Tour News Update
Run It Mr DJ - It�s Monday Night on Kiss FM and the warm, familiar voice of David Rodigan announces yet another dub plate or hot new tune from the studios of
Kingston , New York.
Either that, or he�s just
Introducing this week�s star guest [be it an artist , producer or musician] revealing a latest piece of crucial information, or just simply spinning the most-in demand side of the moment.
It�s essential listening . Always by far the most professional and knowledgeable reggae broadcaster in the country-despite being white � he�s now carved a place for himself within the reggae industry of such stature that it can honestly be described as legendry. His weekly overseas BFPS programme attracts 22 million listeners after ten years of which existence : in 1994 he�s celebrated 14 consecutive years of Saturday night residency at the newly refurbished Gossips Club in London�s West End and, frankly he�s unsurpassed as an MC at all the capital�s prestigious reggae shows
His story begins in 1951 at a military hospital in Hanover, German , where he was born. His father was stationed in Tripoli until 1958, when his family relocated to Oxford.
His first exposure to Jamaican music came in �66 when the sounds Oh Carolina, Guns Of Navarone and other classics of the Ska era were setting the budding reggae scene alight , and by the age of 15 he was DJ-ing at local school dances and youth clubs. He left school in 1970, studied economics for a year.
Then enrolled at the Rose Bruford Drama School in Sidcup, Kent, where he stayed three years. Eventually his career in theatre was to encompass stints in repertory for touring companies based in both Sheffield and Stoke.
Where he also DJs at the local West Indian Club, and a starring role in two movies. One was Shackleton, filmed in Greenland, the other the time warp Reaction, for which he won several awards. He also featured in the Guinness and Malibu TV commercials.
Musically he was forever active, even whilst pursuing an acting career. After selling records on a stall in Putney, he applied to Radio London as a DJ in 1978 alternating on Reggae Rockers Programme with Tony Williams. Meanwhile Capital Radio offered him the chance to present a potted history of reggae on Adrian Love�s Music line and then a short guest slot on Nicky Horne�s Mummy�s Weekly. By the following year he�d left Radio London to host Roots Rockers on Capitol. Where he was to become an icon, until transferring to Kiss in 1990,
After a change of management at his old station.
The Capitol years he now describes as� a golden age� In 1979 there were no Pirate Stations, and only Steve Bernard had been playing reggae on air before Tony Williams and David Rodigan appeared on the horizon. The latter�s regular Saturday night shows proved to be a sensation: after his first visit to Jamaica in 1979 listeners were treated to on the spot reports from the island, live broadcasts of major shows and a star studded array of famous faces, including that of the, great Bob Marley.
In 1983 came the first of Rodigan�s celebrated on � air `clashes` with Jamaican radio Barry Gordon, the two matching each other dub for dub in some memorable encounters over the next sis years, Pitting his musical muscle against the ` Boogie Man` of Jamaica, reggae was to serve Rodigan in later years, when special took on a crucial role in sound - system competitions.
Back in `83 I�d gone down to Jamaica for six weeks and recorded two feature shows which were sent back to England to be broadcasted on Capitol.
I recorded it from JBC and so many artist turned up for the session the queue stretched out of the door , along the corridor and into the car park� he recalls with an easy laugh.
Artist like : U Roy, Buru Banton, Ruddy Thomas, Derrick Harriot, so many of them.
As apart of that I asked Barry to come on and give a run down of JA hits. Then he reciprocated by inviting me onto his Saturday night Show on JBC, and suggested we did a clash. It was the talk of the Jamaica, and I brought the tapes to play on Capitol. Which in turn led to a lot of live work, dances and so on. After that we took it to Brooklyn Empire in New York. Where it was a phenomenal success. Maxi Priest did New York, New York on dub plate. Then we took it Miami and eventually did the last one in 1989.
After a short break, I decided to put the Boxing Gloves back on and step back into the ring . Radio clashes were a thing of the past and a new kind of sound system was born. Specials had replaced the dee-jays and in 1991 Courtney Singh from Bodyguard invited me to clash with them in May Pen, deep in the heart of Bodyguard country people said that I was mad to accept, but I new I managed to stab them up with a few good dubs I�d be in with a chance of holding my own. But the beauty of working with sounds like bodyguard is that they�re such professionals: We both try to kill each other with music, but there�s no animosity.
Although Rodigan professes to being no more than a radio announcer and that sounds like Bodyguard are in a different class he still shook them to the core with his cut of the Mighty Diamonds singing who�s gonna Bodyguard Mr Bodyguard. It was a moment that�ll live forever in the annals of sound system history.
Presented with love , respect and undiminished enthusiasm, reggae music in Rodigan�s hands is a precious commodity.
John Masouri
Hails Reggae Ambassador
David Rodigan.
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