Most community centres around me host cake sales and raffles which are thoroughly enjoyable, but hidden away in Leeds is the West Indian Centre and alongside what I’m sure is a couple of great cake sales, they also throw the renowned SubDub, and this time it was back for a weekender. Returned to what many consider its rightful home, with walls of speakers that leave your ears a ringing reminder for weeks to come and a crowd that all genuinely are there for a love of the night, I was very excited to make a return to SubDub.
Friday 4th December had regulars like Iration Steppers and Nucleus Roots in room 1 (who are entering their 20th year of SubDub), and firm favourites and fathers of DMZ Digital Mystikz alongside Hatcha vs Benga holding down room 2. For those of you who perhaps caught the Subdub bug and want to get to know more of their music, or even find similar, get down to www.deepmedi.com which is founded by Mala & Coki and has others from the night like Jack Sparrow posting on it.
Being a huge fan of the DMZ label I decided to consign myself to sharing sweat with the the tightly packed room 2 and strap myself in for as long as I could. And when classics that still are revered today such as “Anti Wardub” came on and “Changes” by Mala alongside Subdubs ever present grime and dubstep that rattles your spine, it wasn’t hard at all to stick around. Come 3am or so and fancying a change of scene I ventured across to room 1 for a Dub/Reggae taster to see regulars Iration Steppers kick off their set. With the hall filling up as many trickled across to escape the madness next door, Iration Steppers started a set that you could see they enjoyed just as much as the crowd.
The stark contrast in music in the rooms and the care free attitude that everyone involved in the night adopts makes SubDub such a success across the country and a refreshing break from some of the more generic nights in the town centre. This is one of the few nights that keeps probably the largest range of generations returning far more than any of the other nights, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw the same faces going again at 5am on Sunday morning for part 2 of the weekender.
A second blistering collaboration between SubDub and Jungle Jam has been announced for New Year – what better opportunity to skank into 2016? Tickets available here.
Rory Bird
(Photo Credits: Ticket Arena)