Lucky Edinburgh is getting a BIG night on April 13th @ Cabaret Voltaire…GOOD TIMES!!!
http://www.thecabaretvoltaire.com/view_event.php?id=1817
ON-U SOUND 30TH B’DAY - TACKHEAD :: MARK STEWART & THE MAFFIA :: ADRIAN SHERWOOD & THE ON-U SYSTEM :: DOUG WIMBISH :: SKIP MACDONALD :: BERNARD FOWLER :: KEITH LEBLANC
Celebrating 30 years of On-U Sound in Edinburgh, a city that has always had an affinity for the label and the music, memories of legendary gigs at The Venue & Calton Studios back in the day from Tackhead, Mark Stewart & The Maffia, the On-U Sound System through to more recent shows from Dub Syndicate, the Maffia, Skip “Little Axe” McDonald and, of course, On-U head honcho Adrian Sherwood at The Voodoo Rooms. Now, in one fabulous night, we bring you:
TACKHEAD
The Tackhead saga goes back to the mid-'70s, when Wimbish and McDonald, teamed up in the ‘disco’ boom, when they attained cult success with Wood, Brass & Steel and with such tracks as Push push in the bush from Musique. They first met up with Keith LeBlanc in 1979 on the newly-formed Sugar Hill Records.
They soon became the label’s house band, providing backing, both live and on disc, for the ground-breaking Sugar Hill Gang (Rapper’s Delight), Grandmaster Flash (The Message) and Melle Mel (White Lines), helping to launch the onslaught of 80’s rap. After the demise of Sugar Hill and drawn outlegal wranglings, the three musicians continued to work on various projects. Described by The New York Times as, ‘one of todays most extraordinary rhythm sections’, they included recordings for the Tommy Boy label.
Moving on from the early 80’s rap explosion, drummer Keith LeBlanc already released some solo work on Tommyboy Records (Maneuvres, Uh, on the sampler Masters of the Beat); mixing the (now legendary) DMX drumbeats with his own special drumsound. His release No Sell Out featured the cut-up raps of civil rights activist Malcolm X pitched against the infamous DMX drumbeat to acknowledged as the first ever ‘sampling record’.
Ahead of the time and timeless. LeBlanc’s No Sell Out, brought him to the attention of London’s dub-master extraordinare and On-U Sound label owner Adrian Sherwood. A foremost producer of reggae in the early 80’s, Sherwood began to take his dub methodology to the limit, creating a unique form-distorted media and environmental collages of ‘mind’ sounds. Michael Williams (a.k.a. Prince Far I) was the spiritual teacher of Adrian Sherwood’s art of dub.
In 1984, while working on a remix of On-U Sound act Akabu’s Watch yourself for Tommy Boy records, he met Keith LeBlanc. After a productive meeting between Sherwood and LeBlanc, McDonald and Wimbish later joined them in London to begin work on a new project which they christened, Fats Comet. LeBlanc’s beat, pitched with Sherwood’s dub methodology, taken it to the limit (and far beyond…), creating unique form distorted media where the heavily distorted sound of McDonald’s guitar and Wimbish’s funky bass art made things complete.
As LeBlanc sums it up, “We started Fats Comet as a studio experiment. The stuff we considered being ‘non-commercial’ got stuck on Adrian Sherwood’s label and Doug Wimbish came up with the name Tackhead; which is New Jersey slang for homeboy.” After releasing a couple of 12", like the vast underground club and science fiction dancehall classics Mind at the End of the Tether and What’s my Mission Now? Tackhead already gained a lot of credits and popularity, especiallly among those who tied up to the industrial virus. An album was inevitable and Gary Clail’s Tackhead Sound System’s Tackhead Tape Time was bound to be a classic from the very day of its release.
In the meantime, they also found the time to back former Pop Group main man Mark Stewart as The Maffia; a collaboration which resulted in probably some of the most deranged hip-mutant-funk-metal-dub-hop records ever to be made. ‘Tackhead in the area!’ became the common chant after the 12" The Game, which featured TV commentator Brian Moore alongside Jerry & The Pacemakers’ You’ll never walk alone, a legendary Liverpool football evergreen. The band also started touring live, which resulted in the initial release of the live album En Concert, quickly withdrawn after release because the band never wanted it to be released.
Friendly as a Hand Grenade, the band’s debut album as Tackhead, marked a new direction. They had now been joined by fellow American and ex-Peech Boys vocalist Bernard Fowler, giving a soulful edge to their beats an making them more accessible to a wider audience. Bernard Fowler’s introduction to the band came through the Mick Jagger-connection. Jagger is a big Tackhead-fan. Bernard Fowler still is background vocalist with The Rolling Stones.
In 1990 Tackhead released the album Strange Things which, despite some good tracks, turned out to be the band’s major malfunction! They were dropped by record company EMI and until now, we hardly heard anything from Tackhead as a band apart from some ‘live’ gigs and compilation releases on Blanc Records, Keith LeBlanc’s label. The German label Echobeach re-issued Strange Things in 1999, with additional mixes ass bonus tracks.
But the Tackhead-members have never stopped recording. They have worked together under various names such as Interference, Strange Parcels and of course Skip McDonald’s soloproject Little Axe.
Adrian Sherwood is a renowned producer (Primal Scream, Sinead O’Connor, Air, Asian Dub Foundation, to name but a few), and finally released his first solo album in 2003, called Never Trust a Hippy?, assisted by the usual suspects, and is recording for the follow-up to ‘NTAH?’.
Keith LeBlanc remixed tracks by The Cure, Nine Inch Nails and Godfathers, delivered many sample cd’s and is working ‘solo’ with the help of the other three Tackheads…
Skip McDonald is concentrating on his wonderful Little Axe project.
Doug Wimbish released his first solo album, Trippy Notes for Bass, in 1999, apart from projects such as Jungle Funk and Black Jack Johnson, that involve Living Colour mate Will Calhoun. Wimbish and Calhoun are Head>>Fake and are of course part of the Living Colour reunion.
Besides the previously mentioned activities we should not forget to mention that the Tackhead members played, produced and remixed as guest musicians for high class quality productions: James Brown, Africa Bambaataa, George Clinton, Seal, BB King, Robbie Robertson, Annie Lennox, Mick Jagger, R.E.M., Tina Turner, Charlie Watts, Miles Davis, Bob Marley, Sly & Robbie, Depeche Mode, Bomb The Bass, Robert Palmer, Neneh Cherry, Malcolm McLaren, ABC, Jalal, Madonna, Brooklyn Funk Essentials…
…and then we’re not even mentioning the +100 releases and formidable productions by the whole On-U Sound posse; Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, Gary Clail, Mark Stewart, Bim Sherman, Ghetto Priest, Jesse Rae…!
check out:
http://www.tackhead.com/
MARK STEWART & THE MAFFIA
Mark Stewart (at aged 17) was the lead vocalist and revolutionary sloganeer behind The Pop Group, now cited as one of the most influential post-punk bands. In the 1980s and through the 1990s he went on to form Mark Stewart and the Maffia releasing a range of heavily politicised, boundary-pushing albums fusing electronic, dub, twisted disco, and industrial-strength hip-hop into a unique ground-breaking sound. The music ranges from Post-Punk/Funk to Electrofunk, Hip-Hop and Dub, Mark Stewart (with The Pop Group and The Maffia) brought black music influences into Punk for the first time influencing a generation. Mark Stewart is one of the most respected figures in music. LCD Soundsystem, DFA, The Liars,!!!, Radio 4, etc and the whole new wave of New York bands are heavily influenced by the sound. He has constantly surrounded himself with creative artists. His group The Maffia features legendary New York musicians Doug Wimbish, Keith Le Blanc and Skip Macdonald. From their early days playing alongside Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata and Sugarhill Gang the group have since played with everyone from Mos Def to The Last Poets, from James Brown to George Clinton. The co-producer of The Pop Group is legendary Jamaican mixer Dennis Bovell and for his solo career Mark to this day works with Adrian Sherwood (On U Sound) who himself has an incredible list of credits that include Lee Perry, Junior Delgado, Bim Sherman, Einsturzende Neubaten, Andrew Weatherall, New Age Steppers, Primal Scream and many more. As well as the original punk/funk outfit The Pop Group (which he founded) inventing what became The Bristol Sound and influencing the music of Massive Attack, Tricky (with whom Stewart collaborated) etc, Mark Stewart himself is the artists’ artist: Two new recent Channel 4 TV programmes quoted both Nick Cave and Daddy G as choosing Mark Stewart as their favourite ever artist. With everyone from Carl Craig to Sonic Youth, DJ Hell to David Bowie citing Mark Stewart as an influence.
Check out:
http://www.myspace.com/markstewartmaffia
ADRIAN SHERWOOD
Adrian Sherwood has been a key character in the music scene of the past 30 years. His career is indissolubly bound to the reggae history and to its spreading in the English social-cultural web , but his most personal and radical approach to the sounds and to the productions goes beyond any music style.
Born in London in 1958 (on a cusp between Capricorn and Aquarius), Adrian Maxwell Sherwood showed a precocious talent for music. Spending many nights away from home - next to a Mars Bar factory in Slough, Buckinghamshire - he worked initially with now nostalgic names like Emperor Rosko, Judge Dread, Johnny Walker and Steve Barnard. Early contact with reggae world was through work for the Pama and Trojan roadshows, and school vacations were spent working for the legendary Pama and Vulcan labels.
At the ludicrously early age of seventeen, he co-founded the Carib Gems record label showing commendable foresight by issuing the first Black Uhuru sides, not to mention some fine early dub work by Prince Far I. Far I was to become a regular colleague of Adrian’s until his tragic death in Jamaica in 1983. He also licensed Ms. Pottinger’s famous High-Note label in England on Skynote.
As a producer, he cut his teeth on the fine Dub From Creation set (re-issued on On-U Sound in 2004) from Creation Rebel issued on Hitrun Records, Adrian’s next label formed in 1978. The label issued a total of 34 twelve inch singles; classics including Carol Kalphat’s African Land (with Eastwood & Dr. Pablo) and Prince Far I’s Higher Field Marshall. Hitrun also issued the first Roots Radics dub set Dub to Africa and the first chapter of the renowned Crytuff Dub Encounter by Prince Far I & The Arabs, mixed and co-produced by Sherwood.
1980 saw the formation of the current On-U Sound Records, in partnership with photographer Kishi Yamamoto. Setting new standards of dub production, Sherwood produced a vast army of reggae, funk and rock artistes including New Age Steppers, Singers & Players, Creation Rebel, Bim Sherman, Mark Stewart & Maffia, Judy Nylon, London Underground, African Head Charge, Dub Syndicate and in conjunction with Tommy Boy Records of New York City, Akabu.
It was in New York that Sherwood recruited guitarist Skip McDonald, bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Keith LeBlanc, together the onetime house band at the famed rap label Sugarhill Records, and under a variety of names (most commonly Tackhead) the trio brought new power and definition to the company’s densely-textured recordings.
By the mid-1980s, Sherwood was among the most visible producers and remixers in all of contemporary music, working on tracks for artists as varied as Depeche Mode, Einsturzende Neubauten, Simply Red, The Woodentops and Ministry. He became increasingly involved in industrial music as the decade wore on, producing tracks for Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM and Nine Inch Nails, and although On-U Sound continued to reflect its leader’s eclectic tastes the label remained a top reggae outlet.
On-U Sound helped breaking down the barriers between reggae music and the english independent music, punk and new wave. You can find Adrian’s unique touch on the mixer on albums by African Head Charge, Creation Rebel, Dub Syndicate, Mark Stewart, Little Axe, New Age Steppers, Bim Sherman and many others.
During the 90’s the label slowed down its activity, even though keeping its cult status with a thick program of reprints on cd of its catalogue. In the meantime Adrian collaborated with various artists in various and different music scenes, producing and remixing people such as Sinead O’ Connor, Primal Scream, Air, Asian Dub Foundation. Other projects got him involved with new labels such as Green Tea and Pressure Sounds.
Among his masterpieces produced in the 90’s, you will find the experimental albums of two great Jamaican music legends: Bim Sherman (Miracle - Mantra records 1996) and Junior Delgado (Reasons - Big Cat 1999). Two extremely intense and refined masterpieces that show a particular conception of the world music.
Adrian’s natural attitude to stir up the sounds from different cultures with sensitiveness and taste, has attracted the attention of Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records, who commissioned him his first real solo album. The release of Never Trust a Hippy? in 2003 has brought a new reputation and international visibility to Adrian Sherwood.
His debut album coincided with a new activity of Adrian’s ‘dub live show’, which has seen him in action in the main international clubs and stages: a show which consists of a real time remixing of a selection of music tracks, with the aid of a 24 channels mixer and with the support of the Jamaican singer Ghetto Priest plus eventual guests.
2003 was the year of the On-U Sound, rebirth: a new organization, a new studio and a really rich program of new productions. The compilation Chainstore Massacre has been the first sampler of the label new style, followed by the Ghetto Priest’s debut album Vulture Culture. A sub-label called Sound Boy has been launched too, resonsible for many singles and 10"s it has published the wonderful album Original Guerrilla Music by Junior Delgado.
On-u Sound issued a rich program of releases for the year 2004: a new album by Little Axe for Real World Records, called Champagne and Grits, new albums by Junior Delgado and African Head Charge for On-U, and Adrian Sherwood’s second album, again for Real World/Virgin.
In the meanwhile the On-U Sound System dub live show keeps on refining, confirming itself as a show proposal extremely interesting for a transverse target. The show features dubmaster Adrian on the mixer, modulating and transforming sounds on real time, making the show unique and unrepeatable, and now he’s back at the mixing desk with Tackhead.
check out: http://www.onu-sound.com/
DOUG WIMBISH
Doug Wimbish grew up listening to the sounds of 60’s and 70’s music. He was inspired by exposure to greats such as Miles Davis, George Clinton and Sly & The Family Stone. Given his first guitar at the age of 12, Doug initially played both guitar and bass, but at the age of 17 he discovered that the bass was where his passion lived.
Doug’s mission began with his thirst for music. He attended workshops at the local Artist Collective and studied theory at the Hartford Conservatory, where he met Jackie McClean, Jaki Byard and Skip McDonald and Keith LeBlanc. Together they established an unrivaled reputation for their studio accomplishments. In 1983, they released The Message and White Lines (Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five), as the house band for Sugarhill Records which attained multi-platinum sales.
In 1984, at the suggestion of Arthur Baker, Wimbish, along with McDonald and LeBlanc, he moved to London with LeBlanc and McDonald, to work with British mixer/producer Adrian Sherwood of On-U Sound. Together they formed the radical cutting edge ensemble Tackhead, best known for their eclectic funk-metal underground sound. That combo has since written, produced and played for a wide array of international artists including Bim Sherman (reggae balladeer), Audio Active (Japanese industrial), Primal Scream (with Irving Welsh) and African Head Charge.
As a sought-after master of his instrument, Doug has recorded and performed with a diverse roster of talent including The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Carly Simon, Depeche Mode, Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger.
In 1991, Doug was introduced to hard-rock sensation Living Colour through drummer Will Calhoun, which lead to him replacing Muzz Skilings on bass. While with Living Colour, Doug recorded two successful albums Stain and Pride. In 1993, Living Colour received a Grammy nomination for a song co-written by Doug, Leave It Alone.
In late 1998, Doug had three projects due for releases, including Jungle Funk, Headfake and a solo effort. Teaming up once again with his pal Will Calhoun from Living Colour and vocalist Vinx, he created Jungle Funk, a project of tribal sounds and funky jazz accents. The band performed over 100 shows and festivals internationally during the past year, including The Montreux Jazz Festival and North Sea Jazz Festival.
Jungle Funk’s album was released and distributed throughout Europe by EFA Records. Headfake, a collaboration between Wimbish and Will Calhoun, features metaphoric bass lines and head banging drums. Doug’s solo debut Trippy Notes for Bass possesses ambient, trippy grooves with help from Bernie Worrell, Alex Foster, Will Calhoun and his old mates from On-U Sound: Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald and Adrian Sherwood.
Doug has continued to work on many high profile projects. He performed on The Rolling Stones’ Bridges to Babylon album (along with Tackhead singer Bernard Fowler on backing vocals), co-wrote a Lionel Richie album with Andre Betts (Madonna’s producer), played on Atlantic records rising star Nicole Renee’s album, and performed on Depeche Mode’s Ultra album. The Headfake Productions team of Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun co-produced and played on the Herb Alpert album Colours.
Doug Wimbish released his first solo album, Trippy Notes for Bass, in 1999, apart from projects such as Jungle Funk and Black Jack Johnson (Mos Def, Bernie Worrell), that involve Living Colour mate Will Calhoun. Wimbish and Calhoun are Head>>Fake and are once again part of Living Colour. In 2004 Doug inspirated his Tackhead team mates for a reunion.
Check out:
www.dougwimbish.com/
BERNARD FOWLER
It is a distinct possibility that everyone alive today in the free world has heard Bernard Fowler sing. This is because Bernard Fowler is a true Renaissance Man when it comes to the vast expanse of his career. He has a list of credits that is pages long, with experience which has truly spanned all genres of music: rock, jazz, funk, pop, and latin. His critically acclaimed voice is powerful, soulful, and unforgettable.
Born and raised in the Queensbridge Projects of New York City, Bernard played bass in the neighborhood salsa band. At 16 he began writing and singing in Total Eclipse, who later signed with Brunswick Records. As the frontman for Tackhead, Bernard began his journey to become one of the most sought-after singing talents in the world.
Bernard has appeared on tours and albums, singing with some of the best-known artists of the 20th Century: Ryuchi Sakamoto, Gill Scott-Heron, Sly & Robbie, Material, Bootsy Collins, Duran Duran, Herb Alpert, Paul Carrack, Yoko Ono, and many others. Bernard spent the last decade touring and recording with the Rolling Stones, rounding out fourteen albums, including fronting three albums from Charlie Watts and contributing his voice to solo efforts from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood.
Not only is Bernard an accomplished vocalist, he is also a songwriter, trombone player, percussionist, keyboardist, and producer. He has displayed these diverse talents with Ron Wood, Stevie Salas, The Rolling Stones, Living Colour, Herbie Hancock, as well as his own Peech Boys, Tackhead, and Nicklebag.
It is clear that with his highly-regarded talent, and unparalleled experience, Bernard Fowler will continue to lend his skills and sounds to many more thankful ears in the 21st Century.
check out: www.bernardfowler.com/
SKIP McDONALD
Skip McDonald IS Little Axe. Providing guitars, bass, keyboards, and vocals, Little Axe is the return to the blues that Skip grew up with and learned from his father. Born Bernard Alexander on 1 September 1949, Dayton, Ohio in the USA. Skip McDonald learned to play the blues on his father’s guitar from the age of 8, although by the time he was 12 years old he had opted to perform doo-wop.
But from picking up a guitar as a child, and returning to his roots with Little Axe, there has been a long twisting road. McDonald, along with bassplayer Doug Wimbish and drummer Keith LeBlanc formed the house band for the pioneering rap label Sugar Hill, providing the music for some of the most seminal records of the era by Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata, Force M.D.'s and others. From there he worked closely with Adrian Sherwood on many of projects for the On-U Sound label, as well as spearheading the band Tackhead and working with Living Colour.
But first, back to Dayton, Ohio.
Having completed his high school education Skip left Dayton with a band called the Ohio Hustlers, which broke up not long after relocating to New York City. His first professional work as a musician began when he formed the Entertainers who toured the east coast through to the mid-70s.
He moved on to Hartford, Connecticut, and there’s when he met Doug Wimbish, who played in a band called Wood, Brass & Steel. Wood, Brass & Steel recorded a selftitled album for All Platinum Records, the label of Sylvia and Joe Robinson, in 1976. Skip and Doug played a lot of music together, in clubs and colleges around New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
In 1979, three years after the Wood, Brass & Steel album, Skip and Doug teamed up with drummer Keith LeBlanc and they became the house band for Sugarhill Records, the Robinson’s new label. The trio played on some of the earliest rap hits such as The Message and White Lines (Don’t Do It) with Grandmaster Flash.
While they worked at Sugarhill, LeBlanc also freelanced at Tommy Boy Records where he first met Adrian Sherwood. LeBlanc introduced his colleagues to Sherwood and the trio were persuaded to relocate in London. Upon their entry into the On-U Sound fold, the group formed a production team and, again, a house band, this time for On-U. The three participated in dozens of records on Sherwood’s label.
The partnership developed and metamorphosed into a fully-fledged band, Tackhead. Though good working relationships remain to this day, the dispersion of Tackhead in the early 1990s saw Keith and Doug pursue more of their own projects and play less often togther.
For Skip the time since has seen him work ever more closely with Sherwood, both on his own projects and as a musician or guest vocalist on many other of Adrian’s On-U Sound productions - such as by Junior Delgado, Bim Sherman, Dub Syndicate and African Head Charge, sometimes along side Keith and /or Doug.
Skip has been the prime mover behind Little Axe since around 1992. Under a name inspired by Bob Marley’s Small Axe and gospel singer Willmer ‘Little Ax’ Broadnax, the debut album Wolf That House Built was a personal take on blues and dub, and was released to critical acclaim in 1994. This had followed a partial release in Japan compiled in a slightly different form and with a different title (Never Turn Back) the previous year. The second Little Axe album, Slow Fuse, was also well received.
Then it remained silent for far too long. In 2002 Skip’s third Little Axe album Hard Grind became the first release for four years on Sherwood’s revived and re-launched On-U Sound label with a mixture of raw blues and reggae. While Hard Grind will no doubt will also draw comparisons to Moby’s Play, it was Skip who pioneered the fusion of Blues and Electronic music with Little Axe.
Skip McDonald has recently finished the fifth Little Axe album, Stone Cold Ohio, released on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records in October 2006. In the meantime, be on the look out for his live performances.
check out: www.myspace.com/littleaxesound
KEITH LEBLANC
Keith LeBlanc started out as a session drummer with Sugarhill Records, early 1980’s. He formed the Sugar Hill House Band with fellow Americans Doug Wimbish (bass) and Skip ‘Little Axe’ McDonald (guitar), working with leading rap artists as The Sugarhill Gang (Rapper’s Delight) and Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel on The Message and Freedom.
From his own Malcolm X No Sell Out, the first ever sampling record, on Tommy Boy Records (1983) to his involvement in creating the sound of funk noise giants Tackhead with Wimbish, McDonald and British dub producer Adrian Sherwood, he has gained recognition as one of the top and most innovative drummers/programmers around.
His landmark album Major Malfunction (considered to be the first Tackhead recording, although credited to LeBlanc solo) was of great influence to a whole generation of musicians. The album, a reaction to the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster, started off a whole new genre of industrial music.
Apart from his work as member of the legendary On-U Sound posse, Keith LeBlanc has continued to experiment with new sounds using his own Blanc Records as a base from which to release pioneering albums and push musical boundaries even further. Apart from that he made nine sampling cd’s so far for the Advanced Media Group with loads of drum samples and sound effects, free for anyone to use.
His writing and production skills have attracted the likes of Living Colour, Peter Gabriel, The Cure, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails. As a drummer/programmer he has worked with everyone from James Brown to Trevor Horn, Seal to R.E.M., The Rolling Stones, Annie Lennox, Jalal (Last Poets), The Stone Roses, Robert Palmer and Bomb The Bass. He also produced Charles & Eddie’s hit record Would I Lie To You, along with Tim Simenon of Bomb The Bass.
More recent work includes sessions for Annie Lennox, Tina Turner, Brian Ferry, Sony artists Sunscreem, Babylon Zoo, Sussan Deyhim, Depeche Mode, Doug Wimbish, Sinead O’Connor, Little Axe and of course Adrian Sherwood’s solo project Never Trust a Hippy?.
Check out:
http://keithleblanc.com/