Hard to find On.U Sound

[Ras Berry]

What are the On.U items that it took you an age to track down, or even haven't found so far?

It took me a few years to find the Mothmen album (it was hard to find even in the 80s) and Deadly Headley's 35 Years From Alpha, and a few years later it took an equally long time to get a copy of 2 Badcard's Weed Specialist CD single on the Massive label

The completist in me is still after the cassette version of Revenge Of The Underdog too!

[rootscontroller]

I would love to add the Murder 10" by Noah House of Dread to my collection one day.... Quite a few of the Disco Plates are there
but this one's still missing... but it's one of my alltime favourite On-U tracks.... It's quite a rare item even on the net these days I think, but there's always hope, right?

[Ras Berry]

Welcome to the forum!

You're right - there's always hope

The Noah album comes from my favourite period of On.U Sound - just about the time I was getting into it really. I bought quite a few releases from Icicle Records in Birmingham. This was at the time when it was an actual record shop, and not just mail order. I got to know the owner Brian Harris quite well and he knew of my love for the label. He used to say he could get hold of as many of the 10" discos as he wanted, and indeed there were often boxes of them for sale in the shop - usually for 99p (how many times I've wished I'd had the foresight to buy multiples of them). Even at 99p though they were hard to shift. Like Steve Barker says in one of his Efa CD sleeve notes, this was at a time when an On.U record was about as welcome as a wet dog at a white wedding!

[danidubdub]

Yep, hindsight is a terrible thing. 99p indeed!
"an On.U record was about as welcome as a wet dog at a white wedding!" but true at the time! Mind you, some of the earlier releases were scary records, especially if Mark Stewart had anything to do with them.

[Ras Berry]

Actually, I think I've misquoted Steve there - what he said was the more general "released at a time when reggae was about as welcome as etc etc"

[danidubdub]

Not hard to find at the time, but glad I got copies when I did. Human Nature 12" featuring Billy Graham and not Gary Clail. Was a big fan of the sound system and there were several copies of this in the Music and Video Exchange in Notting Hill shortly after release. As most of my housemates were working there at the time, we found all the goodies! Have had some good offers for this record since, but not letting go!

[Ras Berry]

Pre eBay, via Record Collector magazine, I got involved in a late night telephone bidding war for the Billy Graham 12", with the seller alternately phoning me and the other bidder to see how far we wanted to go. I eventually conceded when the other bidder went to £50, but I found out later that the winner was actually an On.U fan that I knew, and that the record had got broken in the post to him! I later picked up another copy for a much more reasonable sum - something like a fiver - and quite recently got another for 99p

[danidubdub]

Do you have any of the stuff on this web page? I found it years ago and don't think it is still running, but the downloads still work. Several interesting tunes, especially a very long unedited cut of Human Nature before Paul Oakenfold got involved (I guess that makes it Adrian, Gary and David Harrow's work).

Also included are New Age Steppers Peel Session and some live Mark Stewart.

www.dub.org.uk/sounds/

[Ras Berry]

I've heard the tunes on there. It's the web page of a member of the original On.U mailing list

I definitely like to get my hands on a good quality copy of the New Age Steppers John Peel session

Anyone?

I recorded it when it was originally broadcast, but lost the tape many years ago. There was another track too that's not featured on that web page

[sbj180]

I've long been after a copy of the 1987 Lee Perry / Dub Syndicate "Jungle" 10-inch (10SY 6). While not extraordinarily rare, I've yet to see a physical copy for sale in a shop.

The same goes for Mark Stewart/Maffia's "Jerusalem" (ON-U DP5), though this does seem rare, even on the likes of eBay.

My list goes on and on, these are just a couple of particular significant "gaps".

[danidubdub]

You don't see Jerusalem very often on ebay, but Jungle turns up in one form or another every so often. It came on 7", 10" and 12"! All with different cuts!

Anyone heard the AMS remix of Reverend & The Makers 'Sundown On The Empire'? Wicked harmonica dub, well worth checking.

[Ras Berry]

Of the three Jungle singles I think the 10" is the one that turns up the least. Though there was a copy on eBay a few weeks ago

[marke]

anyone heard the AMS remix of Reverend & The Makers 'Sundown On The Empire'? Wicked harmonica dub, well worth checking.

i have this.
have been thinking about dropping it on my blog actually.
its a very sweet remix.
mark e/www.ireallylovemusic.co.uk

[danidubdub]

Was a dub ever released of 'Places I Won't Go' by Shalom (from Chainstore Massacre)/ 'System Of The Lost Cause Man' by Ghetto Priest (Vulture Culture)?
A friend gave me a copy of this dub and I love it, but don't know if it ever saw the light of day.

A couple of odd but wonderful compilations that feature On-U artists among others. Does anyone else know anything about them?

'Bugs On The Wire', a compilation LP by Steve Barker on Leghorn Records. Includes Dub Syndicate, Bim Sherman, General Strike, Suns Of Arqa with Prince Far I.
'Justice Is Our Conviction', a compilation LP for the Martin Foran Defence Campaign on State Injustice records. Includes Barmy Army, Dub Syndicate & Bim Sherman, Annie Anxiety Bandez.

[Ras Berry]

As far as I'm aware the dub to Places I Won't Go (well, more of just a straight up instrumental cut really) has only been released on a compilation album called Dub Solidarity on the Dubhead label - the track was credited to 2 Bad Card and just called Tabu Riddim

Can't really add much about the Bugs On The Wire or Justice Is Our Conviction compilations, except to say that Bugs OTW Pt2 was planned/compiled, but never released. It's got an entry somewhere on David Parker's On-U Sound In The Area / Skysaw site