BPREVIEW: Dub Pistols @ The Oobleck, 5th June ’15

Dub Pistols

The Dub Pistols bring their nationwide ‘The Return of The Pistoleros’ tour to The Oobleck, at Alfie Birds in Digbeth, on Friday 5th June 2015. Tickets are priced at £12 (advance) with doors open from 7pm.

Based in London, the Dub Pistols are a transatlantic Electronica group originally formed in 1996. With founding members Barry Ashworth and Jason O’Bryan already having a history in club promoting and sound producing respectively, the Dub Pistols started with a firm involvement in the Electro/Dub scene.Birmingham Preview

Over the subsequent years the Dub Pistols grew into a fuller band, recruiting the Brooklyn based lyricist T.K. Lawrence, guitarist John King and DJ Stix (aka Steve Hunt). The band’s latest member, drummer Jack Cowens, joined the Dub Pistols in 2008.

Following a couple of single releases in 1998, the Dub Pistols release their debut album, Point Blank, on A&M records the same year. Despite being received with generally favourable reviews, the group left A&M to release their second album, Six Million Ways to Live, through Distinctive Records (UK) and Geffen (US).

Moving to Rob Da Bank’s Sunday Best label for their third album, Speakers & Tweeters, the Dub Pistols would go on to release a total of six studio albums – with their latest, The Return of the Pistoleros, released on Sunday Best in June 2015.The Dub Pistols also released a remix album, called Rehash, in 2011.

The-Return-of-the-PistolerosRegulars on the international festival scene, and collaborating with artists such as Blade, Rodney P, Horace Andy and the Specials’ lead singer Terry Hall, the Dub Pistols have grafted through a near two decade career of fluctuating highs, lows, contracts and labels.

Fervently autonomous, in an interview with Clash magazine in 2010 Ashworth openly addressed the idea that the Dub Pistols have never swayed to one particular genre. Quoted as saying “The whole point of the Dub Pistols, from the name down to everything else, was that you couldn’t categorise it and it couldn’t be pigeonholed…”

Ashworth has also made reference to the Big Beat scene that they arguably helped build, in both the UK and US, but were washed over with by the success of artists like Fatboy Slim.

In a 2012 interview with the American EDM website crossfadr.com, Barry Ashworth said: there was a big backlash to that (Big Beat) in the UK once Fatboy Slim had blown up and we were lucky enough to fu*k off to America and spend four years touring. By the time we got back to the UK everyone had forgot about the tag and we managed to get on with being a band if you like rather than being a sound.”The-Oobleck-logo

June 2015 saw Dub Pistols release their 6th studio album, The Return of the Pistoleros, alongside a nationwide tour to promote the LP.

The Return of the Pistoleros is named in honour of the nickname, ‘pistoleros’, given to their ever faithful fans – with a supporting tour set to return the Dub Pistols’ unruly and energtic mix of Dub, Ska and Hip-Hop to a number of UK venues and festivals. Birmingham get’s its turn, at The Oobleck, on Friday 5th June.

Dub Pistols come to The Oobleck at Alfie Birds in Digbeth, on Friday 5th June 2015 – as part of their ‘Return of The Pistoleros’ tour. For more information and tickets, visit http://theoobleck.co.uk/event/dub-pistols/  

For more on the Dub Pistols, visit http://dubpistolsmusic.co.uk/

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For further listing from The Oobleck, visit http://theoobleck.co.uk/

For more on Alfie Birds, visit http://alfiebirds.co.uk/

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