Dub Jam Force
Current mood: creative
Category: Music

Dub Jam Force Are George / Tim / Fred: KEEP THE DUBFIRE BURNIN

Fred Waight – Dub Jam Force

Biographical Synopsis
 
Music: 1978 formed The Boss (aka Running with the Boss Sound) with Rob
Morton and Kev Tanner – Craig St Leon (a lifelong friend of Freds at that
point) played drums

1978 – Craig and Fred form Criminal Class with Jez Edwards and Mark
Branski. Gigs everywhere and anywhere – notably The Zodiac, White Swan, Hand
in Heart pubs.

1980 – record demo at Woodbine studios produced by John Rivers. Sent to
Gary Bushell at Sounds (the music paper of choice for the Oi generation)
and he puffs it to No1 in the Sounds Oi chart. Jez and Mark depart –
replaced by Berz Cunningham and John "Septic" Taylor and become leading
lights in the burgeoning Oi scene (now known worldwide as British Street
Punk).

1980's – tours and supports with Oi luminaries Angelic Upstarts (with whom
Criminal Class shared a stinking squat in London) Infra-Riot, The 4
Skins, 999 and Splodginess Abounds

Seminal track "Blood on the Streets" fusing blitzkrieg punk with dub
reggae appears on soon-to-be-banned "Strength Through Oi" compilation and
under the weight of controversy and increasingly dodgy Neo-Nazi support for
Oi bands, Fred decides the audience isn't ready for his notion of
bringing more and more reggae into the mix and quits.

198? – plays guitar with Johnny Wild and the City Centre Shakers

198? – meets Gordon "Cyber Gord" Farmer and forms Cucumber Shades and
records the highly collectible but still available on 'tInternet album
Doomed for Destruction.

1987 – looking to develop the reggae side of things even further, forms
Dub Jam Force (DJF) – utilising the talents of Coventry's answer to Sly
and Robbie, The Krummins Brothers.

1987-1996 – tours, limited releases and free festivals guarantee DJF such
a following as to persuade Ken Brown to offer a twice monthly residency at
General Woolfe – becoming such a hot ticket as to require early queuing to
avoid being turned away. Continuing to plough a Crusty Punk Scene furrow,
DJF release album The Night – sold by the barrowload mainly at gigs by mate
Ronald "Space Head" Henschall. DJF becomes too "hippified" and loses
its street punk/soccer terrace credentials so Fred calls it all to a halt.

Autumn 2007 – Fred meets up with old drummer mate George Goode (ex Horace
Panter..s Coventry Ska Jazz Orchestra) and quickly gets the fire back in his belly – they
need a bass player and Georgie pulls in ex Dhesibells and Dark Side of the
Wall multi-instrumentalist Tim Healey for tentative first steps at
Backbeat rehearsal studios.

2008 – DJF back with a bang and a new harder edged punky reggae sound bang
in line with the stompy skinhead sound Fred has been searching for.
Hastily recorded rehearsals at Backbeat turn into demos and become instant
classics with 3 of the 9 tracks (recorded in 2 hours – including set- up
and tear-down) in the nationwide Top 10 Unsigned Bands MP3 Download Chart.
Cov website Hobo declare DJF "the next Cov break-out band". The Gnome
Label swoop to sign DJF to their home-grown, stick-it-to-the-man label.
Watch out for gigs near you soon. 
 
Cov Influneces: Hot Snacks
Tubilah Dog

Other Influences King Tubby
Big Youth
The Ruts
Johnny Thunders
The Bevis Frond