Already dubbed Year of the Party, 2012 has it all; Olympics, Pimms and the Queen’s Jubilee. And Brixton is already flying the Union Jack in its own unique style. SW2’s own party King and Reggae specialist, Francis Clarke, headed to a film shoot in Morrish Road last week to find out more.
Is it just me or does the BBC’s Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell increasingly look like a man who’s resigned to his own fate? Faced with the prospect of covering the procession of well-intentioned community events for the Queen’s diamond jubilee, you would have to possess a heart of stone not to feel his pain. Fortunately I had no such problems as I dropped by the White Room Studio on Morrish Road to catch up with Sly and Reggie on the video shoot for their unique tribute to Elizabeth’s jubilee year, Dub Save The Queen.
Straight outta East Dulwich, in their own words Sly and Reggie (or Andrew and Mark to use their government names) aim to “critique and celebrate, support and satirise, the fall and rise of the Middle Classes through the medium of Middle Class Dub”. Think of the Dread-angst of The Clash’s Armagideon Time married with the lyrical concerns of the current affairs magazine Private Eye.
Never ones to miss an opportunity to cast their ironic gaze over current developments, Sly and Reggie launched Dub Save The Queen, a crowd-sourced musical project, as a way of inviting subjects, both loyal and disloyal, to express their thoughts on 60 years of Queen Elizabeth on the throne. Right now, the plan is to release an album of the best tracks later this year. Before that, however, there’s the small matter of shooting the video for Sly and Reggie’s contribution to the project…
Without giving too much away ahead of the video’s official launch, I think it’s fair to say Sly and Reggie can safely rule out ever receiving a Knighthood. In no particular order, their video shoot features:
- A dancing corgi
- The Queen dancing rub-a-dub style to Dancehall Reggae
- Sly playing mock bongos on the Queen’s booty
Dub Save the Queen will be released as a single on 28 May you can listen to it now on Soundcloud. For more information, check out www.dubsavethequeen.com and follow Sly and Reggie’s adventures on Twitter @SlyandReggie.
Francis Clarke is the man behind the Heritage of Ska and Roots of Reggae nights Upstairs at the Ritzy. Follow him on Twitter @FrancisClarke.
