Legendary DJ plays reggae gold to round off Black History Month

Earl Gateshead has spent several decades behind the controls as reggae has evolved into a diffuse mainstream genre (Picture: Earl Gateshead/The Huge Reggae Show)

Reggae has been part of Jamaica’s ‘starting gun’, given voice to Rastafarianism and fired up crowds from Trench Town to Yokohama.

Yet when Earl Gateshead, one of the pioneers of the UK scene, found his calling the irrepressible Jamaican sound was a niche genre absent from record stores and regarded by many as ‘Sunday music’.

Releasing an exclusive playlist on Metro.co.uk to mark the end of Black History Month today, the legendary British DJ has chosen five tracks reflecting reggae’s ‘incredible’ impact on the world.   

More than four decades on from the beginning of his own musical odyssey, the selection represents enduring moments not just in reggae’s origin story but in the cultural life in two of the countries where it burst into life.  

He opens with the embracing uplift of Feel Like Jumping by Marcia Griffiths, which he chose to represent the optimism of post-independence Jamaica. 

‘Feel Like Jumping was like the starting pistol in Jamaica, because they got independence in 1962,’ Earl says.

Earl Gateshead had brought his spiritual brand of reggae to new performance spaces across the world (Picture: Earl Gateshead/Huge Reggae Show)

‘For a country that had been through slavery it was a massive psychological boost, they were no longer going to feel like second class citizens.

‘Instead of being under they were over; there was this huge burst of happiness and self-confidence.  

‘Feel Like Jumping represents the joy that Jamaicans felt. They were no longer going to imitate jazz or other American sounds, they were confident enough to say “this our music, we may sound different, but this is us”.’

Earl, 70, also selected You Don’t Love Me by his friend Dawn Penn, which has long been a massive international hit. But the original Studio One drop he chose reflects the raw live feel of the legendary Jamaican production house, which has been dubbed the ‘university of reggae’.  

Bob Marley is represented through a relatively obscure track, Jah Live, which he recorded to reassure Rastafarians after the death of Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia on August 27, 1975.  

Earl Gateshead gets in the mix with Asher Selector (l) and Realoveution Hi-Fly (r) at Goa Sunplash (Picture: Earl Gateshead/The Huge Reggae Show)

In his burning desire to spread the message of Jah’s eternity, Jamaica’s most famous son joined forces with Lee Perry to write and release the song, which has its own Wikipedia entry, within the space of two days.   

The podcaster, who lives in South London, then jumps forward to the era of reggae dancehall for It’s a Pity by Tanya Stephens, a 2002 release by another of the island’s most distinct and resounding voices.

Danny Red’s anthemic Rasta We Rasta, a rootsy drop in the ‘conscious’ expression of the music, rounds off the dive into the vaults. 

Earl, real name Philip Ashford, has trod a path in this musical history that has included becoming one of the first Europeans to build a sound system, co-founding Trojan Records and hosting renowned club nights, among them a 23-year residency at the former Dive Bar in Soho.

First playing out in 1979, he also spent 12 years as a selector for the Trojan Sound System and was one of the first reggae DJs to host special nights at Fabric, Ministry of Sound, Plastic People and Space Ibiza.

Another honourable mention is playing at exhibitions by Banksy, and he remains the only DJ that the guerilla artist has worked with directly.  

‘Reggae used to be very much a separate world, a black world,’ Earl says.

‘You could go to record shops and they didn’t have a reggae section, it was completely separate. We were completely ignored, and it annoyed me when I knew the music was as good as anybody else’s music; in terms of quality and depth I think it’s ahead of most music and up there with jazz.’

Striking a lighter note, the vinyl-spinner reflects on the digital age, where fans no longer have to scour for flyers and imported records.  

Earl Gateshead salutes the crowd in front of a banner for the Mungo’s Hi-Fi sound system (Picture: Earl Gateshead/The Huge Reggae Show)

‘I did my best to push reggae into the mainstream because it deserved more attention, but now it has I get annoyed,’ he says.

‘I can buy tickets for reggae dances on Skiddle. Now we are less and less separate and I realise I used to quite like being part of our own world.’  

At the start of Black History Month, another founding father of the UK scene, Mykal ‘Wassifa’ Brown, told Metro.co.uk how reggae sound systems once provided spaces for black people who found colour bars at club doors.

The Wassifa sound system story is now part of the Birmingham history trail after his family home — the origin point for what became a pioneering musical force — was recreated for a National Trust exhibition.

Earl, who is originally from Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, has also been part of bringing the sound to new audiences and watching it evolve through ska, ragga, jungle, drum and bass, grime and other genres.

The sound system influence can be heard in the cut-and-mix style of dance acts such Fatboy Slim and Basement Jaxx.  

Bob Marley was the voice of Rastafarianism in troubled times including after the death of Emporer Haile Selassie (Picture: Josh Layton)

A reggae fan’s keepsakes include treasured vinyl from King Tubby’s sound system and the ‘late great’ Garnett Silk (Picture: Josh Layton)

He feels most at home in the ‘oneness’ of the core music.

‘Bob was no racist and reggae is not racist,’ Earl says.

‘I’m white but reggae represents a little separate world where it doesn’t matter where you come from or what your skin colour is.  

‘You like reggae and that’s it, that’s what I’ve always loved about it.’  

The selector, who hosts The Huge Reggae Show podcast on SoundCloud, has found himself part of a scene that has influenced everything from ripped jeans to speeches in parliament.

‘Standard English is full of Jamaican expressions, such as bigging people up,’ Earl says. ‘The Jamaican patois arrived in London and spread throughout the country, phrases like “big up” are standard English now.

‘Then with music you have genres like drum and bass, which is what they call dub in reggae. The people who made drum and bass knew that, and they used reggae snares and vocals.

‘Then you have dub step, obviously, and you can go on to hip-hop, which was started by Jamaicans who lived in New York, and on to garage. It’s incredible for an island which only has a population of two million people.’ 

The likes of Aswad, UB40, Beenie Man, Sean Paul, Shabba Ranks and other crossover giants represent a musical arc which started with none of the Billboard muscle of today.  

‘I suppose really what I love is that when I started reggae was Sunday music,’ Earl says. ‘It’s gone from Sunday music to Saturday night music, and that’s one big change I’m pleased about. It’s stopped being regarded as “oh yeah you get stoned and sit in the garden or whatever”. Now it’s accepted as mainstream dance music.’  

Earl is now part of a reggae-verse which is led by a wave of ‘conscious’ singers who are using live instrumentation as they spread harmonious messages from Spanish Town to Tokyo.   

Earl Gateshead in his home studio where he records The Huge Reggae Show (Picture: Earl Gateshead/The Huge Reggae Show)

The host records his podmixes, as he calls them, from his home studio and has a spiritual thread in his sets aimed at banishing listeners’ blues.

He hints that this unifying force may be the work of a higher power.

‘Reggae is black music but it’s a feeling and to quote Bob Marley, “who feels it knows it”,’ Earl says. ‘Reggae should make you feel something, it’s not something you can put into words, it’s a feeling of unity.

‘There’s something that it represents that I love.’ 

Listen to The Huge Reggae Show podcast here and find details of Earl’s next gig at Ridley Road Social Club on Wednesday here

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Earl Gateshead chose five treasured cuts reflecting huge moments in British and Jamaican cultural history.