David with his Sony Gold Award and Bob Shennan, head of BBC Radio 2

Hope to see you all at the parties!

It was great fun and although it was a tough fight I felt proud to have won for the UK in the final one- for- one showdown, against Bass Odyssey, and to bring the World Clash Trophy back to the England. Click the link to see the David and the trophy!

Watch out for a series of shows that I am organising entitled Ram Jam Presents , with some very special guest stars; line ups and locations will be announced soon.

Spring is in the air and the blossoms are ready to burst through here in the streets and parks of London, and with them come some exciting new reggae sounds from Jamaica and other less likely reggae locations, such as Oslo, Norway where Nico D has recorded his debut album ‘Coming In From The Cold’. Also from Cardiff, Wales we have the re-issued debut album by Adam ’Parson aka Captain Accident, ‘Pick Up The Microphone’

Busy Signal’s ‘Reggae Music Again’ ( due in April) is one of the most refreshingly original reggae albums I have heard in some time. Fans of  I-Octane, one of the relatively new Jamaican roots chanters, will love his debut set on VP entitled  ‘Crying To The Nation’ which contains some of his hit singles plus brand new songs and a very infectious track entitled ‘Rules Of Life’.

Junior Gong’s new single ‘Affairs of The Heart’ is a real grower and has great cross-over potential. Congratulations to Glasgow’s Yasmin on her haunting ‘Light Up The World’ single mixed by the awesome Shy FX and featuring Ms. Dynamite.

Also look out for Alborosie and Shang Records exclusive re-make of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Half Time’ (originally voiced in 2002 for Salem Remi) all set to a serious one drop reggae beat.

Please go to the DATES post on the home page of this web site for all my show locations over the next 3 months and the CHART post for the latest hot hits.

If you are in New York for Easter Saturday 7^th April then try and come to World Clash at Club Amazura in Queens. I am up against Tony Matterhorn, Fire Linx, Bass Odyssey, Earth Ruler, Poison Dart and Black Kat. Should be a fun night, although it will be “gloves off” down at the wire !

David collected his MBE this week, and here is the proof! To go along with the collection, Billboard.biz were kind enough to post a very nice article about the honour. Click here to check it out!

It was a tremendous honour and indeed a surprise for me to receive an MBE (Member Of The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire) from The Queen in her New Year’s Honours List, for ‘services to broadcasting’ . I was proud, not just for myself, but for the music of Jamaica which I have been associated with since I began working with the BBC back in 1978. Jamaica is (at time of writing) still a part of The Commonwealth and its music has been an integral part of British pop music culture for over 40 years. The investiture ceremony will take place at Buckingham Palace on 14th February.

British honour for disc jockey Rodigan – Jamaica Observer
British selector gets award from queen – Jamaica Star

Salute!!

Click here to visit the shop and get more info

We’ve also got a fresh batch of the original ‘Give Me Some Signal’ White T-shirts (As modelled by Steel city’s finest Toddla T below), plus ltd edition screen prints also available from the store. Click here to get your signal on!

Had big fun when Ms. Dynamite came on my Kiss Radio show to play her all time top reggae tunes…what a lady. Congratulations to Shaggy for his well deserved Grammy nomination.

Dub fans do check out the ‘Java Java’ the dub album and ‘This Is Augustus Pablo’ album which have now been released for the first time on cd. Both albums are essential items in any serious reggae collection, and they sound even better almost 40 years later!

As Jamaican music producers continue the slide to making Carb-Pop Fusion (as though they all want to be on MTV) it becomes harder for us to find real reggae emulating from the island, but we live in hope.

Click here to watch part 1 of Irish and Chin’s featured interview with David Rodigan on his career in sound system clashing. Filmed in New York in November 2011.