REVIEW: Dreadzone celebrate chart success in Brighton

Dreadzone, Concorde 2, Brighton, February 24
DreadzoneDreadzone
Dreadzone

The omen for this gig was very good indeed as literally one hour before the doors opened Dreadzone posted on their Facebook page.

“The news is out,” the band announced. “Dread Times has entered the UK Top 40 Official Album Charts at Number 39. Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in making this happen and to everyone who has supported us and bought a copy of the album. This is our first Top 40 album in over 20 years!”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

So it’s fair to say that the six multicultural guys (vocalists MC Spee and Earl 16, Leo Williams on bass, Chris Compton on guitar, Greg Dread on drums and Bazil on samples and technology) were well up for it and the Concorde 2 crowd were in for a real treat.

Dreadzone spread their sound across several genres during their impressive 24-year history and there was a pleasant mix of dub, reggae, ska, electronic rock and trip hop on offer in Brighton.

The band opened with the first track called ‘Rootsman’, which was culled from their brand new ‘Dread Times’ album, recorded at one-time Clash and Big Audio Dynamite member Mick Jones’ Bunker Studio.

This was swiftly followed by ‘Return Of The Dread’, the opening track from their decent ‘Sound’ album from 2001. In fact they also played ‘Digital Mastermind’ and surprising best track of the night ‘Different Planets’ from the same said album.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They also performed the four singles – ‘Life, Love And Unity’, ‘Zion Youth’, the famous ‘Little Britain’ and the anthemic ‘Captain Dread’ – from their previous Top 40 album from 22 years ago, Second Light.

Two bouncy numbers from Dread Times, namely ‘Mountain’ (in my opinion the best track on the album) and ‘16 Hole’, were also expertly performed to the excited, jumping crowd.

‘Iron Shirt’,’Dancehall Priority’, and ‘I Know’ (from 2005’s Once Upon A Time platter) were also played, while ‘Rise Up’ and ‘Fire In The Dark’ got an outing from their 2013 Escapades album.

So there you have it. After a tight set of a mere 90 minutes and 15 tracks they were gone.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The sweat-soaked crowd mainly headed for the merch stand to purchase some keepsakes of such an extraordinary evening.

It’s hats off yet again to the Concorde 2 for putting on such an excellent event.

For more information on the band visit www.dreadzone.com.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page

3 Follow us on Twitter

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

Be part of it.