http://www.uncarved.org/dub/splash/shebeen.html

“SHEBEEN come and shebeen go, so right now – you’d better take what you can get,” Weasel, the dread deejay of Mossiah Sound toasts ominously into the mike.

It is not a glamorous room; the ground floor of a small terrace house. Weasel has made an effort to smarten it up; there are posters of reggae artists, Earth, Wind & Fire, Gladys Knight and, stuck incongruously over a speaker, a big poster for The Great Rock & Roll Swindle; holes peel back from the walls, showing the bare skeleton of wood. But it is 4:00 am, and we couldn’t really be in greater luxury; it’s a club that costs one pound entrance, playing great music; where a woman can dance on her own without being hassled or be sociable, as she chooses; and it’s open all night from midnight, seven days a week.

For many people, life is the shebeen. It’s where the people of the neighbourhood with nothing much to do in the morning save their sanity or blow their cover. Sometimes the police come in. Sometimes they’ll take somebody away. Sometimes they say: We’re not here to cause any trouble, there’s just one geezer ordered a minicab and hasn’t paid. Sometimes they’ll ask a woman to dance, and have a drink – when they’re off duty, of course!

Occasionally frustrations will bubble over; there’s one particular firetrap down the Harrow Road – through the Pool Hall and down some wobbly stairs and into the club they call the Graveyard. The Black Hole of Harrow. A man went wild with a gun there the other week, alarming all the businessmen and women. When the police pull into that joint, it’s over the back wall and into Harrow Road cemetery – and people have had some strange experiences there in the early hours.

  

Maybe you wouldn’t like to live next door to a shebeen, but it’s good to have one over the road. By now it’s a great British institution, like the pub, evolving from the early house party days, all that Irish and Jamaican joi de vivre spilling on after licensing hours end. One hears tales of luxurious shebeens of the early ‘60s patronised by politicians, aristocrats and mediacrats of all kinds. Those were the days of Peter Rachman, Christine Keeler, Stephen Ward, Aloysius “Lucky” Gordon, Mandy Rice-Davies.

That classical sexual/economic relationship of white women supporting black men is still In evidence, but low profile. There is little racial tension. Punks come in the shebeens, bohos of every kind, earnest young white boys with thin ties and dark overcoats, hippies. There’s natty dreads and youth in baseball caps, bomber jackets, kickers, khaki and dungarees. A greying man wrestles with the billowing body of a flushed faced short skirted blonde. A corduroy dread with a weatherman hat cuts a complicated caper freezing on an off-beat dancing a dub to the record. Out there in the hall, a man’s asleep on the stair

All the musicians of the neighbourhood pass through the shebeen, and everyone’s a musician anyway, grabbing on the mike just to tell you what it’s like to be fighting down in Babylon every day, when times is getting harder and harder. The shebeen is a safety valve. Sometimes a sanctuary.

DIRECTORY 
OF SOUNDS

London: North-East

Fatman Hi-Fi – North London Baddest (Tottenham)
Sir Does Hi-Fi – Champion of Tottenham
Sir George Hi-Fi from Tottenham (Cubies resident)
Seven Seals (Tottenham)
Nationwide of Tottenham
Ital Force (Tottenham)
Tippa Sound (Tottenham)
The Mighty Youth Of Zion (Bruce Grove)
Count Shelley – Heavyweight Champion of the North (Tottenham / Stoke Newington)
Sir KP’s Hi-Fi – Stoke Newington Heavyweight Champion
Papa Eastman International (Stoke Newington)
The Mighty Prophets (Stoke Newington)
Imperial Zion (Stoke Newington)
Emporer (Stoke Newington)
Jah Spirit (Stoke Newington)
Sir Fray Hi-Fi (Dalston)
Serge Hi-Fi of Dalston (Four Aces / Cubies resident)
Liberator Esq (Dalston)
Joshua Hi-Fi – Kingsland Entertainer
North Star Hi-Fi (Highbury/lslington)
Kendra the Young Lion (Archway)
Sir Bigga the President (Papa B) of Hornsey
Mighty Intrepid Sound of Finsbury Park
Roots Rocker (Finsbury Park)
Progressive Sound (Turnpike Lane)
Saxon (Wood Green)
Count Marshall from Edmonton
Count Cozie Cool the Trojan (Hanwell)
Tokyo the Monarch (Leyton)
Unitone of Leyton
Imperial Youth (Leyton)
Sir Wayne (Leyton)
Capt’n Ken Big Panasonic Sound – North London No.1 Musical Brain
His Majesty Jah Whitey – North London Humble Lion
Jah Tubby from North
Count Reggie Hi-Fi (North London)



London: North-West

Tony the Paddington Terror
Duke Vin of Ladbroke Grove
Jah Sufferer of Ladbroke Grove (erstwhile Metro resident)
Messiah of Ladbroke Grove
Mighty Warrior of Harrow Road
Success the Raver from Kilburn
Java (with Jumbo at the controls) of Kilburn
Lord Koos of Willesden – the Harlesden Master
Alpha Int (Harlesden)
Count Sputnick (Harlesden)
Sir Jessus – King of the Bush
King Tropical Sound with the Velvet Touch (Acton)
Merritone Higher Field Marshall Sound (Greenford)
Jammini Sound from the North-West

London: South-West

Sir Coxsone Outernational (Battersea)
The Mighty Moa Anbessa – The People’s Choice (Battersea)
S’Phese (Battersea)
Warrior King (Battersea)
Black Unity (Battersea)
Young Lion – Brixton Cat (Battersea I Wandsworth)
Sledgehammer from the Bridge (Wandsworth)
I Spy the Entertainer (Wandsworth)
Frontline International (featuring Natty at the control, Chuckle & General Saint at the microphone) from Brixton 
His Lordship Soferno B fromBrixton
D’Nunes the Champ of Brixton -South London No.1 Godfather
Stereograph of Brixton
Sir Higgins the Governor (Brixton)
Small Axe the Dub Technician (Brixton)
Papa Dynatone International (Clapham Perk)
Christos Sound of Clapham (boat dance specialists)
The Right Honourable Sir Lloyd Sound – Mr Lovers Rocker (Balham)
Lord David Imperial Hi-Fi – SW Rocker

London: South-East

Jah Shaka the Spiritual Dub Warrior (Lewisham) 
Tiffany’s Hi-Fi with the Velvet Touch (Lewisham) 
T-W-J (Lewisham) 
Moziah (Lewisham) 
The Mighty Enforcers (Lewisham lovers rock) 
Jah Man (Lewisham / Peckham) 
Admiral Ken of Peckham (Bouncing Bell host) 
Papa Viking Sound (Peckham) 
His Imperial Gorgon Hi-Fi (Peckham) 
The Mighty Sounds of Black Scorpion (Peckham I East Dulwich) 
Jah Revelation the Placid Rocker (Dulwich) 
The Mighty Revolutionaries – South-East A1 Sound (Deptford)
Jah Ceaser (Deptford)
Rootsman Hi-Fi (Deptford) Creator from Camberwell
Sanatone Hi-Fi the Cool Charm Rocker (Waterloo)
Trojan Hi-Fi of Woolwich
Mighty Observer from West Croydon
Papa Cass of Croydon
Youth Steppers (Thornton Heath)
Mighty Crusader (Downham)
Neville the Musical Enchanger (South London veteran)
Sir Royale Quadraphonic – the Sound of the South


London: East

Chicken – East London No. 1 Entertainer
King Original the Crucial Rocker from Stratford (Studio One specialist)
Sir Riley Hi-Fi of Upton Park
 Chappie Dread International of Corner Shot (Upton Park)
Sledgehammer of West Ham
Chanter Sound – East London Rocker (West Ham)
Jah Vengeance (West Ham)
Ital Rebel Hi-Fi of Forest Gate
Jah Youth the Mystical Rocker (Forest Gate)
Mighty Emporer (Forest Gate)
Casanova Hi-Fi (Hackney)
Mighty Intrepid Rebel (Homerton)
Mafia Dub Presser (Clapton)

 Country

Quaker City the Earthshaker Dub Rocker from Birmingham
Jungle Man – Birmingham Outernational Warrior Sound
Mafia-Tone from Birmingham
Studio City from Birmingham
Sir Christopher from the Midlands (Birmingham/Wolverhampton)
V Rocket Sound from Nottingham
Quantro-Tone – Midlands Roots Rocker of Nottingham
Falcon Music International – Luton A1
Ital Earthquake – Luton Rocker
Poppa’s Hi-Fi of High Wycombe
Black Terror – Hitchin Rocker
Sir Newcome from Hitchin
Crystus – Slough Hardest
President of Reading – 79 Cup Winner
King Solomon the National Entertainer from Reading
Rockers Hi-Fi from Reading
Jah Tom of Ipswich
Masai Sound of Oxford
Jah Love Youth-a-National Oxford’s Dance Corker
Blazing Fire of Swindon
Enterprise from Bristol
Loco of Bristol
Count Ton Hi-Fi from Hastings
King Alpha of Coventry
Wellingborough’s Mr Entertainer: Sir Noel Hi-Fi
Samaritan Rockers of Gloucester

 

Penny Reel assembled most of the material here for the NME. I would heartily recommend all of his other work, including his book on Dennis Brown “Deep Down with Dennis Brown ~ Cool Runnings and the Crown Prince of Reggae” published by Drake Brothers. More information about the book is available at the Boomshakalacka site, including ordering details.