Reggae champion David Rodigan set to play Worthing

As spokeswoman Maria Philippou says: “For over 40 years David Rodigan has been the top dog in the ganja-scented, bass heavy-atmosphere of Britain’s reggae dance-halls. The key to his success has been an unsinkable passion for reggae music, which first took a hold of him as a schoolboy when he heard ska music in the early 60s. He developed an obsession with the music of Jamaica that generated an encyclopaedic knowledge of the island’s every artist, every song and every rhythm track.

“His earliest experience of dee jaying was during lunch breaks once a week in the gym at Gosford Hill School in Kidlington, Oxford. On leaving school he landed a place at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in 1971 where he spent three years studying to become an actor.

“He worked extensively in repertory theatre and appeared in a number of television productions such as Doctor Who (BBC) and Shackleton (BBC); he also performed his one-man show Zima Junction at literature festivals and theatres in the 1970s, a dramatisation of the poem by the Russian writer Yevtushenko.

“Rodigan began his reggae broadcasting career in 1978 on BBC Radio London. He moved to Capital Radio in 1979 and remained there for 11 years broadcasting his legendary Roots Rockers show every Saturday night. His credibility was ensured when he began clashing with Jamaica’s champion DJ, Barry G on JBC Radio in Jamaica. He then went on to clash with all the top Jamaican sound systems in the West Indies, the USA and England.

“In 1984 he joined BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Corp) where broadcast his weekly reggae show for 25 years until 2009.

“In 1990 he joined the newly legalised Kiss 100 where he presented a variety of daytime shows for ten years, followed by a decade in his evening specialist slot.

“When his show was pushed back to the small hours in a programming reshuffle, David took a bold stance, protesting against the marginalisation of reggae music before leaving the station in a dramatic media frenzy in 2012. A day later the BBC came calling and signed David. For the last three years he has remarkably straddled two different worlds, broadcasting every Sunday evening on BBC 1Xtra to a largely youthful audience whilst hosting his Summer Series on BBC Radio 2 on Tuesdays.

“In 2006 he was inducted into the Sony Radio Academy Hall Of Fame. He also won the Sony Radio Academy Gold Award for Best Specialist Music Programme in 2009 for his Sunday night Kiss Show Rodigan’s Reggae and a Silver Award in 2014 for his Radio 2 Summer Series.

“He plays his unique collection of customised dub plates and classic recordings extensively across the globe from New York to Tokyo, Berlin to Kingston Jamaica to loyal reggae fans of all ages.

“2017 saw the release of David’s critically and commercially acclaimed autobiography Rodigan My Life In Reggae which became a number-one Amazon Best Seller and was nominated for Rough Trade Book Of The Year.

“2018 saw David celebrate his 40th anniversary in the music business, a remarkable achievement marked by a global world tour and a unique project involving the Outlook Orchestra.”

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