Creation Rebel broke new ground in the late 1970s as the UK’s first dub band, bridged the gap between reggae and punk by sharing stages with the Clash and the Slits, and released six cult-classic albums – then disappeared for 40 years. “You’re looking at each other and all the years have passed and you’re suddenly these big old men,” says producer Adrian Sherwood, who has worked with the group since its inception and produced their excellent new comeback album, Hostile Environment. “But we haven’t gone far off the original way, spiritually, that we were first pulled to. I know that sounds like a load of hippy bollocks, but that’s the truth. Making this one felt deep.”
Hostile Environment mixes new dub works with politically charged vocals, the title a refutation of the disastrously punitive UK immigration policy introduced by Theresa May and furthered by her successors. “It was against the backdrop of the Windrush scandal, and after one of those Nazi home secretaries said they want to create a hostile environment to stop those seeking refuge,” said Sherwood. “It’s the perfect title for the record, ’cause all our crew’s foreparents came from the Windrush generation.”
“The environment we grew up in was actually a hostile environment,” adds percussionist Ranking Magoo. “I got attacked with a hammer in [London postcode] W9 when I was seven or eight and we fought every day just walking down the road, hearing ‘Black bastard!’ That is what we faced in the 60s, so imagine what my mum and dad went through before.”
The group’s musical roots stretch back just as far: dub, an early form of remix culture, first emerged in Jamaica in the late 1960s after sound system DJs began using instrumental B-sides as a backdrop for the extemporaneous rhymes they delivered at the microphone. As the form evolved, pioneers such as King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry began crafting complex dub mixes of previously released singles, dropping snatches of vocals in and out of the mix while emphasising drums and bass, the application of reverb and delay infusing dub with otherworldly qualities.
But Creation Rebel’s take on dub was different. The Black British collective, based in Harlesden in north-west London and sometimes with visiting Jamaican session players in the ranks, crafted their dubs organically through studio jam sessions; creative mixing by Sherwood and colleagues then hurled them further into the dub stratosphere. “I ran the first session for fun,” Sherwood says. “I made [debut album] Dub from Creation for £200 when I was about 18 – just paid the musicians and hummed the bass lines to the bass player.”
“That was the first recording that I played on,” says guitarist Crucial Tony, the group’s enduring linchpin. “The engineer was Dennis Bovell, and when I was trying to tune up, I remember Dennis saying to Adrian, ‘I’ll play the guitar.’ But Adrian let me play.”
“I kept leaning over Dennis’ shoulder, saying, ‘More delay! More reverb!’” adds Sherwood. “He said, ‘You’re having a laugh’, but the record sold.”
Creation Rebel soon became the backing band for Prince Far I, the gruff Jamaican toaster – a type of non-singing vocalist somewhere between preacher and rapper – whose ominous chants earned him the moniker Voice of Thunder. Far I’s first British tour, featuring fellow toaster Prince Hammer and the soulful Jamaican crooner Bim Sherman, established Creation Rebel’s reputation across the country, and helped Far I score a contract with Virgin Records.
“I arranged the tour at my mum’s house, taking reverse-charge calls from Jamaica at four in the morning,” says Sherwood. “And the gigs were brilliant. At the Rainbow [in Finsbury Park], the Slits came, members of the Clash, Public Image, Billy Idol, and we started getting a lot of respect.” The Clash mentioned Far I in one of their lyrics, and invited Creation Rebel on tour.
“Then we did another tour with Prince Hammer, the Slits, and Neneh Cherry’s dad, Don,” says Magoo. “It was fantastic! Everywhere we went, they was loving us. In those days, there was still a lot of Nazi salutes [at punk gigs], but when we played, you would never see that.”
Much of Creation Rebel’s music was ahead of its time. Starship Africa, released in 1980, was a densely textured audio collage emulating the sensation of intergalactic space travel, though it freaked out some in the scene. According to Sherwood, DJ David Rodigan told him: “‘What do you think you’re doing to reggae music?’ To this day, if he hears the words Creation Rebel, he cringes, because he’s obviously a big traditionalist.”
By the early 1980s the band was mixing dub with traditional vocals, and bassist Lizard Logan became Creation Rebel’s frontman. The ensuing album Lows & Highs was more radio friendly but Logan was then jailed on a marijuana importation charge, and the killing of Prince Far I in September 1983 was another blow. Group members went their separate ways, with Crucial Tony leading the Ruff Cut band and other members contributing to the Singers & Players and African Head Charge collectives on Sherwood’s On-U Sound label.
The returning iteration of Creation Rebel was conceived in 2019, when Sherwood invited key surviving members Crucial Tony, Eskimo Fox and Ranking Magoo to join him for some live dates. “We started it in lockdown, and it took over three years to put it together,” says Magoo of the new album. “We don’t live beside each other, and I don’t think we’re the best communicators, but when we work together, it’s just a good time.” Magoo’s Whatever It Takes explores the generation gap that arose between Windrush-era immigrants and their British-born offspring, and Fox’s Under Pressure laments the community’s frequent targeting by the police. The dub tracks are equally hard-hitting, with That’s More Like It and Jubilee Clock sounding as strong and striking as Starship Africa. With further high-profile performances coming up in the UK and Japan, the album has given the group a new lease of life.
“It’s fulfilling, and different from the rest of the albums that we do,” says Fox, heralding its “new sound – for the future and for the younger youths who don’t have knowledge of the roots. We’re just working as a musical union again before we leave the planet.”
• Hostile Environment is released 6 October on On-U Sound
