Dukie’s earliest memory of music was when he was 7 or 8 playing his father’s Soca tunes at his parent’s parties in London. As the party began to gather pace – he found he could get away with playing more reggae and selecting the tunes he wanted to hear – by this time the party people were making merry and gave him plenty of encouragement. His father used to give him instructions to purchase tunes at the local record shop - once in the record shop Dukie found a whole new world of music being played for him to listen to & be influenced by. During this time in his early years his mission was to obtain the key for the locked front room in his parent’s house when they were out & being able to play the tunes on the house stereo system. This drive & determination was because ‘music was always on his mind’.
During his young teenage years, his elder brother was involved with a sound system which played at the local dances & parties & Dukie along with his cousin Dogbite found themselves learning from his brother & crew the way of the sound system & about music. However, being a mostly lively child whose antics led him into conflict while living with his parents - he was packed off to boarding school in the country and there he met up with a friend Nigel Byers. Nigel had an older brother – Ignatius (also known as Iggy) – on seeing the enthusiasm for the music in Dukie, Iggy gave him a pre-amp & 12” speaker box (in Dukie’s own words – I felt like a king!) Music was still always on his mind & now he had the materials to start to build his own sound system. The place where he was residing at the time conveniently had a large out building & Dukie was given permission to house the sound system in it where he could practise wiring the set up and playing tunes to his heart’s content.
Once Dukie had escaped the school years & the care authorities who had been looking after him for 4 years – he linked up with Dogbite & friends Bumpy & Freeky and together they became known as Sir Klassikal – four bredren who could all select the tunes & hold the mic – giving the music style being played a different flavour – all depending on where they found themselves playing. Around this time through family Dukie linked up with Kat and found himself immersed in the tunes that she had been collecting since the 1970’s – two albums stood out from the rest – Kingdom of Dub by King Tubby on the Clocktower label & Dubbing with the Observer on the Attack label (later they found out that many of the tunes on this album were the dub versions to many of Dennis Browns’ tunes).
On playing out with Sir Klassikal it became apparent that specials & dub-pates were needed to carry the sound system forwards – this led to the set up of the Step Faarward Record Label and Dukie began to produce music & his main influences musically around this time were Bunny Lee, King Tubby & Lee Scratch Perry. Recording & production took over here as many outside interferences meant that Sir Klassikal stopped playing out, as the sound system was having a fight to find venues to play at & the party scene in the 1980’s almost became a thing of the past – as people were less reluctant to have parties in their houses as the local authorities became less tolerant in a society where music was considered a noise nuisance.
As the lively person within Dukie began to resurface he found himself issued with an ultimatum – it was time to leave London & find his feet in another place – Dukie left London in November 1997 leaving to go with his young family to Northampton.
Once in Northampton – Dukie found he had to learn the way around his new life in a different town and while maintaining his links with the family in London, he tuned into radio station – Inspirational FM. He sent in a demo disc and was selected to play on a night time spot 4 days a week where he played a cross over of reggae, rnb & hip hop. Dukie found through the radio show & the good response from the general public & others involved n the reggae circuit, he started to get dates to play at other parties & other venues & through these dances went onto meet up with Ghetto Genius & Sol Camp (Lee) with whom he played with at many parties & venues as a joint venture.
In 2002 Dukie linked up with Sound Specialist Sound System through his friend Captain and has since been making waves on the reggae circuit in the local area as a selector and MC. Sound Specialist also plays at showcases with artists such as Wayne Marshall, Robbie Valentine & Dr Skunk.
The production work on the Step Faarward Production is going from strength to strength, remixing tunes from acapella’s and producing tunes with artists such as Robbie Valentine, Zebby Melody, Milestone & Dr Kool amongst others. Dukie has also recently linked up with bredren from the Jah Rising Star sound system whose musical style is reality reggae played from across the revival, rocksteady, UK & JA roots. Just 60 miles north of the capital – there is a reggae explosion waiting to happen.
Dukie Dread is a talented DJ/Selector/Producer whose thinking “outside the box” has now become well known and now the time has come to move the works Faarward !
Contact Dukie Dread via the following:
telephone +44 (0)1604 250544 International calls welcome.
also via text ( number to be announced in the coming weeks)
via email Studio: studio@...pirationfm.com
Write to;
Dukie Dread
Inspiration FM,
Community Radio,
20 Sheep Street,
Northampton.
NN1 2LU
if you are interested in sponsoring or advertising on "Dukie Dread " , please call 01604 250554, fax 01604 250573 or email Jenny Campbell.
Please note everyone, the programme days and times mentioned on all blogs are subject to confirmation and change.
These updates are to give you an idea of the variety of talent on a community radio station, which is funded by the community . ( unlike the big commercial radio stations )
During his young teenage years, his elder brother was involved with a sound system which played at the local dances & parties & Dukie along with his cousin Dogbite found themselves learning from his brother & crew the way of the sound system & about music. However, being a mostly lively child whose antics led him into conflict while living with his parents - he was packed off to boarding school in the country and there he met up with a friend Nigel Byers. Nigel had an older brother – Ignatius (also known as Iggy) – on seeing the enthusiasm for the music in Dukie, Iggy gave him a pre-amp & 12” speaker box (in Dukie’s own words – I felt like a king!) Music was still always on his mind & now he had the materials to start to build his own sound system. The place where he was residing at the time conveniently had a large out building & Dukie was given permission to house the sound system in it where he could practise wiring the set up and playing tunes to his heart’s content.
Once Dukie had escaped the school years & the care authorities who had been looking after him for 4 years – he linked up with Dogbite & friends Bumpy & Freeky and together they became known as Sir Klassikal – four bredren who could all select the tunes & hold the mic – giving the music style being played a different flavour – all depending on where they found themselves playing. Around this time through family Dukie linked up with Kat and found himself immersed in the tunes that she had been collecting since the 1970’s – two albums stood out from the rest – Kingdom of Dub by King Tubby on the Clocktower label & Dubbing with the Observer on the Attack label (later they found out that many of the tunes on this album were the dub versions to many of Dennis Browns’ tunes).
On playing out with Sir Klassikal it became apparent that specials & dub-pates were needed to carry the sound system forwards – this led to the set up of the Step Faarward Record Label and Dukie began to produce music & his main influences musically around this time were Bunny Lee, King Tubby & Lee Scratch Perry. Recording & production took over here as many outside interferences meant that Sir Klassikal stopped playing out, as the sound system was having a fight to find venues to play at & the party scene in the 1980’s almost became a thing of the past – as people were less reluctant to have parties in their houses as the local authorities became less tolerant in a society where music was considered a noise nuisance.
As the lively person within Dukie began to resurface he found himself issued with an ultimatum – it was time to leave London & find his feet in another place – Dukie left London in November 1997 leaving to go with his young family to Northampton.
Once in Northampton – Dukie found he had to learn the way around his new life in a different town and while maintaining his links with the family in London, he tuned into radio station – Inspirational FM. He sent in a demo disc and was selected to play on a night time spot 4 days a week where he played a cross over of reggae, rnb & hip hop. Dukie found through the radio show & the good response from the general public & others involved n the reggae circuit, he started to get dates to play at other parties & other venues & through these dances went onto meet up with Ghetto Genius & Sol Camp (Lee) with whom he played with at many parties & venues as a joint venture.
In 2002 Dukie linked up with Sound Specialist Sound System through his friend Captain and has since been making waves on the reggae circuit in the local area as a selector and MC. Sound Specialist also plays at showcases with artists such as Wayne Marshall, Robbie Valentine & Dr Skunk.
The production work on the Step Faarward Production is going from strength to strength, remixing tunes from acapella’s and producing tunes with artists such as Robbie Valentine, Zebby Melody, Milestone & Dr Kool amongst others. Dukie has also recently linked up with bredren from the Jah Rising Star sound system whose musical style is reality reggae played from across the revival, rocksteady, UK & JA roots. Just 60 miles north of the capital – there is a reggae explosion waiting to happen.
Dukie Dread is a talented DJ/Selector/Producer whose thinking “outside the box” has now become well known and now the time has come to move the works Faarward !
Contact Dukie Dread via the following:
telephone +44 (0)1604 250544 International calls welcome.
also via text ( number to be announced in the coming weeks)
via email Studio: studio@...pirationfm.com
Write to;
Dukie Dread
Inspiration FM,
Community Radio,
20 Sheep Street,
Northampton.
NN1 2LU
if you are interested in sponsoring or advertising on "Dukie Dread " , please call 01604 250554, fax 01604 250573 or email Jenny Campbell.
Please note everyone, the programme days and times mentioned on all blogs are subject to confirmation and change.
These updates are to give you an idea of the variety of talent on a community radio station, which is funded by the community . ( unlike the big commercial radio stations )
No comments:
Post a Comment