For the origins of these mixes, these Happy Birthday homages, really you’d have to check the first A Dub For Auntie Audrey article. At the end of 2019, prompted by finding a 12 featuring the vocals of an old school mate, I was already rifling through my reggae and dub “collection”, and then Andrew Weatherall suddenly passed. In a process of mourning, I guess – but I didn’t know Mr. Weatherall at all – I began to trawl through published play-lists and radio shows, retracing his steps, and the reggae seemed a good place to start. 

Andrew had been a figurehead for an exciting, and extremely formative, time in my life. When he died, it was kind of like losing a friend, because we’d followed him around so slavishly for so long, for a while hanging on his every word, and Hoovering up every record he recommended. Fanatically searching for even sides only fleetingly mentioned, when interviewed on the fly. Everyone, but everyone, wanted what Weatherall had in his box. It also felt like the end of something. I cried that morning as I drove the kids to school. Maybe it was the shock. You know when someone of your own age passes, you can sometimes wonder about your own mortality, well, it wasn’t that. It was more, for me, that the door on the acid house / Balearic adventure had finally shut. It was part of a process of letting go. With Andrew gone, to be honest, I just didn’t care quite so much. 

Of course, there have been other factors involved, not least COVID-19 and the pandemic, and later in 2020 we also lost Jose Padilla. I recorded tons of tributes to both of these hugely influential DJs. Fifteen hours of Weatherall productions and remixes were broadcast week after week on my Saturday night radio show. I made two six-hour “Cafe del Mar” mixes in honour of Jose. As a result during lockdown I ended up with records absolutely everywhere, and was left looking like a hoarder who’d gone off the deep end, and wondering if, after thirty odd years of playing music in public, was there anything that I`d actually discovered myself? Had anything I’d ever spun been original, or merely a reflection of my fanboy obsessiveness? Was I just a super niche historian / librarian?

I`m not going to pretend that I had all of the records included in these dub sessions just sitting on my shelves. There are a few exceptions, though. All the On-U Sound gear I had to hand, as Adrian Sherwood is another musical hero of mine. Jah Wobble and Dennis Bovell as well. So Singers & Players, New Age Steppers, Creation Rebel, Dub Syndicate, and African Head Charge, Mr. Wobble with Haile Unlikely, and Dennis` radial reworks of Golden Teacher were in my possession. As were Sir Horatio AKA ACR. 

I was also sort of collecting the WAU Mr. Modo stuff, when I could find copies at a reasonable price. 

I had a fair few King Tubby comps, bought “blind” from Daddy Kool in the early `90s – which contained a love song by Roman Stewart, and a couple of tunes that Andrew sampled, or took inspiration from. 

Dr Alimantado’s Lee Perry-produced Best Dressed Chicken In Town was famously played on the radio by John Lydon, back when he was “Rotten”, during punk’s heyday, and every home should have one. The same goes for Perry’s masterpiece, The Heart Of The Congos, and the Carl Craig edits of Congo Man.

I had the Big Youth covers of Harold Melvin and Marvin Gaye, because they are well “Balearic”. 

Everything else was cherry-picked from a playlist, many of them painstakingly put together by Martin Brannigan, and the dedicated folks of The Flightpath Estate Facebook group. 

Some things I bought when they were first broadcast – those from the Kiss 100 “Giving It Up” radio shows. “Wants” written, scribbled, down as I sat poised on the pause button, doing away with the ads and the news, while swigging from a bottle of cheap wine. This was back in 1993, without the aid of the internet, so it was stuff that was then new, and relatively easy to find: Mikey Mystic, Nomadix, and releases by The Rootsman, Iration Steppers, and Black Star Liner, that blended righteous roots with rave’s raw energy. 

But there are plenty of others purposefully purchased to complete these mixes: Black Roots, Bush Chemists, and Johnny Clarke… 

Maybe 25% of the tracks come from archived Rotters Golf Club selections. Sides by Sly & Robbie, Dub Dynasty, and mucho mucho Mad Professor. 

The bulk of the others were cribbed from Andrew’s NTS Musics Not For Everyone shows, mainly a mixture of real rarities – like Winston Edwards’ Master Of Dub and Joe Gibbs’ Bad Verdict. 

Many are favourites mentioned in magazine interviews and charts. Some are from BBC 6Mixes – The Skatalites, Count Sticky, Weatherall and Terry Farley reminiscing about Le Beat Route and Shoom, while spinning Mikey Dread’s Operators Choice, and Big Youth’s Some Like It Dread.* 

The Flightpath crew shared an incredible dub set from Osaka’s Bayside Jenny Club. Several of the tracks still go un-ID’d, but Jah Warrior’s Herbsman Anthem is in there. 

There are 8 of these mixes now. Each 2 hours long. The original aim was to hit 7, since 7 is the luckiest number in Asia (while 4 is its reverse). I’m a trained scientist, but the OCD means that I have to force myself to buck superstition. 10 would be perfect, 20 hours, but I’m not sure I’ve got the info / knowledge, or the finances, to stretch the endeavour that far. Though, every time a new Weatherall set gets uncovered it usually reveals something rootikal, so you never know… Didn’t someone suggest hip hop for next year? Happy Birthday Andrew, and thank you. 

DOWNLOAD PARTS 6, 7, 8

DOWNLOAD PARTS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

If you do download, please consider making a donation to Crisis UK, via the links set up by Andrew’s partner, Lizzie Walker, and his brother, Ian: 

*This Big Youth LP was the first reggae album that Andrew ever bought. 

A big “Thank you!” to Derek McCusker for the Dub Dynasty. 

TRACKLISTS 

Part 6

Teamworks – No Love

Mikey Mystic – South Africa

Jimmy Riley – Living In Fear

Bob Marley – War

Zara McFarlane – East Of The River Nile (Alt Dub)

Mad Professor – Go Deh Nelson Go Deh

Hydroponics (Culture Freeman) – So Jah Dub

Electric Dread – Haile Unlikely

Teamworks – Rockfort Rock

Ras Midas – Rain & Fire

Singers & Players – Quante Jubila

Twinkle Brothers – Praises To The King

Musical Youth – Generals

Bush Chemists – Some People

New Age Steppers – Private Armies Dub

Golden Teacher – Instigator (Dennis Bovell Dub)

Dub Dynasty – We Got Dub

Dub Syndicate – No Alternative 

Coreysan – Hijacked

Gregory Isaacs – Storm / Leggo Dub

Part 7

Roman Stewart – You Won`t See Me

Zulu Warriors – Warrior Style

King Tubby – Easy Dub

Tommy McCook – Living Style

Joe Gibbs – Bad Verdict

Mad Professor – Dub Service

Mixman – African Row Boat

Sly & Robbie – A Dub Tribulation

Dennis Bovell – Raindrops

Lee Perry – Lion Share Dub

Winston Edwards – Master Of Dub

Johnny Clarke – When I Fall In Love

Black Roots – Jah Jah Dub

Dub Dynasty – River Jordan

Sly & Robbie – African Dub Child

Dub Syndicate – Patient Man

Israelites – Starlight

Jah Warrior – Herbsman Anthem

Dillinger – Marijuana In My Brain

Sir Horatio – Soma Dub

Creation Rebel – African Space

Mad Professor – Open Troppen

Mad Professor – Rampage In LA

The Rootsman – Koyaanisqatsi

Nomadix – Juggling Dub

Simeons – Mark At The Controls

Simeons – Cool Stepping

Scientist – Dub Attraction

Mad Professor – Ghetto Pace

Part 8

Two Friends – This Dub Will Self Destruct In 3`53

African Head Charge – Primal One Drop

Pablo Gad – Trafalgar Square

Mikey Dread – Operators Choice

Bongo Herman – Africa Drums

Bongo Herman – African Breakfast

Zulu Warriors – Chalawa Dub

Dr Alimantado – Best Dressed Chicken In Town

King Tubby – We Rule

Winston Edwards – Shake Down Buckingham Palace

Iration Steppers – C.T.U.F.B.

Pama International – Justified Dub (Mad Professor Mix)

Dadawah – Burning Drums

Audio Active – Wanna Na Dub

Congos – Congo Man (Carl Craig Edit)

Tommy McCook – Fighting Dub

King Tubby – Rude Boy Dub

Iration Steppers – Scud Missile

Black Star Liner – Killer Connection

Heaven Singers – Rasta Dreadlocks

I Roy – Crisis Time

Dub Specialist – High Fashion Dub

Count Sticky & The Upsetters – Rockfort Psychedelia 

Big Youth – Some Like It Dread

Manasseh Meets The Equalizer – Surface Tension Dub

King Tubby – No Idiot Dub

Skatalites – African Dub

Pablo Gad – Make A Natty Dread Cry

Detonators – Lift Off

Yabby You – Jah Vengeance 

Johnny Lover – Who You Gonna Run To

Big Youth – Wake Up Everybody