SUMMER 2018 - SOME HIGHLIGHTS

YANKARI (formerly, THE DUBLIN AFROBEAT COLLECTIVE) played an amazing gig at the Sugar Club this summer (above)

• PROFUNDA ESTIMA - saw them live a couple of times and now consider them friends. Lovely people and great musicians. Go and check 'em out!

• YANKARI - at the Sugar Club in May. One of the nicest crowds I've ever encountered. Grooving to RUB A DUB HI FI in the back yard was magic too.

• DAMAI SOUND SYSTEM - played various gigs in Dublin this summer and provided some fine entertainment. Made some new friends and lookin' forward to rollin' at more of these into the future. Bless!

• SISTER NANCY - at the Sugar Club was an amazing night - dancing all night the sounds along with LEGAL SHOT SOUND SYSTEM and some thundering bass via the FIREHOUSE SKANK SOUND SYSTEM. Extremely memorable (despite the clouds!)

• The weather kept everyone happy this year, but the sound of my summer was Dub for chilling and Dancehall/Roots for dancing my ass off. 

• FM radio is almost unlistenable for me, so I use Mixcloud and this has provided me with some great sounds and the odd signpost to artists I'd otherwise not have found out about. Mostly it's been Roots Reggae that I've been switched on to: SISTA SKANKA on OUTTA MI YARD RADIO; SOHO SKANK on SOHO RADIO LONDON; and the very wonderful DEBBIE GOLT/THE OUTERGLOBE over on London's excellent RESONANCE FM (most of their programmes are available on Mixcloud); on RADIOACTIVE INTERNATIONAL (the online station, I work on) DJ BAMBINA has taken my ears on some pleasant journeys and is worth a listen for her brutally honest takes on the mundanity of life and how to deal with shit.

• Finally - and the best thing about my summer - was the new pals that I met along the way. Big up to: Lariman, Ram, Sista Manu, Sean, Brian, Jan, Salim, Amina, Ian, Tommie, Iarla, Adriana. Apologies if I've left anyone out there - so many nice people in Dublin! Summer 2018 may be history now, but there's still other stuff to look forward to. Tell yer mates about this blog and if you - or anyone you know - has any ideas for how to get a collective going, or anything else get in touch!