Post by Ras Berry on Oct 29, 2011 12:27:10 GMT
A great review written by David Parker of the On-U Sound In The Area website - www.skysaw.org/onu/index.html - re-posted here with his kind permission
I've never been a regular gig-goer, but with 30 years of innovative music making in need of celebrating, I thought I should make the effort and head into London for Adrian's On-U Sound birthday event at Rough Trade East last night.
As you might imagine, it was a select crowd of never more than 100, mixed in with a few passing late night record shoppers, but looking at the demographic there were clearly fans who have been in from the beginning and a selection of others, like me, who have been gathered up along the way.
I arrived early to the sound of Adrian and Lee's new remix album "Nu Sound & Version" playing out across the shop. In fact, attendees had the exclusive chance to get their hands on a copy at the event, ahead of the official November launch date for the album, and Adrian hadn't seen a finished copy until last night!
The re-issued New Age Steppers "Fade Away" single had sold so well that none were left on open sale by the evening of the event - though both Adrian and Dennis Bovell were keep busy during the night signing people's pre-ordered copies.
Dennis kicked the music off with a few of his hot-off-the-press tunes and then welcomed Adrian and Steve "On The Wire" Barker to the stage for a question and answer session. Before getting things going, Steve made light of the major funding cuts planned at the BBC (who have hosted his radio show for the last 27 years) that are threatening to sweep away much of BBC local radio's "specialist" music programming, including his (regularly On-U Sound-flavoured) show, unless a major call-to-arms by listeners or an alternative portal can be found for his music.
I could listen to Steve and Adrian discuss On-U all night, but for 30-40 minutes we did get a flavour of how the label has developed over the years, shaped by Adrian's first encounters with the likes of Prince Far I, Bonjo, Bim Sherman, Style Scott, Keith/Doug/Skip, Mark Stewart, Jeb Loy Nichols and Lee Perry. Adrian was asked specifically about the way he works with Lee in order to get the best out of their collaborations. It seems that the key to their working relationship is discipline - Adrian tapping into the best of Lee's stream of (un)consciousness and then getting him to focus on and push forward the strands that he thinks will work best sonically.
Adrian was also asked about his all-important first contact with Keith LeBlanc through Tom "Tommy Boy" Silverman and how/why the Fats Comet/Tackhead sound developed so drastically from the Fats Comet explosion in 1985 to the Tackhead implosion in the early 90s. There were also mentions of course for Bim's landmark "Miracle" album, as well as the material Adrian is currently working on - Crispy Horns/Roots Radics, his own (third) solo album, New Age Steppers (essentially finished), Ghetto Priest... At times you could tell that Adrian needed to choose his words carefully, bearing in mind his friends in the room and hinting at some of the interesting stories that are best kept off-the-record. At least two other people video-ed the interview throughout, so I hope some clips of it (at least) come to light on the internet soon.
Questioning over, Dennis took back over with the tunes while Adrian went off to get a drink, eventually re-joining Dennis for a 45 minute DJ battle with Adrian's recent tunes to the fore, but with Dennis absolutely on fire chatting over the top - excellent stuff. At this point the big screen behind the mixing desk was set up, and for the rest of the evening had projected on it in a looped slideshow dozens and dozens of Kishi's historic 1980s black and white On-U photos of the great and good from back in the day - every one a classic. While some of these photos were familiar to me, obviously having leaked out in promo photos and on album covers etc. over the years, amazingly, about two-thirds of them I'd never seen before. Hinting at the amount of unpublished archive photos that there still are, I hope a lot more of this classic material gets to be seen publicly (a booklet in the promised boxed set or a photo gallery on On-U's website at least?).
Somewhere in the midst of all this, as if by design, the latest hot off the press On-U Sound 12-inch arrived in the shop and, after a shout about it over the PA, was put straight on sale - the anticipated Lee Perry/Digital Mystikz "Like The Way You Should"/"Obeah Room" single (ON-U DP56).
Eventually Adrian left Dennis to get on with it and went off to mingle with the crowd and I did a bit of circulating myself. I managed a quick chat before the show with Dennis about the antics of Lee Perry in his "madder" days. There were also one or two other On-U megastars amongst the punters - Mark Stewart especially soaking up the atmosphere. It was good to meet Dr Pablo, me having not actually recognised the man until his pal introduced us! A mere 27 years on from his "North Of The River Thames" LP for On-U, he was telling me that his follow-up "Bridge On The River Wye" concept album is still on standby awaiting impetus/production. Armed with this information, I had a go at getting Adrian and Pablo together to see if they actually wanted to get it made. Adrian sounded like he had some rhythms he could donate, so who knows...?! Also in the room lending moral support were Adrian's kids Max and Denise.
I managed to catch up with Kat and Andy, who now run On-U for Adrian - manning phones, Twitter/Facebook accounts and doing all the important promotional stuff that hopefully keeps On-U Sound seen and heard in the 21st century. The label having its own staff and once again releasing its own material seems like a good sign for On-U's immediate future at least. Are the days of unfruitful licensing deals and erratic product availability now over?
Dennis eventually closed the show by including a couple of versions of "Fade Away" before the crowd dissipated, another little piece of On-U Sound history having been cemented into place.
I've put a few photos of the night up on my website's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/onuinthearea
David.
And here's some footage of the Q&A session between Steve Barker and Adrian:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM50OmksQIE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtcxrjfOEYc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk4EcbNW0yE
I've never been a regular gig-goer, but with 30 years of innovative music making in need of celebrating, I thought I should make the effort and head into London for Adrian's On-U Sound birthday event at Rough Trade East last night.
As you might imagine, it was a select crowd of never more than 100, mixed in with a few passing late night record shoppers, but looking at the demographic there were clearly fans who have been in from the beginning and a selection of others, like me, who have been gathered up along the way.
I arrived early to the sound of Adrian and Lee's new remix album "Nu Sound & Version" playing out across the shop. In fact, attendees had the exclusive chance to get their hands on a copy at the event, ahead of the official November launch date for the album, and Adrian hadn't seen a finished copy until last night!
The re-issued New Age Steppers "Fade Away" single had sold so well that none were left on open sale by the evening of the event - though both Adrian and Dennis Bovell were keep busy during the night signing people's pre-ordered copies.
Dennis kicked the music off with a few of his hot-off-the-press tunes and then welcomed Adrian and Steve "On The Wire" Barker to the stage for a question and answer session. Before getting things going, Steve made light of the major funding cuts planned at the BBC (who have hosted his radio show for the last 27 years) that are threatening to sweep away much of BBC local radio's "specialist" music programming, including his (regularly On-U Sound-flavoured) show, unless a major call-to-arms by listeners or an alternative portal can be found for his music.
I could listen to Steve and Adrian discuss On-U all night, but for 30-40 minutes we did get a flavour of how the label has developed over the years, shaped by Adrian's first encounters with the likes of Prince Far I, Bonjo, Bim Sherman, Style Scott, Keith/Doug/Skip, Mark Stewart, Jeb Loy Nichols and Lee Perry. Adrian was asked specifically about the way he works with Lee in order to get the best out of their collaborations. It seems that the key to their working relationship is discipline - Adrian tapping into the best of Lee's stream of (un)consciousness and then getting him to focus on and push forward the strands that he thinks will work best sonically.
Adrian was also asked about his all-important first contact with Keith LeBlanc through Tom "Tommy Boy" Silverman and how/why the Fats Comet/Tackhead sound developed so drastically from the Fats Comet explosion in 1985 to the Tackhead implosion in the early 90s. There were also mentions of course for Bim's landmark "Miracle" album, as well as the material Adrian is currently working on - Crispy Horns/Roots Radics, his own (third) solo album, New Age Steppers (essentially finished), Ghetto Priest... At times you could tell that Adrian needed to choose his words carefully, bearing in mind his friends in the room and hinting at some of the interesting stories that are best kept off-the-record. At least two other people video-ed the interview throughout, so I hope some clips of it (at least) come to light on the internet soon.
Questioning over, Dennis took back over with the tunes while Adrian went off to get a drink, eventually re-joining Dennis for a 45 minute DJ battle with Adrian's recent tunes to the fore, but with Dennis absolutely on fire chatting over the top - excellent stuff. At this point the big screen behind the mixing desk was set up, and for the rest of the evening had projected on it in a looped slideshow dozens and dozens of Kishi's historic 1980s black and white On-U photos of the great and good from back in the day - every one a classic. While some of these photos were familiar to me, obviously having leaked out in promo photos and on album covers etc. over the years, amazingly, about two-thirds of them I'd never seen before. Hinting at the amount of unpublished archive photos that there still are, I hope a lot more of this classic material gets to be seen publicly (a booklet in the promised boxed set or a photo gallery on On-U's website at least?).
Somewhere in the midst of all this, as if by design, the latest hot off the press On-U Sound 12-inch arrived in the shop and, after a shout about it over the PA, was put straight on sale - the anticipated Lee Perry/Digital Mystikz "Like The Way You Should"/"Obeah Room" single (ON-U DP56).
Eventually Adrian left Dennis to get on with it and went off to mingle with the crowd and I did a bit of circulating myself. I managed a quick chat before the show with Dennis about the antics of Lee Perry in his "madder" days. There were also one or two other On-U megastars amongst the punters - Mark Stewart especially soaking up the atmosphere. It was good to meet Dr Pablo, me having not actually recognised the man until his pal introduced us! A mere 27 years on from his "North Of The River Thames" LP for On-U, he was telling me that his follow-up "Bridge On The River Wye" concept album is still on standby awaiting impetus/production. Armed with this information, I had a go at getting Adrian and Pablo together to see if they actually wanted to get it made. Adrian sounded like he had some rhythms he could donate, so who knows...?! Also in the room lending moral support were Adrian's kids Max and Denise.
I managed to catch up with Kat and Andy, who now run On-U for Adrian - manning phones, Twitter/Facebook accounts and doing all the important promotional stuff that hopefully keeps On-U Sound seen and heard in the 21st century. The label having its own staff and once again releasing its own material seems like a good sign for On-U's immediate future at least. Are the days of unfruitful licensing deals and erratic product availability now over?
Dennis eventually closed the show by including a couple of versions of "Fade Away" before the crowd dissipated, another little piece of On-U Sound history having been cemented into place.
I've put a few photos of the night up on my website's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/onuinthearea
David.
And here's some footage of the Q&A session between Steve Barker and Adrian:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM50OmksQIE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtcxrjfOEYc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk4EcbNW0yE
