A new exhibition, Dub London celebrates dub reggae music and culture in the capital, from its roots in Jamaican reggae to how it has shaped communities and culture over the last 50 years.
As an exhibition, it’s a space given over mainly to a selection of records and explanation boards, along with some photos — and a live DJ set behind a perspex screen, with a selection of 150 vinyl records available to listen to chosen by fifteen London based independent record shops
What I thought was just a decorative set of speakers turned out to be significant, being a speaker stack belonging to Channel One Sound System that has appeared every year at Notting Hill Carnival since 1983.
For map geeks, there’s a map of London’s Dub music record shops, which is topical as a display explains that London has the highest concentration of specialist reggae record shops outside of Kingston, Jamaica.
For those who are fans of the music, it’s going to be a good exhibition – but maybe a bit over the head of people less interested, which candidly was your correspondent — more history and explanations would have been very helpful to put the music and names into context.
The exhibition, Dub London: Bassline of a City is open until 31st January 2021. Entry is free, and as with most venues, you need to book a museum ticket in advance.
