African Head Charge

A TRIP TO BOLGATANGA

African Head Charge is a project that was there right at the start of the On-U Sound label. It began as an experiment “In A Hole In The Ground”, in basement studios on London’s Berry Street, beneath Chinatown. Something that took shape during late, all night sessions, which took advantage of cheap down, or “dead”, studio time. The hours that no-one else wanted. Working, initially, with “rejected” rhythms, cast-offs from other ON-U concerns, two friends were at the core of the creativity - Adrian Sherwood and Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah.

Adrian was a mover and shaker, a budding music maker, who’d been into reggae since he was a kid. Someone who went from DJing in the school science lab at lunchtime, to spinning with Joe Farquharson at High Wycombe’s Newlands Club. Spending his Saturdays scouring the capital for import 45s, from Record Corner, in Bedford Hill, to Caesar’s in Shepherd’s Bush Market, Adrian would end up at Pama in Harlesden, where he eventually began working, aged only 15. There he helped with distribution from the associated Soundville Records shop. Eventually running the store, then starting his own company, with Joe, J&A, and label Carib Gems, which became Hitrun, and finally On-U Sound. In the process licensing early releases from Dillinger, Prince Far I,  Michael Rose, Trinity, and The Twinkle Brothers. Moving into production in 1977, “just for fun”. Recording Creation Rebel’s Dub From Creation in two days, with a group of friends. None of them out of their teens. Gigs with the Prince Far I fronted Creation Rebel then brought Adrian into contact with the emerging punk scene. The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Slits, and Generation X, would all be in the audience. This led to him sharing a squat with Ari Up, and recruiting an ever more eclectic ensemble of singers and players. By his own admission, Adrian wound up spending so much time in studios that he was practically sleeping in them. All the time shaping, sculpting, his own sound, and the label’s unique identity. A cultural dubwise collision. Prompting respected DJ David Rodigan to ask, “What on Earth are you doing to reggae?”