Battle of the Selecters – Dub Club NYC 1989
It’s not well known that, before all the current more famous incarnations of the name Jack Balchin and I ran a Dub Club in the Talbot Tabernacle in London around 1981. In the late 80s I revived the name to do some nights in NYC with DJ Woody Dee and his Dreadbeat Massive Sound. This tape survives from one of our more notable shows, occasioned by a visit from the UK by Lepke (aka the Dread Outta Control) from original reggae pirate radio Dread Broadcast Corp, plus the imminent closing of the East Village’s favorite roots record store Irie Ites, for which it served as a send off party. A line-up of selecters was duly arranged along with Richie from Underdog as MC.
What you hear here first is some sistren acappella as John (The Italian) takes the decks playing raggamuffin – John was representing a new store Ujima that had opened on the Bowery. My set follows, somewhat beset with tech difficulties, then Cathy Tobias of Irie Ites, and then Lepke who scores mightily with the just-released ‘One Blood’ by Junior Reid. I believe that is in fact John The Italian doing most of the MCing. Later in the night Keith Morris (of the Circle Jerks) took over and did a very credible job.
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