After watching Reggae Fever – David Rodigan on BBC 4 yesterday it would only be right to share our respect to the master that is David Rodigan. As mentioned, many times in the program he may not have the look but surely has the heart and rhythm of a true lover of reggae music.
He has stated that his passion for Jamaican music was initiated by watching Millie Small perform her 1964 hit “My Boy Lollipop” at the Ready Steady Go TV show as a schoolboy. By the age of 15, Rodigan was DJing at school dances and youth clubs. Leaving school in 1970, he kept his passion for music alive, selling records in Oxford then Putney, before obtaining a job on Radio London in 1978 to alternate with Tony Williams on the Reggae Rockers programme. A year later he was offered a permanent slot at Capital Radio to present Roots Rockers, which ran for 11 years.
In 1990 a change in Capital Radio’s management and music policy led to Rodigan leaving to start a new show for Kiss FM when it relaunched that September as London’s first legal 24-hour dance music station. He hosted the Sunday-night slot from 11pm till midnight until November 2012, when the slot was moved to midnight and he resigned in protest over what he called the “continued marginalisation” of the reggae genre.
Here are just a few additional mentions that highlight acknowledgment of his work:
- 2006 he was added to the Radio Academy hall of fame
- Vocal samples of Rodigan can be found on the dubstep track “Hard” by Breakage
- On the introductory track of Caspa’s 2009 album Everybody’s Talking, Nobody’s Listening
- Intro to Alborosie’s debut album Soul Pirate, and the main vocal of Sukh Knight’s “Ganja”
- Vocal samples on countless other jungle/drum & bass tracks.
- Sound clashed with established sound systems like Kilimanjaro, Stone Love, Barry G and Bass Odyssey
- He is the DJ for RamJam FM in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
- Appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)
- For 2014’s Red Bull Culture Clash, Rodigan joined forces with Chase & Status, Shy FX and MC Rage to form the sound system Rebel Sound. They went on to win the clash, defeating fellow crews Stone Love, Boy Better Know and A$AP Mob.
- In the 2012 New Year Honours for services to broadcasting.
In Rodigan’s words “I am absolutely delighted to be joining BBC Radio 1Xtra where I can share my passion for both new cutting-edge reggae and classic cuts, reflecting a genre of music which continues to play a paramount role in urban bass culture music.”
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David Rodigan Reggae Revellers thanks you for sharing the love and passion that is reggae music – Truth, honour and respect @ReggaeRevellers
