Virgin Atlantic Music Festival 2008 – Saturday November 8th 2008
The Dub Pistols at Surfer’s Café in Oistins Christ Church Barbados.
The sixth night on tour for The Virgin Atlantic Music Festival and the final night of the entire 10-day event was held at Surfer’s Cafe, Oistins, Christ Church where The Dub Pistols gave an intimate and outstanding performance.
In all the publicity leading up to The Virgin Atlantic Music Festival the final night had been kept top secret and only the day before was the event published. The headline on all the radio, TV and newspapers was ‘The cat is out of the bag!’ The Dub Pistols were supposed to perform outside Surfer’s Café in Oistins Bay on a catamaran, with the sound system inside Surfer’s Café.
Surfer’s Café is wonderful venue with the entire back wall knocked out to give magnificent views of Oistins Bay, so this would have been a wonderful finale to the entire event. However, being the rainy season inclement weather meant that the Catamaran was unable to get into the bay and stay in one place for them to perform.
But festival goers were not disappointed as The Dub Pistols just played indoors instead. This was a rare and unique opportunity to see this UK ska band in action.
The Dub Pistols performed at Glastonbury 2008 in the UK and spend the majority of their working life in the studio producing their albums and singles, so it is a treat for them and the audience when this high energy band hit the stage, especially in a small setting like Surfer’s Café.
Barry Ashworth and Jason O’Bryan formed the Dub Pistols over ten years ago, when they were signed to Concrete Records in the UK and released ‘Six Million Ways to Live’ long player. Their genre of music is very unique as they add rock and roll to general dance music. They take samples if hip hop, dub, techno, ska and punk and create their own futuristic sound, which exceeds the listener’s expectations.
For the Virgin Atlantic Music Festival in Barbados for 2008 the band comprised of Jason O’Bryan, who is the co-founder of the band, co-producer on all of their albums and bass guitarist. Barry Ashworth, who is the co-founder of the band, co-producer on all of their albums and lead singer.
Rodney P, who is the UK godfather of Hip Hop was in to perform guest vocals up front with Barry. Jean Claude King aka Johnny Rockstar was on guitar. John Parkyn was on turntables. The horns section comprised of Tim Hutton and Tom Mossop aka Tom Bone. And Billy Borez on live sound.
They provided an excellent climax to a wonderful 10 days of live bands and great vibes in Barbados for The Virgin Atlantic Music Festival 2008.
