The Clash \/ Mikey Dread – <\/strong>Bankrobber \/ Rockers Galore<\/a><\/p>\nFrom the Jamaican Observer:<\/strong><\/p>\nRadio disc jock Mikey Dread is dead. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>He succumbed to a brain tumour late yesterday afternoon at his family home in Connecticut, USA at the age of 54.<\/strong> <\/span>Born Michael Campbell in Port Antonio, Jamaica, he distinguished himself as an extraordinary studio engineer and presenter at the now defunct Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) where he came to prominence in the 1970s as “The Dread-at-the-Control Tower”, the name of the late night show he presented at a time when reggae music was scoffed at by many.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>One of reggae’s greatest innovators and original radio engineers\/technicians, the past student of Titchfield High School, in 2006 celebrated the 30th anniversary of the night programme which he started at the JBC, and revolutionised the after midnight shift making it into the most popular slot on radio, by playing strictly dub music. This innovation is seen by many musicologists as the antecedence of dancehall as we now know it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Upon leaving the JBC, Mikey Dread ventured into recording and scored with a number of releases such as Weatherman Skanking in combination with Ray I, Barber Saloon, Love the Dread, as well as albums such as Dread at the Control, Evolutionary Rockers and World War III. Over time he attracted the attention of British punk rockers, The Clash, who invited him to produce some of their music, the most famous of which is their single Bankrobber, and contributed to several songs on their 1980 album, Sandinista. Mikey Dread also toured with The Clash across Britain, wider Europe and the US.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>He also worked closely with producer Trevor Elliot to launch musical career of singer Edi Fitzroy, who was then an accountant at the JBC. As the news of his passing surfaced yesterday, the <\/span>Sunday Observer got comments from a number of persons in the media and the music fraternity, all of whom hailed Mikey Dread as a significant contributor to the development of Jamaican music. “His (Mikey Dread’s) work, is not only national or regional, but also international,” former JBC’s journalist Leslie Miles noted. “It spanned the world scene and made Mikey a pioneer broadcaster for playing dub music, and also redefined aspects of radio, especially night time radio” Miles, who is now head of news at Bess FM, also spoke of the struggle Mikey Dread faced at the conservative JBC. Music consultant Colin Leslie pointed out that the consequence of the “fight” he received from the management was putting him on at night, but that backfired.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>“Remember he is a Portlander, so I always appreciated the fact that we shared the same alma mater (Titchfield High School), that is something I’ve always cherished and I hold him in high esteem. Although he was ahead of my era, he was somebody who laid an awesome foundation and was very unique and highly respected,” was how Richard “Richie B” Burgess of Hot 102, remembered Mikey Dread.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>“We were at JBC together, and in those days when he started at the JBC dreads weren’t popular on the air. The powers that be in management really gave him a fight,” Ali McNab told the Sunday Observer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>“Michael Campbell, is someone who revolutionised radio in Jamaica when there was still an anti-Jamaican sentiment regarding music and culture. In terms of the emerging dancehall, it was Mikey Dread who popularised it on radio. Although it was late night, he still managed to popularise dancehall music and bring it to the masses,” was the perspective of Dennis Howard who also worked on JBC Radio, in the post-Mikey Dread era.<\/span>And Irie FM’s disc jockey, GT Taylor hailed the late Mikey Dread as a role model. “Reggae music in Jamaica, owes a lot that that brother. He was one man who stood up for reggae in the early ’70s, bringing the music to the forefront. He is one of my inspirations.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Veteran singer Freddie McGregor attested to the fact that “Mikey Dread was one of the persons fighting the struggle for reggae music. Mikey and I did a lot of shows together over the years. A wonderful brethren”.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0 On Saturday night we walked into a visibly distraught Brigitte Anderson at Symphony Under The Stars. She was mourning the passing of her friend, Mikey Dread, who had made his transition earlier that day. “He was really such a wonderful person. And he has a baby who’s just a couple months old. You should really do something extensive on him” Brigitte rambled on in her grief.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Interestingly, it was only earlier in the week that Observer had carried an article about Mikey Dread and how ‘hopeful’ he was about beating his illness, so it came as a shock, just as we were wrapping up the Entertainment section on Saturday to hear that he had died. The comforting thing, however, is that his legacy is so extensive and so universal, that, in a sense, Mikey Dread will forever be at the control. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>A versatile and multi-faced person, the Dread clearly was a perfectionist and this is evident by his belief in formal training in his chosen field. In 1980, he attended the National Broadcasting School in London where he perfected his media production \/ radio broadcasting skills, graduating with special commendations; in 1984, he studied studio\/recording techniques at Polytechnic of North London; in 1996, he attended the Art Institute of Ft Lauderdale as a full -time student majoring in music \/ video production, graduating with honours; in 2000, he graduated with honours from Lynn University, Boca Raton \/ Florida with a magna cum laude Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Communications. In that same year, he released World Tour, his first album in five years.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Between the years 1976 when he started working at JBC and 2007 when he released his final album, Life is a Stage, Mikey Dread accomplished so much, it was as if he was ensuring that his half a century – plus on this earth would be memorable . and it was. Broadcaster, singer, songwriter and producer, he toured Europe and Scandinavia as support artiste for UB40 and produced 10 dub tracks for them; he made several appearances and performances on BBC and Sky TV Music Box, London and Bristol, UK and did live appearances with UB40, Bob Dylan, and Carlos Santana at Rock Music Festival at Wembley Stadium in London and Slane Castle in Dublin, Ireland.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>His performances in Italy in November 2001 in Bari and Rome re-established him as one of the original roots reggae icons of the mid-seventies\/early ’80s reggae era of Jamaican music.<\/span>He produced artistes such as Sugar Minott, Junior Murvin, Earl Sixteen, Wally Bucker, Sunshine, Jah Grundy and Rod Taylor and was integral in the career development of singer Edi Fitzroy, who was an accountant at during ‘the Mikey years’. Mikey Dread was the featured artiste on Lips Like Sugar with Seal for the soundtrack of the Adam Sandler \/ Drew Barrymore – Sony Pictures movie 50 First Dates. <\/span>May his soul rest in peace.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A selection of tracks not\u00a0engineered by Mikey\u00a0Dread below Michael Campbell – Friends And Money \/ Bubbler In Money – Errol T Records 1978 Michael Dread Campbell – Proper Education \/ Educational Style – Steppers Records 1979 Mickey Campbell – Rasta Baby Born \/ Rasta Rhythm – Roots International Records 1979 The first ‘Dread At The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6635,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/6635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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