Dub Pistols

Strobe Circus

The evolution of the Dub Pistols has been fascinating to watch since Barry Ashworth first bust out in 1996 as fully-formed party animals declaring ‘There’s Gonna Be A Riot’. While their live show continued to whip up unbridled mayhem and build a healthy worldwide following through relentless touring, the records took their own path, moving swiftly on from initial big beat whoopee into celebrations of two lifetimes of musical obsessions, the reggae-punk implications of the Dub Pistols moniker just the launch-pad.

The Dub Pistols formed in the mid-90s out of the chaos and energy erupting from the Heavenly Social-spawned big beat scene. Barry Ashworth had been in indie-dance outfit Deja Vu, who scored with their cover of the Woodentops’ ‘Why Why Why’, while Jason was half of Wall Of Sound duo Ceasefire with noted reprobate Derek Dahlarge.

The pair appreciated the vast musical earthquakes going back to the late 50s when ska was born, determined to mirror their wildly-diverse tastes in similar fashion to heroes like The Clash and Specials, who spectacularly broke out of punk’s confines to embrace other musical forms like reggae. The first Dub Pistols singles appeared on Deconstruction offshoot Concrete, roof-raising outings like ‘...Riot’, ‘Cyclone’ and ‘Westway’. Soon their live shows were turning into much more than decks, DATs and the odd cheerleader. A full Dub Pistols live band booted off, swiftly blowing up in the US while back home in the UK they sometimes had trouble detaching themselves from the big beat aftermath.

1998’s debut album, ‘Point Blank’, helped, hoisting Barry and Jason into remix work which included Moby, Ian Brown and Crystal Method [most recently Lily Allen] plus video games and soundtrack work, including a track for Blade 2 with Busta Rhymes.

The Dub Pistols’ punky-reggae party rages on, now doing damage with one of the year’s most potent musical brews, firing sugar-coated bullets at any recession depression. Their time has surely come.