NEW RTÉ RADIO 1 SERIES REVIVES REGGAE REBEL STORIES
REBEL MUSIC: REGGAE STORY – THURSDAY 2 OCTOBER, 9.02pm
On Thursday 2 October at 9.02pm RTÉ Radio 1’s Lillian Smith presents Rebel Music: Reggae Story, a five programme series that examines the rise of reggae and tracks its journey into the modern world. Each week the programme looks at a certain stage in reggae’s history and tells the stories of all the main characters involved.
The new series is produced by Marcus Connaughton and is researched by reggae expert Christian McCallum aka The Bellyman. Since growing up in the Sound System Culture of North London The Bellyman has an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre and has been deejaying for the last 25 years. “I have been in love with Jamaican music for as long as I can remember, for me reggae is the most inspiring and uplifting music in the world.” says McCallum.
The series looks at reggae as a form of rebellion against the injustices and repression that Jamaica went through in its past. There are more similarities than meet the eye between Ireland and reggae music as the same is often said about Irish traditional music and the culture that goes with it.
It’s this deep sense of history that presenter Lillian Smith hopes people take away from the series. “I hope people discover that reggae music is more than Bob Marley and mainstream pop reggae like Shaggy. Jamaica is an amazing place which punches above it’s weight in terms of the musical legacy it has given the world. A bit like Ireland really”.
The first programme explores the early Jamaican musical styles which blended together to become what we now know as reggae. It also tells the stories of the people who created this unique sound such as Clement Sir Coxsone Dodd from the infamous Studio One; the first black owned and operated recording studio in Jamaica.
As reggae developed so too does the series, as it celebrates the sounds of the 1970s and the “Golden Age of Reggae” with music from Lee Scratch Perry, King Tubby and Bunny Lee. Following that the series goes on to look at how Bob Marley went from singing harmonies on street corners in Trenchtown to influencing acts all over the globe like UB40 and The Police.
The programme will also be streamed online after it has originally been aired at http://www.rte.ie/radio1/themusiccollection/.
Tune in to RTÉ Radio 1 on Thursday 2 October – Thursday 30 October 2008 at 9.02pm
For further press queries please contact Sarah Martin, RTÉ Radio Press & Publicity Office, (01) 208 2312, sarah.martin@rte.ie or Jack Fox, (01) 208 2452, jack.fox@rte.ie