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6 Music presents gems from the vast BBC archive including concerts and live sessions.

With gems from the BBC archive, including concerts and live sessions from a variety of artists - from the up-and-coming to the established to the long-forgotten-but-still-loved.

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6 Music Live Hour: Lindon Kwesi Johnson, Frantic Elevators & Dennis Bovell

01/08/2011

Lindon Kwesi Johnson, Frantic Elevators & Dennis Bovell

BBC Radio 6 Music - 6 Music Live Hour, Lindon Kwesi Johnson, Frantic Elevators & Dennis Bovell

Live Lindon Kwesi Johnson in 1979, plus sessions from Frantic Elevators and Dennis Bovell.

Featuring Lindon Kwesi Johnson live in 1979, plus archive sessions from Frantic Elevators in 1981 and Dennis Bovell in 1993.

Live Lindon Kwesi Johnson in 1979, archive sessions from Frantic Elevators in 1981 and Dennis Bovell in 1993.

Lindon Kwesi Johnson at the BBC Paris Theatre 1979 
Johnson's work, allied to the Jamaican "toasting" tradition; which is the act of talking or chanting, usually in a monotone melody, over a rhythm or beat by a DJ, is regarded as an essential precursor of rap.
His poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican Patois (Patwa) over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with renowned British reggae producer/artist Dennis Bovell.
Johnson wrote for NME, Melody Maker and Black Music in the 1970s.



Sessions:

Frantic Elevators - 25th February 1981 on John Peel

The Frantic Elevators were a new wave/punk group from Liverpool from 1977-1984, and are best known for being the springboard for a pre-'Simply Red' Mick Hucknall; who re-recorded the Frantic Elevators 1982 song 'Holding Back the Years' with Simply Red, making it an international hit. 


Dennis Bovell - 25th March 1993

Is a reggae guitarist, bass player and record producer, and member of the British reggae band Matumbi, one of the top British reggae bands of the 1970s and early 1980s.
He released dub-reggae records under his own name as well as the pseudonym 'Blackbeard'.
Bovell produced albums for a wide variety of artists including The Thompson Twins, The Slits, Madness, Bananarama and collaborated with poet, Linton Kwesi Johnson for much of his working life.

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Lindon Kwesi Johnson, Frantic Elevators & Dennis Bovell

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