Earl Gateshead

Earl was born in Gateshead, he heard his first Sound System when, on holiday in the Lake District, he went to Bradford for a night out, Bradford has a large West Indian population (unlike Gateshead) and Earl heard a Sound System working in a local bar and was blown away. He began Djing in 1978 playing reggae between punk bands at The New Queens Head in Brixton. Shortly afterwards Earl began his 20 year residency at The Dive Bar in Soho, operating his own home made Sound System. He soon joined forces with a larger Sound Armoury 89, and through the Early eighties the Sound played West Indian clubs and squat venues all over Britain. During this period the Sounds main MCs were Maxi Jazz and Mr C. When House music came in 1986 the Sound were among the first people in England to play it. Organizing parties in London and abroad. At the start of the nineties Earl became Saturday resident at the Blue Note in Hoxton in partnership with Bob Jones and was a regular guest at Gilles Petersons Far East nights. He later started the worlds first Broken Beat night at Smithfields with Bugs In The Attic, I. G. Culture, and Phil Asher. Ade Fakile at Plastic People then asked him to programme and D.J the now legendary Reggae Nights where Earl worked with Big Youth, Sugar Minott, Bobby Digital,Cutty Ranks, Junior Delgado, Adrian Sherwood, Little Roy, and many others. He became Big Youths and Dr Alimantados tour D.J. Currently, besides his Trojan Sound System commitments Earl is regular reggae guest at Secret Sundays (voted Britain's top Club Night in DJ mag) and Laser Magnetic.