How many bands have the career longevity to release ten albums? They might have been perilously close to falling apart on various occasions in their history, but the Dub Pistols have rolled with the punches and are now gearing up to release their tenth album in early 2025.
It’s been a long road travelled, full of twists and turns, but with their legion of faithful fans and numerous collaborators and friends the Dubs are in a better place now than they’ve ever been with a new album, their own festival, a documentary, a book and more international tours on the horizon. These renegade Pistoleros are unstoppable.
The Dub Pistols grew out of the big beat explosion of the mid-1990s. Big beat was the anything-goes reaction to formulaic house music, where — thanks to the wonders of sampling technology — literally anything could be thrown into a dance tune. Taking a cue from the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, main man Barry Ashworth began making block rockin’ beats with pal Jason O’Bryan, and bombastic first offering ‘There’s Gonna Be A Riot’ was signed by Concrete Records, a subsidiary of DeConstruction. A string of missives followed in its wake — ‘Best Get Better’, the explosive ‘Westway EP’, and then a chipper ‘Cyclone’, which dented the UK national charts — and debut album ‘Point Blank’ was released in 1998.
The Dubs were on a roll when big-shot US record exec Jimmy Iovine heard the album. He immediately signed the Dubs to Interscope Geffen and put them on the road. They’d become a fully-fledged band. They played some huge shows with the likes of Blink 182, Korn and Limp Bizkit, and recorded their second album, ‘Six Million Ways To Live’. But just as their second long-player was about to drop, the 9/11 terrorist atrocity happened in New York. Given that various album tracks contained explosive references to geo-political events that had seemingly just played out on the international stage, the project was reluctantly shelved. They had to return to the UK to lick their wounds, and rebuild from the ground up.
The Dubs had remixed the likes of Moby and the Crystal Method by now, and Barry had become a fine party-rockin’ DJ. He started some club nights called The Truth in his native West London with pal Carl Loben, and was asked to mix the latest instalment of the acclaimed ‘Y4K’ series for Distinctive Records — blending a mixture of house and breaks tracks by Layo & Bushwacka, the Chemical Brothers, Adam Freeland, Soul Of Man and more. When he finally got the ‘Six Million Ways’ album back off Geffen, Distinctive signed it and led its release rollout with the ‘Problem Is’ single which featured Terry Hall, former singer of 2-Tone legends The Specials.
As the noughties unfolded, Terry Hall started doing shows with the Dubs and featuring on new tracks such as ‘Running From The Thoughts’, ‘Peaches’ and their cover of ‘Rapture’ by Blondie. The rapturous reception Terry received when he appeared with the Pistols alongside his other former Specials bandmate Lynval Golding at the Rise anti-racism festival in London in 2008 — performing The Specials’ first single ‘Gangsters’, amongst other tracks — was a major factor in The Specials reforming at Bestival later that year.
Now signed to Sunday Best Recordings, the Dub Pistols had become adept at co-opting people into their collective. For their next album ‘Rum & Coke’ they recruited former Freak Power man Ashley Slater, Lindy Layton from Beats International, DJ/producer Justin Robertson and UK hip-hop pioneer Rodney P. The album was part-recorded in Barbados, where — like their friends Happy Mondays before them — “the wheels fell off the band” while they were out there, according to Barry, due to a riot of hedonism on the island.
Next album ‘Worshipping The Dollar’ was more political in places, tracks with Akala and Red Star Lion demonstrating how the band still had a social conscience, while rowdy rabble-rouser ‘Mucky Weekend’ — a tale of living for a weekend of excess — was given a first airing. Long-term co-producer Jason O’Bryan left for pastures new as the second decade of the 21st century saw them consolidating their position as festival-rocking favourites, due to a lot of hard graft and touring virtually non-stop.
The next two albums, ‘The Return Of The Pistoleros’ and ‘Crazy Diamonds’, reflected their increasingly off-the-chain, exhilarating live shows, with much more jungle/drum & bass incorporated into their dubwise sound and the permanent recruitment of rapper Seanie T into the fold.
Ambitiously, the Dubs threw their first festival in 2019 — Mucky Weekender in the Sussex countryside. Featuring Leftfield, Stanton Warriors, Don Letts, Manasseh Soundsystem and many more, it caught the tail-end of the summer sun and was raved about by all attendees. The success of the first Mucky set it up nicely to become an annual event.
Barry has been very open about his addictions and mental health issues over the years, and in 2019 he did his first Wing Walk — strapped to the top of a bi-plane — to raise money for Tonic Music For Mental Health. This has evolved into an annual Flying Circus fundraiser, involving friends from the music world such as Bez from the Happy Mondays, and Barry has now become a patron of the Tonic organisation.
The Dubs had readied their next album, ‘Addict’, just as the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. The solidarity single ‘Stand Together’ — featuring 2-Tone legend Rhoda Dakar (ex-Bodysnatchers/Special AKA) — dropped just as the Black Lives Matter protests were commencing worldwide, while tracks with soundsystem stalwarts the Ragga Twins, newcomer Natty Campbell and more kept their pot on the boil. The album shot into the top three of the UK dance charts and the top ten of the UK indie charts.
As 2021 began and the pandemic saw little sign of waning, the Dub Pistols released their cover of New Order’s seminal ‘Blue Monday’ on the third Monday of January to raise funds for the Tonic Mental Health Trust. A couple of months later they released their ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ mix album on Jungle Cakes, featuring a whopping 50 tracks by various dubwise jungle associates as well as artists like Deekline, Ed Solo, King Yoof and the Beat Assassins remixing some choice Dub Pistols cuts. This release also shot to the upper reaches of the UK dance charts.
Once Covid restrictions were lifted in mid-2021 the Dubs were delighted to get out touring again. They rocked an assortment of festivals and also staged the second iteration of Mucky Weekender, this time on a new site in Winchester, Hampshire. Groove Armada, Leeroy Thornhill (ex-Prodigy), The Freestylers and the Ragga Twins were just a few of the acts to nice up the dance over the long weekend.
The Dubs released ‘Frontline’ in 2023 on their own Cyclone Records, the label named after one of their early singles 25 years previously. ‘Frontline’ — featuring the likes of Horseman, Natty Campbell, Cheshire Cat and the Ragga Twins — reached No.3 in the UK independent album charts, and singles received radio play from the likes of Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, Chris Hawkins, Craig Charles and Don Letts, plus numerous international spins.
They did some remixes from the album with long-term friends The Freestylers, and the partnership proved so fruitful that they have now recorded their next album with The Freestylers. Entitled ‘Enter The Sound’, it’s dropping in early 2025 and will see the Dubs embark on an international tour again, maintaining their position as one of the hardest-working bands in show business. The Dubs have already played Holland, France, Germany, Romania and Bulgaria in 2024, with many more international dates to follow over the next 12 months.
That’s after the fifth edition of their Mucky Weekender festival which features Dutty Moonshine, LTJ Bukem, General Levy, Dreadzone, Bez & Rowetta, Irvine Welsh, Marshall Jefferson, Krafty Kuts and many more. Of course, the Dubs take centre stage on the Saturday night in their traditional slot, joined by a heap of friends who they’ve collaborated with over the years.
They’re also sneaking out a live reggae album in 2025, and re-releasing their 1998 debut album ‘Point Blank’ on vinyl to cater for the collectors amongst their fans — new and old. With a documentary and a book to follow sooner rather than later, the stage is set for them to carry on uproariously for many more years. Like we said: unstoppable.