Artcore

These three images were featured in the Artcore show in the Ultralounge at Selfridges curated by Dreweatts in February 2009. They were developed from drawings and photographs produced at several of Soul II Souls legendary nights at the Africa Centre in the summer of 1986. The first image shows part of the sound system being set up at their base in Camden Town. True to their roots much of the equipment used was hand built and adjusted to give the trademark ‘blues party’ sound that gave Soul II Soul parties that ‘feel it in your chest’ bass pressure. In the second image Aitch warms up the crowd with the mixture of rare groove, 2 step soul and roots reggae that was later developed by Jazzie B and Nellie Hooper into the seminal album ‘Club Classics Volume One’, which provided the worldwide sound track of the summer of 89. In the final image the great and the good of underground London lose themselves on the dancefloor as Jazzie B tells the crowd “If you’re not dancing, Fuck off!”