1st OFFENDER NAME: Smiley Culture CHARGE: Dread Bodily Harm SENTENCE: A Spell In The Charts REPORT: Sean O’Hagan MUGSHOT: Bleddyn Butcher NO SOONER has Smiley Culture arrived to greet the NME posse than he is apprehended: the boys in the blue don’t feature this time round. but over-zealous fans mean a long wait whilst our …
Continue reading ‘Smiley Culture, New Musical Express 2nd Feb 1985’ »
Some great new tributes today from: David Rodigan and Dennis Bovell (Guardian) Wrongtom The Wire And a bit more information about Smiley’s last hours. The Sun has conjured up an anonymous “source” who stated: “While the Old Bill were sitting waiting for their cuppa he took a carving knife and stabbed himself right in the …
I was shocked last year to find out that Smiley Culture owned a diamond mine and was also up on charges to supply cocaine. But not as shocked as I was today when I found out that he’d died, in what has to be said are unusual and grisly circumstances. As I said then, he …
Continue reading ‘David Emmanuel aka Smiley Culture 1963-2011’ »
My article in Datacide touches on the gradual acceptance of soundsystem culture in the UK over the last 60 years. I’ve now discovered that this process can be illustrated just as well by checking Hansard, the record of discussions in the UK Parliament. It seems that in the seventies and eighties, reggae was only ever …
Fanzine of the week #3 With 64 pages, this is the biggest issue of Datacide yet! It also includes a contribution from me. No time for an extensive review, but all of the material here is well up to the usual high standard. FEATURES Christoph Fringeli – “Hedonism and Revolution: The Barricade and the Dancefloor” Stewart …
The second mix I ever did, now up at Mixcloud: John Eden – Shake The Foundations vol 2 by Johnedenuk on Mixcloud This was done in 2003, a transitional time for online music. By then most people I knew had the internet at home and/or work. But very few of us had broadband, and hosting …
An interesting podcast about the New Cross fire, which includes documentary spoken word (both archival and new) and music: Some of the music is taken from the Lovers Rock mix I did with Paul Meme. I find this recontextualisation very interesting (and saddening). These tunes may have been the last sounds that 13 of the …
Fanzine of the week #1 I like dancehall and I like fanzines, so this was always going to go down well in my little corner of the world. Hand printed, 28 pages, put together by a gang of young ‘uns who lurk about North East London – this is well worth your attention. There’s a …
Large Up » Cockney & Yardie: Heatwave 2010 UK Bashment Update Great round up for London dancehall runnings from Gabriel Heatwave with lots of photos and youtube business. There’s loads going on and this made me feel completely out of touch! Which means lots of lovely new stuff to check out, so that’s fine by …
Continue reading ‘Cockney & Yardie: Heatwave 2010 UK Bashment Update’ »