Dub Mission and Future Primitive Sound present:
THE BLOOD & FIRE SOUNDSYSTEM TOUR
featuring from Jamaica, RANKING JOE on the mic
selector/MC GENERAL LEE (High Power Records)
and selector DOM (Blood & Fire)
plus Echodelic Sound System  (Dub Club)
featuring djs Tom Chasteen, Boss Harmony, Dungeonmaster, Roy Corduroy
and mcs : Jah Faith, Chicho Don and special guests
THUR MARCH 10, 2005
@ Temple Bar – 026 Wilshire Boulevard – Santa Monica, California
21 & over Р$10 Р310 393 6611 -more info at www.templebarlive.com

From its first appearance at London’s Essential Music Festival in 1997 the BLOOD & FIRE SOUND SYSTEM (B&F) has played to well over 100,000 people with shows in France, UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, Russia, and Canada. Their appearances in the US have been woefully few. DUB MISSION and FUTURE PRIMITIVE SOUND are proud to present their return to the States after four long years.
 

The main objective of the sound is to bring something of the original Jamaican dancehall vibes of the 1970’s and early 80’s to a wider audience. Choosing from vintage 20-years-old classics to modern gems, selectors Dom Sotgiu and General Lee keep the vibes up to date with the aid of dub mixology while master vocalist/rapper Ranking Joe performs live on the mic over their riddim tracks, and Lee joins in. Before B&F started touring outside the UK, most people in Europe and North America had never seen or heard the authentic style of Jamaican sound system – featuring deejays and singers performing live over dubplates, but when they see the B&F show they make the connection!¬† Developed in 1993, by long-time reggae authority Steve Barrow and the management company of Simply Red (including singer Mick Hucknall) B&F has set the standard in the field of reggae music for the last ten years, supplying the world with carefully-selected gems, in comprehensive, lovingly-prepared reissues. The label has enjoyed great artistic and commercial success with its releases on the Ranking Joe, The Congos, Horace Andy, Yabby You, Big Youth and King Tubby, among others. Crucially, it has also led the way in its business dealings. Almost for the first time, the rights of both producers and artists were recognised and respected and the company pays royalties to over 80 individuals, based on sales from the 45 full-price albums thus far released.
 

Born Joseph Jackson in Kingston, Jamaica, Ranking Joe got his start on record with the founding father of Jamaican music–the late producer Seymour “Sir Coxsone” Dodd (Studio 1), cutting “Gun Court” in 1975 as Little Joe. He recorded for a variety of producers including Bunny Lee, Watty Burnett, Prince Tony Robinson, and former African Brother Derrick Howard. By 1976 he was deejaying on the legendary sound system of Daddy U-Roy and building up a formidable reputation as a live deejay/chanter. He began recording hits for Sonia Pottinger (“Shine Eye Gal” 1978) and was the first deejay to record for Sly & Robbie’s Taxi label when he versioned Gregory Isaacs’ hit “Soon Forward” (“Stop Your Coming & Come” in 1978).¬† He recorded for Joe Gibbs (“Leave Fi Mi Girl Arleen”), Jo Jo Hookim’s Channel One [“Weakheart Fade Away”] and Dennis Brown (the excellent “Around The World” album reissued by Blood & Fire) and moved to another sound system, the newly reconstructed Ray Symbolic Hi-Fi with Jah Screw as selector. They took away the championship in 1980. Along with Jah Screw, he worked on the last dub album to be mixed by King Tubby at his old studio, “Dangerous Dub.” Since the ‚Äò80s, Joe has maintained a base in Bronx, New York, producing records for his label with scores of top reggae artists such as Frankie Paul, Sugar Minott, Dennis Brown, Glen Washington, Glen Brown, The Meditations and Papa San, and on tracks for New York label Massive B (Bobby Konders). He also recorded with NY’s Easy Star crew, (appearing on their big-selling “Dub Side Of The Moon”) and for Ryan Moore’s Twilight Circus Dub Sound System.¬† Joe has been one of the most influential pupils of the great U-Roy, introducing the so-called ‘fast style’ to rapturous dancehall audiences.¬† His fast chat on the mic has been copied by younger artists many times, people like Heavy D, Papa San, Beenie Man and the late Pan Head being the most free to big up Joe as their teacher!¬† He is simply one of the best deejays in the world.

Born Gary Douglas in Kingston, Jamaica in 1962, MC/Selector/Producer General Lee started his musical career at the age of eight by DJing acapella style over jukebox records. His grandfather rented jukeboxes to bars, and Lee would travel with his grandfather and entertain customers by signing over dub versions. By the age of 14, he had his first live experience with Sir Barry’s Sound System in Clarendon, Ja. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Kingston, where he met Bob Marley, Big Youth, Gregory Isaacs and many others. His first recording, “Slam Bam,” came in 1977 on Jamaica Sound under the moniker of Ranking Tony, which he later changed to General Lee on the advice of Al Campbell. For the next few years, he operated and MCd for Jack Scorpio’s Sound System and others in Jamaica and the UK.  He started his own label High Power Records in 1983, recording a tribute to General Echo called “Echo Debt.” Lee has recorded many bright stars of the roots and dancehall scene since, including Frankie Paul, Al Campbell, Trinity, Gregory Isaacs, Michael Rose, Glen Washington, Sizzla, Buju Banton, Everton Blender, TOK, JC Lodge. His biggest successes are ”Old Time People Say”  by Al Campbell, and the platinum-selling “Street Respect” by Sean Paul (on Tabla Rhythm, recorded with Sly & Robbie).

Dom (born Dom Sotgiu) began DJing in 1987. By 1997 he had taken a job at the B&F label and embarked on a live sound system tour with original Jamaican deejays and Steve Barrow as selector. Playing at major international festivals, parties and clubs, B&F also started a weekly reggae night in Manchester often attracting sell-out crowds and special guests including Brinsley Forde, Manasseh, Spikey Tee, Mr. Scruff, Mikey Don and loads of others. The sound system now has a monthly night at Cargo in London where they play to a packed house, they have Horace Andy as guest singer regularly and use Ranking Joe and U Brown as resident DJ’s (MC’s) along with Country Culture and Spikey Tee. Guest DJs from Jamaica often just turn up and sing or chat.