The Daily Mail has put together a great photo essay on the weekend’s activities in London town. Check a few of their shots below…
Hundreds of thousands of revellers descended on the capital today for Europe’s biggest street festival - the Notting Hill Carnival.
Dancers wearing vibrant costumes paraded along the packed three-and-a-half-mile route in west London from 9am today to the sounds of traditional steel drums.
The lines of colourful floats were accompanied by more than 40 static sound systems and scores of Caribbean food stalls….
Gappy Ranks has been making waves since his song on the Soul Rebel riddim, “Heaven In Your Eyes,” made a big splash on the Peckings label. Astute listeners may remember him from his 2005 collabo with Kray Twinz, Lethal B and Twista or his work on the UK Grime scene (“Rep Your Endz”) or when he was ballin on a G4 in the bashment tune “Stinkin Rich.” But judging by the way he rides the classical Studio One riddims on his forthcoming VP album Put The Stereo On, way down deep inside, Gappy is a foundation deejay par excellence. Give him a listen and chances are Gappy will make you happy.
Intro
Audio Clip from Bob Marley’s Funeral
Augustus Pablo – Drums To The King
Morgan Heritage – Liberation
Michael James Williams AKA Prince Far I (1944-1983) Shot
Prince Far I – Mount Zion
Prince Far I – Going Home On The Morning Train
Vivian Jackson AKA Yabby You (1946-2010) Aneurysm
Vivian Jackson – Conquering Lion
Vivian Jackson – Fire In Kingston
Jarret Lloyd Vincent AKA Bim Sherman (1950-2000) Cancer
Bim Sherman – Mighty Ruler
Bim Sherman – Mafia
Joseph Hill (1946-2006) Liver Failure
Joseph Hill (Culture) – Zion Gate
Joseph Hill (Culture) – Two Sevens Clash
Horace Swaby (1953–1999) Collasped Lung
Augustus Pablo – Pablo In Black Ark
Augustus Pablo – Java
Augustus Pablo – The Best Dub Inventor
Michael George Campbell AKA Mikey Dread (1954-2008) Brain Tumour
Mikey Dread – Dread Combination
Mikey Dread – Voice Of Jah
Dennis Emmanuel Brown (1957-1999)
Dennis Brown – No Man Is An Island
Dennis Brown – Money In My Pocket
Garnet Damoin Smith AKA Garnet Silk (1966-1994) House Fire
Garnet Silk – Kingly Character
Garnet Silk – Zion In A Vision
Garnet Silk – Complain
Don Letts is an unsung hero of British music. “Superstonic Sound: The Rebel Dread” is a documentary about the Letts family legacy that mirrors the history of BASS in the UK from Dub, Reggae and Punk to 80s pop, Hip Hop and Dubstep; a musical, cultural and personal link between past and present.
Don’s father was amongst the first Jamaican immigrants to Britain and he brought his sound system with him, introducing London to Jamaican Dub with its heavy BASS accent.
Don grew up in Brixton, immersed in Dub and Reggae. In the context of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech and KBW – Keep Britain White - grafitied across the walls of London, Don became the lone Rebel Dread crossing musical and cultural boundaries between black and white. He became DJ at the first Punk club, the legendary “Roxy” where in between live Punk sets, he played hard core Dub-Reggae and fortunately for him…
This is a 1976 Reggae documentary about reggae and reggae artists in UK during the 70’s. The documentary explores reggae as it has traveled across the pond and what made it work in that time. Essentially the music was locally supported then it the sound expanded. Check out the video…
Via The Heatwave, comes this hour-long starter kit on Dancehall Reggae for all those who may need it. This follows up their celebration of Sleng Teng’s anniversary a few weeks back. Great way to start the week, I say.
Check out the mix and details below…
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I couldn’t quite keep it to one tune per year as I was also trying to make sure that all the key artists from this period were represented. I think I did pretty well in the end but I’m sure I left out some notable vocalists. I KNOW that there are hundreds of BIG TUNES that didn’t get featured.
I suppose there’s always someone who gets left out at a birthday party. Big up Lady Saw, Kiprich, Cecile, TOK, Terry Ganzie, Serani, Spice and all the other artists whose invites got lost in the post.
So here’s The Heatwave’s history lesson aka bashment birthday party. 25 years of dancehall. As Benjamin points out at some point, this is one for the iPod.
Cynthia Oliver/COCo Dance Theatre’s Rigidigidim De Bamba De: Ruptured Calypso takes calypso in and out of the carnival context and layers it with mythology, hertory, and dance. Six women from the Caribbean diaspora explore “rupture,” or break, and discover a shared Caribbean identity across geographical, cultural and aesthetic borders. Through vibrant movement, sound and text, the performers negotiate their individual identities and cut through calypso’s melodious innuendo to reveal its political subversive truth-telling and rawness then delivers it in raucous and downright unrespectable levels….
With the Carnival season wrapping it up, now is the perfect time for a film like this. I’d really love to see something similar for the goings on here in NYC, and in other regions. Check out the info below…
Grammy Award winner Don Letts tells the incredible story of Europe’s biggest street party – the Notting Hill Carnival. Wonderful interviews, unseen archive and an amazing soundtrack combine to chart the history of this celebration of multicultural London!
Starting out in 1959 as a response to the worst racial violence the streets of London has ever seen, Carnival began when over a hundred Caribbean Londoners came together, using music and dance in a show of harmony. Half a century later and this multicultural celebration of diversity attracts over a million people to London every year!
A balanced mix of reality and history, the film captivates young and old, black and white, with unseen archive, an amazing soundtrack and wonderful interviews with Sir Trevor McDonald, Paul Simonon of The Clash, Miquita Oliver, Norman Jay and Jazzie B.
