Big Tunes Notting Hill Carnival

# London town, London town london town, London town! #

'Notting Hill Carnival - it means many things to many people.

'But one of the most special things about Carnival

'is hearing massive tunes played on heavyweight sound systems

'out on the streets.'

When you walk into Notting Hill Carnival,

you are seeing every shade of person, every religion,

every creed, every colour, every sexuality,

everybody sharing this experience of just having a good time.

There's just something natural about dancing outside

when the weather's good.

It's knowing that you're doing something

that's kind of like you're not supposed to do

but you can get away with it for two days of the year.

There's a few people that have obviously moved into Notting Hill

having seen the Hugh Grant film,

thinking that it's all about book shops, rather than Bogling,

let's be brutally honest.

Around about August time, THAT is Notting Hill.

'This is a celebration of Carnival's biggest tunes over the years.

'And the people who've made them... and played them.'

It's primarily a party for me, my friends and my family.

And if we've got that right, the rest is right.

Playing at Carnival, it's one of them things,

it separates the men from the boys,

because everyone... everyone thinks they can do it

until they get into that situation,

where they've got 5,000 people in front of their sound system,

jumping, and then they play the wrong tune,

and then the crowd stop jumping and walk off.

'But first, let's rewind to where it all started.'

Notting Hill Carnival evolved through the Trinidad fraternity.

Trinidad is the land of calypso. It's the land of calypso.

When a band was playing a tune,

it was a calypso, it was either Sparrow or Kitchener.

# Don't make a row

# The Yankees gone and Sparrow take over now. #

Younger calypsonians coming up

decided they wanted more...more life,

more hip things, so out of the same calypso came soca.

I mean, soca is just a faster version of calypso.

# Mashing up de place

Jump up and break out of de place... #

When I hear soca music at Carnival,

that is like the true essence of Carnival.

It's like it's in my blood.

# ..Mashing up de place... #

It's got to be the soca music.

MUSIC: "Dollar Wine"

For instance, you play Dollar Wine, OK?

As soon as that intro drops and it starts to do the whole Dollar Wine,

you see people that don't even know how to wine

but they know the movements so they'll do the waist...you know?

And people, all of a sudden,

everyone's in unison doing this movement.

# Cent, five cent, ten cent, dollar

# Cent, five cent Ten cent, dollar... #

REGGAE MUSIC

Carnival was thought of as a calypso event.

The thought of involving reggae was a bit alien

because reggae didn't quite fit, because that was more

Western Caribbean, as opposed to Eastern Caribbean.

In discussions, we managed to say,

"Well, look, there's no east to west, north and south of the Caribbean.

"It's the Caribbean." So, under that umbrella, reggae was let in,

and we would deliberately play the latest Bob Marley

or the latest Toots And The Maytals or the latest Jimmy Cliff.

# You can get it if you really want

# You can get if you really want

# But you must try

# Try and try

# Try and try

# You'll succeed at last... #

And, of course, people wouldn't frown on that

because people love reggae.

MUSIC: "One Love" by Bob Marley

I never play a session and don't play a Bob Marley.

Every session I play, I must have to play a Bob Marley,

by the king of reggae.

# One love... #

When you play an old, a really old tune,

even the kids respect it.

I mean, you...you play Bob Marley's One Love, and they'll sing it.

- # ..One love - # Hear the children crying... #

It seems to touch a chord in people's memory, you know?

When you play these tunes, you could hear the crowd answer you.

Far and loud away. You know what I mean?

# ..And feel all right... #

Carnival, I would say, it's rooted in Caribbean culture.

It's dub, it's reggae, it's soca, it's jungle,

it's UKG.

More and more, over the last few years, it's house music.

So, yeah, I guess it's music of black origin.

You get some of the major radio stations who will...

They'll be petitioning you before, you know?

"Yeah, we'd like to get a couple of our guys on your system for the day,"

and we just let them know. You know what? This is a sound boy team.

It's a sound boy team.

It's a sound boy team.

And that's it.

It's not about YOUR DJ's profile, it's a sound boy thing.

# Sound boy, sound boys are in... #

For us in the UK, the carnival is probably our Holy Grail.

When I first went, all I can remember was the squash,

the squeeze, trying to get through, and,

"You might lose your cousin," and, "Everybody hold hands."

I think once we got to a certain place

and it just started to get super busy,

we knew what was about to happen. I couldn't believe

how many people there were. It were MENTAL.

I just remember the atmosphere being ridiculous,

just so strong, so...

Just energy. Just amazing. Really infectious and addictive.

I haven't missed the carnival in 40 years, yeah?

But I've been playing Carnival for 24 years.

My earliest memories probably was the smells, you know?

And this would be the vendors cooking their chicken and jerk

and whatever.

And when you mix the smells with the sound and the atmosphere,

it's Carnival.

# Ooh, yeah, ooh-ooh

# Police and thieves in the street... #

The biggest tune for me was Police & Thieves that was...

by Junior Murvin.

That was the biggest tune in Carnival at that time

and the response on that was manic.

PISTOL SHOT SOUND EFFECT

JAH SHAKA MUSIC PLAYS

I came across a sound called Jah Shaka,

and I've never seen anything like it, you know? The sound was huge.

I'd never seen so many black men congregating

together at the time, so I just thought it was amazing.

I thought to myself at the time, "I'd love to do this."

What is the feel of playing at Notting Hill Carnival?

Pfff-fff!

You're going to make me cry, that's what the feeling is.

It's like the peacock show, you know, one gets their feathers out.

It's the one time where you can really go out and do your thing.

If I think about tunes that have dropped and the place has gone mad...

Roy Davis Jr, featuring Peven Everett, called Gabriel.

Wherever you play that record,

it goes absolutely ballistic, to the point of,

you couldn't hear the record for the cheering.

It was that loud. It was... It was epic.

# Those that stand aside... #

As a teenager, I was always headed to that Rampage.

This is the Rampage!

I've got to pay homage to Rampage because they, still,

up to now, smash Carnival.

# Da, da-da, da, da-da

# Let the boys be boys. #

The police radiate out from our spot

because they always get asked two questions -

where's the toilets and where's Rampage?

# Yeah! Don't steal our rhymes! #

The Rampage experience at Carnival is going to be you with

12,000 other people facing thousands of watts of sound system.

I would find the quietest corner,

because Rampage turns into a zoo.

Sometimes I would go with, like,

one or two friends and they'd be so like,

"Oh, we're going to get squashed!"

And I would be that one in the middle -

what people would class today as, like,

mosh-pitting - I was in the middle.

I'll be starting it, like, "Whagh! Whagh!"

MUSIC: "Pow" by Lethal Bizzle

You could not play that record.

# Yeah, yeah It's Lethal da Bizzle records... #

Oh. Ohh...

# It's Lethal da Bizzle records... #

You couldn't play Lethal Bizzle's Pow at Notting Hill Carnival.

# ..Pow! Yeah I'm Leth with the B, pow!

# If you don't know about me pow... #

The police did not understand what happens to a big group of youths

when a grime record plays. You could not play that record.

Trees on the road,

like TREES,

proper trees - I am 100 years old. I am a tree -

waving in the wind like it's a hurricane

for Lethal B's Pow. Don't know how they done it,

I mean, just 12,000 people

ALL screaming at you - "Pow!"

# ..I'm Leth with a B, pow!

# If you don't know about me, pow! #

I could die happy after playing Pow at Carnival.

That's always that question that people ask me,

"Yeah, yeah, so what's the big tune at Carnival, man?

"What's the big tune for Carnival?"

# Because I'm happy

# Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof... #

The thing is, I didn't think Happy would be a big record by Pharrell

at Carnival this year.

# ..Clap along if you feel... #

We have lots of records that set our crowd off, both new and classic.

Who could resist jumping around when you hear James Brown?

# Watch me! Watch me!

# I got it... #

You have to time it right, but Days Like This...

# I love days like this... #

You drop that tune, you've got everybody singing.

# ..I love days like this

# It's here... #

If you can have 2,000, 3,000 people in the street all singing in unison

and you're seeing the whole street dropping and up and down like one,

you know, it's a rare sight.

# ..Whoa-oh! Whoa-oh! Whoa-oh! #

We play something like Valerie, Amy Winehouse,

not going to play... not going to play the normal version,

I'll play the a cappella

and the crowd will sing that tune,

everybody in the crowd has got a hand in the air, every single person

is singing that tune, even when the tune cuts out,

so there's no... There's...

It's an a cappella, you don't hear...

you don't hear the bridge, you don't hear none of those things,

but you see people's heads just doing the beat

and THAT is a carnival smasher.

# Oh, why don't you come on over Valerie? #

I'm always too afraid to play one of my own tunes at Carnival,

cos it's like there's nothing worse...

The only thing worse than clearing or just messing up the vibe at Carnival

would be messing up the vibe with one of your own tunes.

I always try not to play my own songs in those situations,

but maybe, now that you've said that, I should try it.

# Ooooh-ooh-whee!

# Ooh-ooh-whee, la-la-la-la-la-la! #

The list is endless of tunes that are real floor bangers.

You're never going to beat Lisa Lisa, I Wonder If I Take You Home.

# I wonder if I take you home

# Would you still be in love, baby?

# Because I need you tonight hah-hah-hah! #

Higher, baby.

White Lines, Grandmaster Flash

and so you've got 10,000 people going, "Free whiz!"

When that bass line kicks in on a proper, proper bass bin

and I mean a proper, home-made, 25-year-old bass bin,

there's nothing else quite like it.

Since I first made the record, it was massive

and garage was really exploding.

We played it and you could feel the road shake and I mean, like,

the tarmac, and after Carnival had finished and everyone had left,

we went and looked at the metal barriers,

just solid metal tubing and they were bent back by about 70 degrees.

# Get it with da rhythm now get me started

# Me nah cum fer dex me just on raves. #

It's very raw, it's very visceral.

Her flow on it is just incredible, it sums up UK music, that.

I love Carnival.

Every year without fail, for it to be something that I'm looking forward to

in the same way that I'm looking forward to Christmas

and I ain't getting no presents, it's just, like, vibes.

- # I'm just Ms - # Dy-na-mitee! #

Being in the Carnival,

hearing your music or being on that stage performing your music,

it's just, like, real, like, home, proud moment of being home,

and, like, having achieved something with your people there around you.

# No matter what you do, I know

# I know You should be in love with me... #

Performing at Carnival is just a totally different experience.

Because men have grown up going to Carnival and wanting it,

there's not much better.

You may do bigger events, you may do events for more money,

but Carnival you don't even get paid as well

and that's the most brilliant about it, cos it is a genuine love.

INDISTINCT

CHEERING

The thing about a lot of, the kind of, the foundation garage records,

things like So Solid Crew's 21 Seconds...

# I've got 21 seconds to go

# Cos if you'd like to let me know

# Let me in the studio

# I've got 21 seconds before I got to go

# Did you see me in the video? Oh, no

# Did you see me in the video? Oh, no

# So would you like to let me know? Let me in the studio

# I got 21 seconds before I got to go

# Did you see me on the video? #

You can play that now and you're going to get the same reaction that

they would've got back in 2000, 2001, everybody knows every lyric.

It's a BIG tune, it literally... It gets the fingers in the air,

it gets everybody going and because it's such a perennial,

there's no way that that fails.

# Rudeboy... #

Jungle.

# ..Original madmah madmah mad nuttah... #

Original Nuttah by Shy is just ape and it goes off everywhere.

I can remember, like, literally just going into some cra...

like I had been electrocuted in the middle of the street.

I didn't care who was watching me.

There is the most hard-core reggae sound to the most raviest

and the hip-hop, that is just Carnival in a record.

# ..Watch ya

# You never know di gangsta mi she dem inna jungle... #

I believe you can play any good record at the right time

and that would set off the crowd.

Pick something like D'Angelo Cruisin', for instance,

a song that... It's a slow jam.

# Away from here... #

The thing about playing Carnival is...when you've got it right,

you so have it right,

you know when you put a tune on what's going to happen

because you've made it so, you stand there

and you're conducting.

Everyone out there is the instrument

and you're standing there, saying to them, "Yeah, you know what?

"You know what's going to happen now?

"You're going to sing really loudly here."

# ..We're going to fly away... #

Just... You get this little kind of fizzy feeling inside.

# ..I love you when we're cruisin' together... #

# Snoop... #

Every DJ has that, like,

a tiny bit of that internal, egomaniac, puppet-master vibe,

you know, where we like to control...

# ..Snoop... #

..not in a bad way,

but you like to be able to kind of determine the mood in a room.

With great power comes great responsibility.

# ..When the ... in the crib, Imma

# Drop it like it's hot

# Drop it like it's hot Drop it like it's hot... #

The sense of pride, playing in your home town,

it's the gift and the curse.

You know they're going to be looking at you screw-faced

if you don't give them what they've come for, you have to deliver.

To be able to stand on the back of the van or up on that stage

and entertain three, four, five thousand people

is the highlight of my DJ career.

# Murder, she wrote

# Murder, she wrote... #

It used to be a celebration of Caribbean culture

and now I think it's a celebration of multi-culture.

# Ah come out to live meh life Somebody say

# Live meh life

# Play ah mas and live meh life

# I'm the happiest man alive... #

It's Europe's biggest festival and it's one of a kind, where...

You don't get the floats in other little festivals,

you don't get a barrage of sound systems

and you don't get a million and a half people attending

- over the two days. - If not more.

I cannot think of any other event on the planet that is like that.

# Feel it in the one drop

# Oooh-ooh-ooh

# And we'll still find time to rap

# We're makin' the one stop... #

If they come to the UK in the summertime,

they're going to go to Buckingham Palace

and they're going to go the Notting Hill Carnival.

It's a celebration, a true celebration,

of everything that is great about Britain.

I'm so proud of it as a British person,

to be from somewhere that can do that

and I think a lot of people think that

and it's just a right good party.