Dreadzone

A lot of people will remember Dreadzone from being one of John Peel's favourites back in the mid-'90s as well as their big festival shows from the same period. With latest album 'Eye on the Horizon' touted as a return to strength they seem to have kept their crowd-pleasing power - devoted fans making up a large proportion of the revellers at La Scala this evening.

Dreadzone's mostly-slick mixture of reggae, ska, electronic dance and rock is distinctly British, with laptop-produced samples of Vaughan Williams, ‘The Long Good Friday’ soundtrack and song titles such as ‘A Canterbury Tale’. Their lyrics often have a rootsy social conscience, speaking out on subjects like gang culture, but this gig was clearly all about having a good time.

Their roots in dub/fusion are deep – drummer Greg Roberts and bassist Leo Williams were once bandmates with Don Letts in B.A.D. and mighty Studio One vocalist Earl Sixteen still graces their line-up. Despite this, their live sound puts more emphasis on electronic dance than on the one-drop for me, and some of the newer tracks are guitar-driven rockers, but the crowd seemed to love it all just the same and the wall-shuddering bass got everyone bouncing along.

Their new tracks went down well, but their mid-'90s material still provides the anthems – ‘Little Britain’ remains a massive favourite – even dusting off the supercharged sea-shanty ‘Captain Dread’ got a huge response, the crowd yelling “Ahoy!” back at the old dub pirates while brash skinhead MC Spree brandished his crutch.