DAVID RODIGAN

I went to school with Dave sorry 'Ram Jam'! He was the year above me at Gosford Hill school and we hung out for a while as well as with several of his closest pals in his year. But my abiding memory was his extraordinary collection of reggae singles and all the Jamaican music he turned us all on to. At school and at the local youth clubs 'Roddi' would play endless dance beat reggae from 'rude boy' Prince Buster to Laurel Aitken, Alton Ellis to Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Jackie Mittoo to Millie Small, the Skatalites to Toots and The Maytals, if not quite the mento of Stanley Beckford then certainly the maestro of Jamaican reggae, Bob Marley the avalanche was massive. It relied on producers with hypnotic names  like Coxsone Dodd, Leslie Kong, Duke Reid, Joe Gibbs and King Tubby.  David and his sister Mary were the highlight of any school dance and to see them dance together was a sheer joy. To visit their parents house in Kidlington invariably a house full of Dave's hilarious sense of often quite outrageous humour. He went on to act and left school to study at a theatre school at The Rose Bruford Theatre School and he featured in quite a few TV dramas for a while but spinning discs and the 'riddims' were never very far away and he went on to support the Reggae Sunsplash festivals and featured, as the programme below notes, as an unerringly loyal superfan of reggae and dancehall and it's progressions through to sound clash system battles which frankly leave me cold now but I am still a fan of early reggae from Jamaica thanks to him. My dearest friends Leo and Leon Lewis and their family (whose dad the legendary boxer Percy came from Trinidad and Tobago so I also grew up listening to The Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener!) my love of mento, calypso and soca. My passion for the musics for the islands is widespread and reaches Guadalupe and pretty much everywhere with a carnival, from South America to New Orleans!

I should also point out I first saw my wife at a party of Rodigan's at his parent's home and wondered if I would ever meet her again. We went out again years later when we went to another house party of Roddy's at his flat in London, so it turns out I have even more to thank him for! 
Still married over 40 years later! 



Check dis!


RIDDIM, COME FORWARD!

Thanks Roddy!

Gimme Some Signal!