DUB JAM FORCE are Coventry Punks & Skins since est 1976 ..... Reggae comes in many forms, Ska, bluebeat; Roots, rock ,ragga and then we have DUB.JAM.FORCES'reggae a relentless brutal take on the gene. In your face you ? you bet and they wouldn't have any other way. The band themselves (thats Fred"PUNKDUBBER" Waight -LEAD GUITAR and VOCALS;and Tim "TUBBY" Healey-BASS OF DOOM; George "LEAFS" Goode- DRUMS ) describe their sounds as; "like three Skinheads playing reggae -think Clash/Ruts". The band all have degree in Coventry music pedigree,Fred waight a former and one of the founder members of Coventry finest Skinhead band CRIMINAL CLASS, Tim Healey worked with Neol Davies Box of Blues and George Goode a former member of Horace Panter (ex Specials Ska orchestra. That pedigree becomes very evident on offerings like the Rain Forest song ,taking you back you the Clash's finest days . Its superb in its honesty and masterly in its delivery. Then there's the song THE HUM DIDDLY HUM ,imaging how weird it was for me to hear this song for the first time with its lyric "Pete Chambers has ripped his 2-tone shirt ". At last I can say I have been immortalised in song and mesmerising song at that. This band has something to say, and that all sounds very honest to me ,which is pretty rare in the current climate. These guys have all their musical apprentices a long while ago , What you have here is the real deal. No sell out do it yourself" genuine street muos and Cov City fans .Saying it like it is.pete chambers.....Dub Jam Force Are George / Tim / Fred: KEEP THE DUBFIRE BURNIN
Fred Waight – Dub Jam Force
Biographical Synopsis
Music: 1978 formed The Boss (aka Running with the Boss Sound) with Rob
Morton and Kev Tanner – Craig St Leon (a lifelong friend of Freds at that
point) played drums
1978 – Craig and Fred form Criminal Class with Jez Edwards and Mark
Branski. Gigs everywhere and anywhere – notably The Zodiac, White Swan, Hand
in Heart pubs.
1980 – record demo at Woodbine studios produced by John Rivers. Sent to
Gary Bushell at Sounds (the music paper of choice for the Oi generation)
and he puffs it to No1 in the Sounds Oi chart. Jez and Mark depart –
replaced by Berz Cunningham and John "Septic" Taylor and become leading
lights in the burgeoning Oi scene (now known worldwide as British Street
Punk).
1980's – tours and supports with Oi luminaries Angelic Upstarts (with whom
Criminal Class shared a stinking squat in London) Infra-Riot, The 4
Skins, 999 and Splodginess Abounds
Seminal track "Blood on the Streets" fusing blitzkrieg punk with dub
reggae appears on soon-to-be-banned "Strength Through Oi" compilation and
under the weight of controversy and increasingly dodgy Neo-Nazi support for
Oi bands, Fred decides the audience isn't ready for his notion of
bringing more and more reggae into the mix and quits.
198? – plays guitar with Johnny Wild and the City Centre Shakers
198? – meets Gordon "Cyber Gord" Farmer and forms Cucumber Shades and
records the highly collectible but still available on 'tInternet album
Doomed for Destruction.
1987 – looking to develop the reggae side of things even further, forms
Dub Jam Force (DJF) – utilising the talents of Coventry's answer to Sly
and Robbie, The Krumins Brothers.
1987-1996 – tours, limited releases and free festivals guarantee DJF such
a following as to persuade Ken Brown to offer a twice monthly residency at
General Woolfe – becoming such a hot ticket as to require early queuing to
avoid being turned away. Continuing to plough a Crusty Punk Scene furrow,
DJF release album The Night – sold by the barrowload mainly at gigs by mate
Ronald "Space Head" Henshaw. DJF becomes too "hippified" and loses
its street punk/soccer terrace credentials so Fred calls it all to a halt.
Autumn 2007 – Fred meets up with old drummer mate George Goode (ex Horace
Panter..s Coventry Ska Jazz Orchestra) and quickly gets the fire back in his belly – they
need a bass player and Georgie pulls in ex Dhesibells and Dark Side of the
Wall multi-instrumentalist Tim Healey for tentative first steps at
Backbeat rehearsal studios.
2008 – DJF back with a bang and a new harder edged punky reggae sound bang
in line with the stompy skinhead sound Fred has been searching for.
Hastily recorded rehearsals at Backbeat turn into demos and become instant
classics with 3 of the 9 tracks (recorded in 2 hours – including set- up
and tear-down) in the nationwide Top 10 Unsigned Bands MP3 Download Chart.
Cov website Hobo declare DJF "the next Cov break-out band". The Gnome
Label swoop to sign DJF to their home-grown, stick-it-to-the-man label.
Watch out for gigs near you soon.
Cov Influneces: Gus Chambers,Roddy,Johnny wildboy,Wendy X,Fat Rob,Sound City system, Gaz Mulldoon,Ron Henshaw,The Hanging Judges,Gaz Mordon,Canley Punks, Hot Snacks
Tubilah Dog and least but not last Tim Tubby and George leafs
Other Influences King Tubby
Big Youth
The Ruts
Johnny Thunders
The Bevis Frond
Concrete Sox reunion show with SubHumAns, Romeo Must Die, Fuckshovel, Dirty Love, Disrupters + DJ Vodka. Venue: The Luminaire, 311 Kilburn High Road, LONDON. Email concretesox@ntlworld.com for more info & tickets (£7.50 + booking fee)...
Thanks so much Fred. There's a lot I could say about why I decided to try, why I really wanted to sing for Gus myself and I had mixed feelings as I still wish it was Gus there but one BIG positive thing I've learned from this is that everytime I doubted myself since I decided I'd give it a go, my son Jason said to me, DONT LET THE FEAR OF STRIKING OUT, STOP YOU FROM PLAYING THE GAME. For that, I'm glad I did because it ended up feeling, the best feeling I've had for this whole year since, but nothing will ever make up for Gus not being there. See ya Friday....COV PUNX RULE! We won't forget Gus will we Wendy xxx
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