Dreadzone are a British band whose music is an eclectic fusion of dub, reggae, techno, trance, and folk. They have so far produced five studio albums and one live album.

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History

Dreadzone formed in 1993 when ex-Big Audio Dynamite drummer, Greg Roberts, teamed up with Tim Bran, who had previously worked as a musician and sound engineer for Julian Cope. The name Dreadzone was suggested to Roberts and Bran by Don Letts.

Bran and Roberts were soon joined by bassist Leo Williams and keyboardist Dan Donovan, also formerly of Big Audio Dynamite. The band signed to Creation Records in 1993 and released their first album 360° . The following year the band signed to Virgin Records and released their second studio album Second Light . In the meantime, Dreadzone had become a favourite festival act and in June that year opened the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival ^[1]. During these early years their backing vocalists included Melanie Blatt, Denise van Outen and Alison Goldfrapp.

In January 1996, the group had their first and so far only Top 40 hit in the UK Singles Chart with "Little Britain" ^[2], which reached #20. The song sampled a line from the 1968 cult British film If.... - "Britain today is a powerhouse of ideas, experiments, imagination".

John Peel championed Dreadzone on BBC Radio 1, and cited Second Light as one of his favourite albums of all time. Tracks from Second Light also dominated Peel's Festive Fifty in 1995, and the band recorded six Peel sessions between 1993 and 2001. Between 1998 and 2001 the Dreadzone soundsystem hosted the Dubweiser club night at Notting Hill Arts Club.

On 26 October 2006 it was announced on the Dreadzone forums that Dreadzone guitarist Steve Roberts, the brother of Greg Roberts had died. ^[3]

In May 2007 Chris Compton and Chris Oldfield (DJ, producer and lighting designer) joined the line-up.

Discography

Albums

• 360° (1993)
• Performance (1994)
• Second Light (#37 in the UK Albums Chart, 1995)
• Biological Radio (#45 in 1997)
• Sound (2001)
• Radio 1 Sessions (2001)
• Once Upon a Time (2005)
• Live at Sunrise (2006)

Singles

• "The Warning" (EP) (1993)
• "The Good, the Bad and the Dread" (1993)
• "Dream On" / "House of Dread" (1993)
• "Fight the Power" (1994)
• "Zion Youth" (#49 in the UK Singles Chart, 1995)
• "Captain Dread" (#49 in 1995)
• "Maximum" (EP) (#56 in 1995)
• "Little Britain" (#20 in 1996)
• "Life Love and Unity" (#56 in 1996)
• "Earth Angel" (#51 in 1997)
• "Moving On" (#58 in 1997)
• "Crazy Knowledge" (2000)
• "Believing In It" (2001)
• "The Warriors" (2002)
• "Once Upon a Time (in Jamaica)" (2005)
• "King Dub Rock2 (2005)
• "Elevate" (2006)
• "Lion Shirt" (2006)
• "Mashup the Dread" (2006)

References

1. Dreadzone.org.uk
2. British Hit Singles & Albums
3. Dreadzone.com