soul II soul
back II life
David Rodigan Interview by Sarah Bentley in 2006
Sarah Bentley is a London based music and youth culture journalist. She frequently contributes to Touch, Blues and Soul, ID, Timeout, Adrenalin, The Times, Marie Claire, XLR8R, The Fader and Riddim/Juice magazines.
David Rodigan, Friday 19th May 2006
Location: Nelsons Dockyard
SB: When did you become part of the event?
DR: From the first event. I thought it was an exciting idea, somewhere different, somewhere people hadn't been. It sounded like a great destination and at the same time as yachting week. It was something different on another island that one doesn't immediately associate with such obvious events. It was ground breaking really. It was like everyone pitching off to Southport or wherever but going somewhere much further with a group of like-minded souls joining together to enjoy the music they love. Jazzie's from Antigua. It's a beautiful island and the people are wonderful.
SB: Why is the event so special?
DR: It's super cool down there. That island has it's own pace. You feel very safe. You're not intimidated, local people don't hustle you and hassle you. You can get on and enjoy the place. It's not been terrorised by tourism. There's so much that's unique and special to that island. Just driving around and seeing the villages and hamlets you feel yes, this is the real Antigua. If you drive around you get this feeling the island is to be enjoyed by all - locals and tourism. Life goes on alongside tourism. You don't feel the island is geared towards bowing and scraping towards tourist. Obviously you're there as a visitor but you're there as a spectator as life goes on rather than everything being geared to you as a tourist. That's a quality the island has. It's like a best-kept secret. A lot of people on the plane said 'I've been coming for years' but people keep it quiet. They don't want it to be terrorised by tourism. It's a hideaway. It's cliché to say but it's the jewel in the crown of the Caribbean. It is so much it's own island.
SB: Do you remember the first time you met Jazzie?
DR: First met him person to person at Kiss 100 when it was legal in 1990. He left a dat in my cubby hole of a Tiny Marie track he'd produced with a label that said, 'Roders - listen and play.' She was with Motown then. The tracks were very impressive. I did play one track on my show. It was 16 years ago so don't ask me for the name. Inevitably I would have met him. I wasn't aware he was fan of my shows before we met. We're like-minded souls. I've always felt that with him. I loved what he did and the way he did it. He was a soundsystem and he produced this dubplate (Back II Life) that was just amazing. I got it on a white label sent from the record label before it got big. He did what he did in such a unique way. He played music in an environment people were made to feel happy, welcome. It wasn't a tougher than tough environment and that's reflected in him and the way he conducts himself with people and that's why he's still Jazzie B all these years later. Despite all sales and hype he's still Jazzie B. He still does what he does in the same way. In my opinion he's highly observant. The concept and how he came up with it for both Soul II Soul and the Antigua event he's still delivering to the fullest without selling out and loosing his passion. You get the feeling with Jazzie he's a contented soul. I've never seen him shouting. He's always level vibes and cool. They're great qualities in this age.
SB: How did you become friends from this point?
DR: It evolved slowly over a number of years. We cemented the friendship by our regular meetings on a Monday night at Kiss FM. I did daytime radio and then my specialist reggae show on Monday and he followed me after that. When he wasn't on the road he would come and do the radio programme and we'd talk in the cross over. I also understand the fee he got for his Kiss show he gave away to charity. I'm sure he'd deny it but I learned that and it shows the mark of the man.
SB: How do you plan for your set?
DR: I try to play a broader set than if I was playing in West Kingston or Brooklyn. I try to gage the audience I'm playing to. Working in radio professionally you have to have an open mind. My passion is Jamaican reggae/dancehall but I have to look at who's in that audience. On my return flight, and I think this is quite telling, the British Airwaves stewardess said, 'You were DJ-ing on the beach on Wednesday night.' I said yes and everyone smiled and giggled. They said, 'We don't usually like reggae but you did something really special. We went to see Soul II Soul but we saw you and you played this reggae and we got really into it. One or two stewardesses didn't and left but we loved it.' In fact they liked it so much one of the camp stewards said he took his clothes off and went for a swim. I could see they wanted to say, 'We weren't expecting you to play music like that', which is something I'm used too. I never forget something Rory from Stone Love said to me, 'You look like a school teacher.' I'm sure I do - that or an accountant or something in my short-sleeve shirts, polished shoes and jeans. I was schoolteacher originally. I taught drama. The crowd is such a cross section of people so I tried to play everything from obvious pop-chart reggae hits to obscure brand new Capleton's and dubplates by Sizzla. I wanted to appeal to some hardcore fans but without going to hardcore, by pitching it down the middle. I didn't want any nosebleeds happening. I had to acknowledge people were relaxing and chatting with the sea lapping in so I did have to play the Maxi Priests, the Bob Marley's and the great reggae anthems. I wasn't taking the micky with the pop reggae tunes I was having fun. 'My Boy Lollipop' was a really important record. For many of the people there from England their parents would have played those records in their front rooms. They knew them from when they were in the pram. They were the background to them growing up. I'm aware a lot of the people on the trip are soul heads not reggae heads but in my 3 years of doing it they don't mind what I do. I don't do it in an elitist style. I keep it loose and free and happy. I jump up and down and get excited but I don't care. It's just a reflection of how I feel about this music. Sometimes I must look a twit but I don't care. I think many people will recognise a lot of the tracks in house and drum 'n' bass so that hooks a lot of the non-reggae fans in as well. Also I didn't want the locals saying they went to see Rodigan got reggae by numbers because it would have been unfair. I didn't want to cheat them out of seeing who I really am so I had to put the hardcore stuff, the real nosebleed stuff in there as well. I purposefully played it towards the end as people that wouldn't normally like it had had 6 rum and cokes by then and could look at the pockets of yardies and local Antiguans going nuts and think it must be good so I'm going to enjoy it too.
SB: I noticed virtually everything you played was a dub... what proportion of your set is made up of dubs?
DR: It depends on the session. At Mass in Brixton I play 4-5 in course of night. In Berlin I play 70% specials because that's what they want. Oxford - 10% specials and 90% tune shot specials. In Antigua I played a little bit more specials than I'd normally play but I knew there was an element in audience of Antiguans that wanted them. Essentially those specials are made for clashes and because the market place demands them. When I started there was no such thing as a record with your name in it. There were records that were mixed exclusively with an intro by King Tubby or whoever. Specials with names in appeared in the mid eighties. If you don't have them the hardcore think you're not up to speed, not on top of your game and you haven't got anything new in your dub basket. It's like Milan fashion week. If D&G turn up that's fine but if they aren't displaying new gear then it's over. Equally if you're not making new songs etc you're a veteran relying on your repertoire. I wasn't sure how people would react to the hardcore dubs but form the noise I could hear it's safe to say everyone went nutzoid but I had to be careful not to alienate people. If I'm not cutting new tunes, there was an element will say Rodigan's relying on old dubplate box which is fine but he's not exciting. I played new TOK, Sizzla, Capleton for the nut bags and taste-makers. I played the Capleton 'Chant Dem Down' - you know the dub with the horns. As soon as I heard it I wanted it. Capleton said no one asked me for this and I said just do the special. Sometimes I just smell a hit way behind. I was the first person to cut Jamrock as a special, only stone love that came with that after me. I cut that in October 2004 I approached Damian Marley for that first. You can get it wrong and it's a waste of money but if you don't anticipate hits you're boring. It's better to take risks. So with regards to my set - it was a question of balancing the audience and taking care of all corners.
SB: Do you mix any local music in to your set?
DR: No. There's a bit of a scene there but I couldn't claim to have a full knowledge of it. I got given things of people singing over other people's riddims. I didn't tour studios. I just collapsed under a palm tree every day because I was tired. I've just been on tour in the US and Jamaica.
SB: What's Antigua like as an island?
DR: I'd been to Antigua twice before that. I was originally on Capital Radio in the 80's and relatives from Antigua living in the UK would send my tapes over. They'd cassette my show on Saturday and send it over. There was no Internet then. I have people coming up and tell me they used to listen to my show. Now Internet - get soundclashes, dances, shows etc instantly. The Internet has made the world shrink.
SB: How would you recommend the party to people?
DR: It speaks for itself the fact that it's still going. If it wasn't a good it would have flopped after the second event. The fact that people have repeatedly gone back is a huge testament to its success. People are on their third Back II Life trip. It is cool, fun, it's a great island. It's well organised and the punters are always happy and you feel that when you go to the events. It's clearly not a teenage audience. Average age is late twenties to early thirties, the slightly more mature person who did rave excessively back in 80's and 90's and wants to still do it now but in a more laid back way.
