-Studios treated the early crew to a nice set of 90s ragga classics and finished up with Sandra Cross’ “Country Living” and Janet Kay’s “Silly Games”. Great selection and I think there was some mic action in there as well. MC-ing and ragga usually appear later in the evening so BASH was definitely hitting the ground running…

I’m not sure if Loefah was on for very long but I pretty much missed all of his set because people I know kept turning up and we were chatting…

So – Mala and YT – where do you start, eh? I guess on the shallow level of appearances. I never twigged when YT appeared with Digital, but you never see black DJs with white MCs in reggae. Now, I reckon YT has totally proved himself, so I won’t be receptive to purist arguments about him being a white bloke using patois. Even with that settled, I wasn’t sure if this set was going to work. Mala and YT are two talented blokes working in different genres who obviously have different visions of where they want to go. A recipe for disaster? The exact opposite was true – the combination rocked it.

YT seemed to be driving the show in places, and he was tearing it up. Mala was reduced at points to sticking on backing tracks for tunes off “Straight outta Britain”, but he seemed characteristically relaxed about it all. YT hits like “England Story”, “Innit”, and “A Wicked Act” got rinsed out. The latter even included some new verses – updating the 7/7 theme with references to the recent alleged plane bombings.

A new track was introduced as “England Story pt 2” which turned out to be an awesome re-rub of Admiral Bailey’s “No Wey Better Than Yard” – we got taken all round the country with the occasional “when you check it out lawd, England it ah mi yard!”. Blinding. Want it.

IMG_2316

At one point I was faced with the absurd situation of having a certain inebriated blogger on my right hand side telling me that he wasn’t sure if white people could ever MC reggae properly, while on my left hand side a group of black blokes were waving their lighters in the air and bawling for a rewind.

Mala pulled out some dubstep tunes towards the end of his set, which YT took in his stride. I wasn’t really feeling the music, but that’s me. Having said that, there was one great bit where Mala managed to make the top of my head wobble. Just the top two inches of my head, while the rest of me stayed still. That was wicked.

Now – how’s this for the beginning of a set? –

Pretty damn excellent, I reckon. Now – how about if it’s all relentlessly tweaked with by The Bug? Hmmm? And how about if top-of-the-range grime MC Flowdan flings down lyrics over the top of it all? Yeah I reckon that might veer towards being one of the best things of my summer, actually!

I know even less about grime than I do about dubstep, but I do know that grime has more in common with the whole uk fast chat vibe than dubstep does, and I can spot a pure pro in his game. Flowdan is one of those people who is larger than life: as soon as he stepped up to the mic he was officially In Charge of the room. Busting lyrics like nobody’s business. “Jah War” mashed me up. Huge. Want it.

Flowdan didn’t seem remotely phased by the stranger riddims selected by The Bug, or the sound problems which reduced the set to and old skool one-deck session. You don’t need more than one deck if you have a wicked MC – that’s the whole reason they came about, to vibe up the crowd over and in between records.

Flow introduced his cousin and I started worrying. This guy looked a lot younger, so was this some kind of “two for the price on one” obligation thing? Nepotism in the dance? I needn’t have worried (I need to trust people more!). The young Killah is the latest recruit to the Roll Deep crew and it’s not like they are desperate for new blood, is it?

Killah was obviously loving the vibe, praising the 90s riddims cos he grew up on ’em. Him and Flow alternated tunes and… wow!

To YT’s credit he’d stuck around to check the scene out, and to Flow’s credit he alloed him back on the mic. Devastation ensued.

After a while I retreated and checked my watch. Damn.

“Shit, I wasn’t going to stay this long!”

“Neither were we! – You working tomorrow?”

“At my desk by 9:00am mate…”

At 2:00am I clambered up the stairs. Incoherent. Unable to tell Loefah how much I’d enjoyed myself, but he looked blasted and it must have been written all over my face. Loef was bidding the faithful goodbye. Mary Ann Hobbs was flyering for her own party – how cool is that?

On the bus on the way home I was thinking. Well, trying to. I was musing that in your teens and twenties you go out and see loads of stuff that blows you away. There are lots of “first times”. Maybe when you hit your mid-30s this has diminished because things repeat and you get more discerning. Seen it all… ?

Well, BASH gives me that rush every single month. Every time, without fail, there’s something which smacks me in the head with its brilliance. That’s why I’m so evangelical about it – sometimes I feel it’s all I’m blogging about – squeezing a few minutes of my medically-allotted keyboard time.

So – if August was mayhem, then September will be armageddon. Come down, or don’t, but (in the words of Anthony Red Rose) “you can’t say me never did a warn you”.

http://www.bashsound.com