David Rodigan – Beacons Festival
As the regular readers among you will know, Far Out and friends will be firing over the Yorkshire Dales on Friday to the fantastic Beacons Festival to catch an abundance of troubadours doing what they do best. So far, we have showcased the sublime, post-punk dinge of Savages, an interview with the lava lamp trip that is The Temples, the Britpop-inspired jangle of Jaws and the dynamite of Drenge still, not one’s to disappoint, our musical arsenal is stocked with enough Beacons related ammunition to reel off quality reviews and introductions before, during and after another of Summer’s lawless weekends.
Today’s preview is unusual. It moves away from the powdered kicks of rock and roll and into the smokey, mellow haze of Sir David Rodigan’s reality, filled with the finest selection of reggae Jamaica has had to offer in the past half-century.
For over 30 years, David Rodigan has been the king, building the spliff-happy, bass-heavy-atmosphere of Britain’s reggae dance halls, a title he has been passionately rolling towards since first hearing ska as a schoolboy in the 1960s. Since that significant period, the MBE-awarded disk jockey has fulfilled roles on the radio, stints in theatre and, of course, festivals before winning the highest honour in any reggae spinning circle, taking the title of World Clash Re-Set contest in New York.
Rodigan will curate the line-up for Sunday’s Social Stage at Beacons before projecting his musical knowledge of Jah through a huge sound system later that night. This is certainly not a set to be missed.
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