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I Need A Roof A UK Dub Conference with Sidewinder |
  
In 1980 Sir Coxsonne, Jah Shaka, Soferno B and Fatman soundsystems faced each other in a cup clash at Acton Town Hall. A local teenager named Roy was amongst the crowd. It proved to be a pivotal moment in his life. "I'd never heard anything like that before. I was aware of the music, but I'd never heard it played on that kind of scale. It was the first time I'd ever been to an event like that and it had a big impact on me. The place was jammed and at them times Shaka was running the 'Warrior Charge'. You should have seen the effect that the dubs had on people. It blew my mind mate. I've been on it ever since." Roy is better known these days as Sidewinder, one half of Roofshaker Promotions, who are responsible for the UK Dub Conferences which take place in Wembley. He is also the living , breathing link between the two events.
We met in a scruffy Chinese eaterie in Kilburn, just round the corner from Culturereggae HQ. The interview request had been greeted with bafflement, but he was present and correct at the appointed place despite the stormiest weather of the whole winter. Apart from a trickle of bedraggled takeaway customers we had the battered looking eating area to ourselves. Sidewinder's story was accompanied by the sound of furious stir-frying and the barking of orders in Chinese from the kitchen. The windows were completely steamed up, obscuring the cold, bleak evening and gusty rain outside. I encouraged him to take us back to the beginning. "I was born and bred in Acton. Ras Digby lived at the end of my road and two doors away was Sir Jessus Soundsystem. Yeah and Joey Jay was there. All a them geezers more or less lived in the same street. So as I was growing up I'd walk down the road and see them guys building speaker boxes in the yard and stuff. Ras Digby kinda took me under his wing. He let me come to his house and he had the biggest collection of dub-plates I've ever seen. He was kind enough to let me tape his dub-plates. He was one of my big inspirations". Of the four sounds playing that fateful night in 1980, it was Jah Shaka that made the biggest impression on the teenage Reggae nut. "I started following Shaka religiously. I became a Shaka-ite; Phebes, Cubies, Brixton Town Hall and Norwood Hall. Anywhere Shaka was playing we were there. If he played Friday and Saturday nights we'd go to both. That was my musical college."
Roots and Culture music became a way of life, a guiding light throughout the eighties. It was a decade that introduced several periods of darkness into the lives of the first generation of black Londoners. Like many others, Sidewinder was on the receiving end of some of babylon's roughest 'justice'. The music had its ups and downs as well. "When the 'Sleng Teng' came in, I wasn't really feeling it. It wasn't what I was accustomed to. The music had no meat and potatoes. For five or six years Shaka went through a hard time and less people came to listen to him. I didn't really go to Saxon. The only time I listened to Coxsonne was when he played Shaka. I stayed with the Roots, even if there wasn't hardly anyone there I still wanted to listen to Shaka." Sidewinder is an uninhibited interviewee. His egg fried rice was being ignored as he enthusiastically regaled the room with an impromptu version of the 'Sleng Teng' riddim. He's relentless and positive in his outlook. The sufferers sound of Roots music will never be driven out because people like him can't ever give it up. Knock them down and they bounce right back. At the tail end of the eighties and at a particular low point in his life, Sidewinder experienced yet another musical epiphany when he was tuned in to Joey Jay's Kiss FM show. "I heard 'Prowling Lion' by the Disciples and I thought what's that! The Disciples were playing at Southall Community Centre with Joey, so I went up there and introduced myself to Russ. We started talking and he said that if I was into all that, I should go and listen to another soundsystem called Iration Steppas. I went down to the Dub Club to hear them and from that time I became an Iration Steppa. I started going to Leeds, Bradford and all over the gaff."
It was the beginning of new chapter in the history of Roots and Dub in the UK and one in which Sidewinder was to have a more active involvement. He promoted a couple of dances featuring the Disciples' Boom Shacka Lacka soundsystem alongside Iration Steppas in Leytonstone in the early nineties. For the rest of the decade and beyond he could be found DJing in clubs, doing pirate radio and behind the counter in record shops. In fact it was working in a record shop that lead to his dream of a UK Dub Conference becoming a reality. In 2006 he began a stint in Dub Vendor, Ladbroke Grove with Papa Face. Face is a man who needs no introduction to any Reggae fan in London, his many achievements in the business include an incredible nineteen year West End club residency alongside David Rodigan. "I was with Face in the shop one day and I told him my idea. I wanted to re-create the atmosphere of the dance in 1980 that started it all for me. The four baddest sound systems in one venue. He looked at me very thoughtfully and said "if you want any help with that, let me know". So that's how it started. We set the wheels in motion, I knew all dem man dere before I got into this. So I thought, I know all these geezers, I'll ring them up and ask them if they fancy coming down. It was weird man you know; God is great, it all came together at the right time." The first Dub Conference was intended to be a one-off. It took place on the Saturday before Carnival 2007 and was a big success. Whilst you can never reproduce the past and many aspects of the scene have changed beyond recognition, I'm sure it had some of the sense of 'history' that Sidewinder was seeking. The reaction was so positive that Roofshaker Promotions became an on-going collaboration. They have lined up more dances through 2008 with King Earthquake as the resident sound. I asked why the Birmingham based system was chosen. "The first time I went to see King Earthquake was in Brixton. He mashed up the place and two things happened to me that night. First he played a tune that was done by a guy called Angus Digital. We call it 'Blow Up' because it's a sample of Michael Caine from the Italian Job saying "you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off". So he played this dub and when he dropped the bassline parts of my anatomy started vibrating that have never been affected by music before! Then he played 'Firm & Strong' by Winston Fergus and musically transported me. From the time that happened I decided that anytime King Earthquake was playing - I was going. So when it was my time to pick a resident sound it was obvious. Plus, he's my good, good friend as well."
Now that Sidewinder has got reproducing that night at the Acton Town Hall out of his system, the UK Dub Conferences will be able to evolve. The focus is on giving the people what they want. For example the number of sounds might be reduced to three and the door price has been cut and may drop further. Another issue was the way that the security behaved at the pre-carnival event. "The security were heavy handed and disrespectful to some people, because they'd developed a kind of siege mentality. The horrible attitude came from dealing with the Dancehall, R&B and Hip Hop crews. They didn't appreciate that Roots people are the most peaceful out there. Promoters know that from you get a Roots crowd in the venue - no problems. So we had a little meeting and said listen "the people you're dealing with, it's not no armshouse business". We've had no difficulties since then. I can confirm that this is the case. But I was wondering why the promoter of such a peaceful event was named after an air-to-air missile? "No it's because I'm a DJ who's trying to make people dance! Wind up themselves, wind up their sides. Sidewinder!" He'll get the chance to do exactly this when he plays at the UK Dub Conference on March 22nd. He'll be following in the footsteps of Disciples, Vibronics and Conscious Sounds (there should be an improvement in sound quality this time). I ask him what people can expect to hear when he plays out. "I play dub-plates that I've sourced from all over the place and some I've made myself. I cut dubs at Disciples studio way back in '94 and I went to King Earthquake studio a couple of months ago and built some dubs with him. Gregory Fabulous will be on the mike and he's a dangerous geezer. His thing is called Dread UK Production. You need to get his new album 'Thoughts' - wholeheartedly recommended."
You can also catch Sidewinder on Beat 101.9 FM in London. His show is called 'Dread At The Controls', in tribute to Mikey Dread, and has been running for ten years. The format is a fifty/fifty split between Roots Revive and 21st century Dubwise along with a spontaneous presenting style and the occasional politically incorrect jokes. With Sidewinder, what you see is what you get, there's no mystery and no hidden agenda. Who knows what will happen with the UK Dub Conferences or even UK Dub as a whole. But one thing is for sure, whether it's good times or bad, Sidewinder won't be giving up on it. "We live and learn. We're going to do our thing our way. I'm a Rootsman and I love Dub. I've supported the music all my life and I can't change who I am."
March
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