Sound Systems Notting Hill Carnival

# Run the track... #

Carnivals exist all over the world.

But British Carnival is unique, because we've got sound systems.

Well, a sound system is a mobile discotheque.

..On steroids.

2,000-watt amplifier blazing.

Amplifiers, speaker boxes...

..that tops the tower, the tweeters.

..mixers, a turntable.

It's a collective.

The whole package.

A technician, a DJ, a mic man...

It was a culture, it was a feeling.

That is a sound system.

Bless up, bless up.

Junior Quaker sound system's arrived.

Yeah, so tonight is celebrating

the birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie.

And obviously, the line-up tonight is Young Warrior, the son of Jah Shaka,

and Junior Quaker, the son of Quaker City.

And this has never happened before, with the sons now

taking on the legacy with their own sound systems, with their own music.

It's a hard job to be the sons of these legends,

because they have done so...

so much great things all over the UK and the world and internationally.

So the load on our shoulders is very, very, VERY heavy.

'Sound systems arrived in Britain from Jamaica in the mid-1950s.'

Where I was living in Jamaica,

there was a dance hall a couple miles away.

So whenever they have dance over there,

I could stay in my yard and hear the music from the sound system.

Sound system initially started from the old days,

like, having a jukebox outside your rum shop or whatever store you had.

With the influx of Caribbean culture into the UK,

they brought that culture with them.

'But once here,

'sound system provided a crucial link to home in the West Indies.'

Sound system culture was very important because that was

the only way we got to hear music from the Caribbean.

Because that was how our music was exposed,

because we didn't have much in terms of radio for our music.

In those days, it was very important. It brought the community together.

The sound systems was our Radio 1.

We are always playing new music that they never hear before.

So if you wanted to hear your, like, music that you associated with,

you had to go and listen to sound systems.

There's no other way, really.

It was a very important part of the whole black experience

here in the UK.

'Sound systems also formed the basis for social life in black Britain.'

Early '60s, there wasn't much recreation.

They would then congregate at whoever's house to have a party.

They borrowed a word from Ireland.

It was a word called the shebeen,

a private party in a basement somewhere,

and that was a blues dance.

You know, Britain was so divided and ridden by class and race.

And there was a lot of victimisation.

We would play at certain dances where the police would come

and, um, just close us down.

For me, the general concept of the sound system

really was about self-empowerment.

So we were playing under a lot of pressure to try

and entertain our people.

Music was their vehicle to let loose at the weekend,

to really throw their hair down.

It was like a little, um, window of lightness.

A lot of the best parties weren't in clubs,

they were just in spaces or warehouses or people's houses,

and there'd always be a sound system brought to the event.

You know, derelict houses and four floors of different sound systems,

or even one sound.

A man's wiring speaker up the staircase.

And having a stack of speakers in the corner,

and everyone used to put their coats on the speaker. On top...

Used to have 100 coats on top of the speaker!

Caribbeans started that, all the house party stuff,

all the kind of rave culture.

It was the Caribbeans that started all of that.

'To become a part of a sound system meant serving a long apprenticeship,

'starting at the very bottom.'

How I started, I used to lift up boxes to get in.

Cos that was my way into the sound system world.

You know, I'm a sound system boy at heart.

You know, I carried the speakers just like every other sound boy did.

But, boy, it wasn't easy carrying them speakers. They were heavy!

Mother's dumplings got to come into play.

All right.

You carry the boxes that contain the turntables,

the boxes that contain the amplifiers, the mixers,

and some may say, most importantly, the boxes that contained the records.

These are all experiences, you know?

And you have to go through them experiences before you can

call yourself a sound man.

'But to call yourself a sound man

'could mean taking on a lifelong commitment.'

In my sound system, it's very family-orientated.

So we still use, um, people in my father's crew.

This work that we do is very hard work.

We're bringing the whole concert, so we got to bring everything.

Not everybody can lift our boxes,

not everybody knows what wire goes into what, or...

And we can't take that risk for things to be dropped or damaged.

So, only skilled individuals who has helped us along the way

can actually do this.

So our collective of helpers is quite small.

'The collective nature of the sound system created a tight family bond

'between the crew.'

The brotherhood of sound system and us as a DJ crew

and a group of guys, it's...it's deep.

I can't overemphasise, it's the collective.

And that's what the difference is between your usual DJ

and what a true sound system is.

In those days,

a lot of the youths had something to put their energy into.

They went and bought records, they built boxes,

they were looking for tunes, they were in their house playing music.

They weren't on the streets.

Kept a lot of people out of trouble...as well.

- Yeah, me too. - Yes, the sound...

And you had an identity.

So the excitement was going to the events with the crew.

- You're a... - BOTH: ..ghetto celebrity.

We'd walk down Oxford Street and people want to take their...

You know, people want your autograph.

And then getting onto the next stage of being part of the

DJ fraternity, learning to play music, learning to mix,

and then get behind the decks and then start to entertain.

I love sound system business.

I love all the other sound men, because we need each other.

Yeah, you know, I'd like to think that I've earned my stripes.

Nice times, nice times.

'Once admitted into the brotherhood of sound, roles were distinct

'and highly specialised.'

You've got the MC, the mic controller,

the master of ceremonies, the mic man.

His job was to control the vibe.

I'm the one who speaks, introduces the tune, then talks to the people.

Boom - make it happen to the crowd, or to the people, or to the party.

And the selector is someone who actually chose the records that

the DJ played.

Scanning the crowd...

And make sure that the crowd are having a good experience,

a good time.

Finding out what the people want and giving it to the people.

To keep the audience bubbling.

Yeah!

Then you would have a technician, someone who would fix the amps

and maintain the electrical components.

'But in an age before downloads and streaming, the DJ had to work

'hard to provide his sound with a steady supply of fresh ammunition.'

What distinguished you as a DJ was your record collection

and how you presented that music.

I've gone as far as Jamaica to find a tune.

You know, so it's a constant search for...for beats.

You know, a record like Ketch Vampire by Devon Irons was the most exquisite

bit of music you've ever heard,

but there were only 200 of them ever made.

# Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire... #

And so if you found a copy of that, you know,

there'd be people willing to do

practically anything to get it off you.

You had to be quick to get...

Whoever came first, you know, and it was just exchanging.

You got that, I got that...

A man would all give his watch if he didn't have money.

Enough people were hunting... They go crazy for vinyl like this.

It was hustling, but hustling for the music,

to make sure the thing was exclusive.

I would never give away my vinyl. Never, ever.

'So powerful were the sound systems, both in status and sheer volume,

'that producers would give them dubplates -

'test pressings of unreleased records.'

So a dubplate is something that is not released.

Or a new record that's not out yet, cut on an acetate.

And say, you know... Before they released it, they used to say,

"Test this on your sound and see how the crowd feel it."

So it was a way for musical producers and artistes

to get their music made and played out to the wider public.

# Chase those crazy baldheads out of town... #

And Bob Marley was a good friend of mine, you know? We played him first.

And come to the dance, hear it coming through the big speaker.

And he would say, "Boy, that's so wicked!" You know what I mean?

And, you know, yeah...

'But the ultimate status symbol was the special - a one-off exclusive

'recorded specifically to big up a particular sound system.'

We'd approach an artist and ask him to sing about our sound system.

A one-away special no-one else can have.

The greater the credibility of the artist, it's the greater

the credibility of the sounds.

You would have special records made by the artist, specifically

for a specific event.

It's only your sound playing it, which enhances your sound again.

But then it goes deeper than that.

You kind of get things called in the chorus.

Janet is a singer.

She would do a song specifically for that sound,

where she would be extolling the virtues of that sound.

'Coming from Jamaica, the original sound systems played one style only.'

The sound system fraternity at that time was all generally around reggae.

We were listening to Coxsone at the age of 14, 15,

and we thought it was great.

One of the foundation sound system pioneers.

The sound system culture...talking about equipments and putting the

sound together and going to Jamaica and getting music,

he was one of them. He was one of the forefathers of this.

Because he had a slogan to say, "We don't play English music.

"We only play strictly Jamaican, strictly pre-release,

"strictly dubwise."

So we are only doing what we learn from Jamaica.

'But second and third-generation West Indians started using what they'd

'learned from their fathers and their uncles

'to build their own sound systems and to play new styles.'

Well, if you don't play dub and if you don't play reggae,

you can still be a sound system. A sound system is the system,

which means the boxes that is the equipment.

We're not all Jamaicans. We're not all from one island.

We're a big, big conglomerate

of the whole of the Afro-Caribbean, Africa... All over the place.

The sound system started in Jamaica,

but it was always going to get a little UK interpretation.

We wanted to bring something different to the party

and became one of the first sound systems to be strictly R&B,

soul, then evolved into hip-hop.

We brought the hip-hop thing to the two turntables and a mixer,

and DJs who had skills to the sound system thing.

It wasn't just about putting a record on and slamming it into the next one.

No, it was thought about, structure.

Reggae sounds used to respec' us - I say that, respec', without the T -

respec' us because of the quality of sound that we had.

People were receptive to it, so it made us realise that, do you know

what, the sound system thing doesn't just have to be about reggae music.

OK now, this is how it work...

'With so many sounds vying for pre-eminence, competition between the

'systems has always been celebrated in the ritual of the sound clash.'

The whole kind of sound system culture is quite competitive.

Yeah, we have respect for each other, but when we string up,

that respect gone aside, because everyone want to come out the best.

You know, maybe two, maybe three,

maybe four sound systems all string up in one hall.

Who gets the most crowd applause, who gets the most crowd...

Who appeals to the crowd more.

You know, who plays the biggest songs on the night.

You've got to move the crowd, because if you don't have the crowd

on your side, you're going to be shown up by the other guy.

Now you're going to prove who is the best sound in the country.

How many speaker boxes I had, how many 18 inches, what my wattage was,

how LOUD I was.

Some of these sound systems would make your gut shake.

There was rivalry. Friendly rivalry. Not in a disrespectful way.

We clashed with Shaka,

we clashed with Fat Man, Coxsone...

We modelled off Coxsone.

There was a lot of great sound in London.

Aba Shanti, Jah Tubby's, Jah Warrior...

They were only great in London.

We was like one of the Midlands sounds that would be holding

up the Midlands against these... the force of London.

I mash it and come back to London and stand up as number one sound.

# Amazing grace

# Shot fly tru face

- # The sound of... # - Boom, boom!

When we're preparing for a clash, I can tell you this - I get nervous.

It can be like a football match.

You play soccer the whole year

and then you reach Wembley for that final.

What I'd say is that every sound you can think of...

- We've killed it. - ..we've killed them.

If I feel nervous, right, when I get hold of you in a dance,

I'm going to kill you.

If we ain't killed them, we're coming for ya! Ha-ha!

You've gotta have a little controversy.

It's gotta be controversy or else...life's not good.

So we've got our sound system, we've got our dubplates, we got our team.

You'd have to build some piece of new amplifier,

build some new speakers...

fly out to Jamaica to cut the latest tune.

So, therefore, I'm going to kill you with this dubplate.

That's our weapon, is the music.

And then the tune starts, and then they may change the lyrics

of a tune, and then it just mentions "Boogie Bunch", and that's it.

It's just chaos.

Wha...?!

One-off records.

When you have a sound clash and you pull out a special,

the crowd goes wild.

And it's almost like the whole place elevates.

You know, you're literally like you've lifted off the ground.

You know, our biggest rivals of the day were the Rampage.

It's ridiculously powerful to hear the artist say,

"That sound is rubbish!" in colourful language.

It's ridiculously powerful,

and people in the dance will go mad because it's made for them.

It's a one-off event. It's historic.

You go for it, using the music to the best of your ability, and at the end,

you're supposed to shake and hug and, "Yeah, man, big up and one love.

"And you know what? We're gonna catch you next time.

"Next time, we're gonna fix you up."

It's what clashing's really supposed to be about. That's the essence.

'History, culture, brotherhood, community,

'sound systems have got the lot.

'And for two days at the end of every summer, the streets

'of west London jump to their basslines.'

Know where you're coming from and you'll know where you're going.

Sound system has still got a bright future.

With the legacy, we can't let it die, we can't let it fail.

We just have to do our best and represent the legacy properly.