ROOTS ROCK REGGAE …

Woodbridge Festival celebrates Sound System Culture as part of the national Windrush 75 celebrations. Ben Osborne explains …

It’s hard to over-estimate the influence of Sound Systems on UK music. Whether you’re into hip hop, house, dubstep, jungle, grime or pop, there’s barely a genre it hasn’t touched.

Sound System culture grew out of Jamaican traditions, where, from the late 1940s/50s, DJs and selectors would muster ever bigger systems to play the hottest tunes.

Brought to the UK by WIndrush Generations, Sound Systems and blues parties were held in non-traditional spaces (anything from homes to church halls, community centres and parks).

From here their influence and music spread. Lord Kitchener, a Trinidadian calypso artist, had arrived on the Windrush itself in 1948. And soon other Caribbean genres, such as ska, reggae and dub were taking root in the UK. By the late 1970s, acts such as Aswad, Matumbi and Steel Pulse were creating era-defining music.

With this background, it’s perhaps not surprising the UK was the first country to have a hip hop track reach Number 1. New

York’s Sugar Hill Gang topped the Official UK Singles Chart in 1979 - the track itself had grown from Sound System culture.

In 1973, Jamaican Sound System DJ Kool Herc had moved to New York to organise Sound System parties. He found New Yorkers danced more if he only played the instrumental ‘breaks’ of funk and soul records, rather than the whole tune. Soon other DJs were copying him and a movement started that eventually gave birth to hip hop as a genre.

Artists in the UK readily took to hip-hop. But throughout the 80s and 90s were also experimenting with other Sound System traditions, creating new genres such as jungle, trip hop, bashment, UK garage, UK Hip Hop, grime, sub Lo, 2-step ... and many more. Aspects of Sound System culture permeated genres like house and rave culture, with acetates, dub ‘versions’ and MCs becoming fixtures.

Cities such as Bristol and London became overtly associated with the culture, with crews like The Wild Bunch and Soul II Soul paving the way for a slew of successful acts. Other strong cultures stretch back decades across the UK in Leeds, Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham, Sheffield …

Ipswich’s Sound System culture has been thriving in Suffolk for over half a century. Amongst the local crews there’s Ashanti Yard, which was established in 1968, Bopper Ranking, an Ipswich Community Radio regular who runs Freedom Sound System and Nicky Don’s Rastayard Sound System. Missile Sound has been running since 1986, with Skipa J and team organising regular events throughout the year. Daddy Turbo, a well-known DJ with radio shows on BBC Radio Suffolk, built his name hosting Sound System events and setting up pirate station Flex FM, to tackle a lack of representation for the local black community on radio.” l For in-depth details on all the above visit, woodbridgefestival.com

Woodbridge Festival Of Art And Music Guide

Following on from August’s sold-out Aswad gig at Woodbridge Community Hall, the annual flagship festival at Elmhurst Park continues its programme of arts, featuring world-class music on the main stage, alongside art displays, spoken word and poetry, family entertainment including a fun-filled kids activity zone, a wellness zone plus a bigger than ever array of taste-bud tempting street food stalls and pop-up bars. Families are welcome to bring a picnic and, as it is an eco-festival, there will be recycling zones for all packaging and litter.

Friday 1st September - Main Stage

The music kicks off on Friday evening when Elmhust Park promises a fanfare of exciting national and regional bands and DJ sets.

Saturday 2nd September - Main Stage l Visit, woodbridgefestival.com

Due to popular demand, Jazzie B (Soul II Soul) returns this year promising another epic crowd-pulling act which got the whole festival dancing in 2021. The exciting international line-up includes: A Man Called Adam, Ben Osborne, Caswell, Chris Coco and Kevin Pearce band among others.

Get involved throughout August Linking up with their series of successful Windrush events, there will be an Art trail ‘Anchors Aweigh’ with art and photography to be viewed in various windows along Woodbridge’s winding streets and a poetry competition, Journey into the Unknown’, the latter an open call for anyone to submit a written piece with a chance for selected entries to be recited on the spoken word Band Stand stage on 2nd September.