OXFORD: Skylarkin @ The Cellar

Friday 1st August, 2014

10:00pm

Event information

After 15 years of making you dance, Skylarkin' Soundsystem is finally giving you something to take home with you - the first ever release on Skylarkin' Recordings - three and a half minutes of reggae magic on heavyweight seven inch vinyl - courtesy of Mighty Leap.

One of the best-loved bands ever to have played my night, I first discovered the then teenage Dave Pickavance and Greg MightyLeap performing with Bermudian ex-pat Zion Wilson as Zion And The White Boys back in 2009, and was completely blown away (despite the dodgy name!).

Here was one of the best voices I'd ever heard, backed by a young band fizzing with positive energy, who intrinsically understood reggae. You got the sense that they couldn't wait to get onstage and share their love of music with people every night. The first time I booked them, after soundchecking they went out into the street with flyers and busked. Everywhere they went, people fell in love with them. They played 2010 Cowley Road Carnival and everyone wanted to know who they were. They supported Dawn Penn & The Upsetters at The Cellar and were so good we had to get them on again after Dawn had finished playing.

Wrongtom likened their sound to the great Dennis Bovell's seminal 1970s group Matumbi, and it's not a bad comparison. The band are rightly considered among the best of their kind playing reggae in the UK today.

After a brief hiatus and line-up reshuffle, Zion & co returned in 2013 as Mighty Leap. A tour-support with The Wailers quickly followed, and a cover version debuted on those dates garnered a lot of attention when it surfaced on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fypfg_LUyRk

With the band holed-up in the studio recording an albums-worth of original songs and summer on the way, the prospect of releasing their version of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere was too tantalizing for me to resist. So what if I've never put out a record before? Between us we'll figure it out. The aforementioned Wrongtom has given us a killer, speakerbox-bending dub version for the b-side, and The Legendary DJ Derek is stepping out of retirement for one night only to make sure that the launch party goes off with a bang. All we need is you.

Frewin Court
Oxford
OX1 3HZ

www.skylarkinsoundsystem.co.uk

(01865) 244761