Part 7. Ten years and rising…

In 2002 Tim found that being part of Dreadzone again made conflict with his workload and was so rarely at the studio he decided to move out. Enter Ben with his gear from his vacated Tottenham studio. Fate and timing conspired to bring Greg and Ben together in Dread Central and take the music in another direction. Soon the sound was being re -invented but was it Dreadzone? It is always complex for someone to come in with new energy into an already established set up. For a while remixes were done under the new name of Mafia Tone, a kind of alter ego that was more club orientated. At that time they were managed by Dominic ‘the Dublisher’ Walker who was pulling interest and work from different areas to keep it all going. But as the new century gathered pace things were tightening even further in the music biz. Do they put material out under their own label and what name? In the end a compromise was reached with an uncompromising tune in ‘The Warriors’ which came out as Mafia tone vs. Dreadzone on the Double 7 label run by Ben Balafonic which pricked up some ears including Tayo who put it on his Y4K compilation album, and was caned by all the top jocks.

As more new tunes started taking shape a team was being built around Greg and Ben with Steve Roberts (brother of Greg) playing guitar and keyboards and Spee on vocals and also some great input from Earl 16. A decision was finally made to go forward with a new look Dreadzone and a new album worth of songs began to shape up but without a label. That year saw a stripped down show take to the road to try out the new material. The full live band going out without a record to promote was not best thing to do. To remove the drums and bass along with a large amount of crew seemed a mad idea at the time but it managed to get costs down, keep the good ship dread afloat and test out the new songs. This was known as the ‘get smart’ tour. That year also saw the development of the new website and more DJ and sound system shows. As 2004 dawned the sound system show was the only one to do. Throughout the year many self -booked shows honed a good tight set of skanking breaks and sub bass pressure with Greg Ben and Spee that influenced the writing and mixing. It was during this period that Biff from Functional offered them the chance to do a dj mix album Beatz and Bobz vol 4 …this led onto a deal for the new artist album which meant tightening up the new tunes ,throwing out the chaff and writing a brace of new ones. Everything then just fell into place.

‘Once upon a time’ was finally delivered in spring of 2005 and the new live show was re -assembled with the awesome team of Leo and Greg on the rhythm back together with Steve adding guitar bite, a class refined mix of laptop and Ableton from Ben on the mix with the energy of Spee and the sweetness of Earl making for the finest live Dreadzone ever to tread the boards turning up the pressure all year and bringing new admirers on board during the twenty festival dates and an almost sell out own tour rounding off a great year. So here we are ready for moving into pole position again and updating the story so far…

Dreadzone roll call (in order of appearance)

Greg Roberts
Tim Bran

Don Letts (Dread Vision)
Luc Vergier (The French Connection)
Melanie Blatt (Fit vocals)
Alan Mcgee (Creation head)
Dominic Walker (The Dublisher )
Leo Williams (Bass Master General)
Dan Donovan (Mr.Fingers)
Guy Gillam (TCB-Shirts and TM)
Dillan Dagwell (The Wise Dubbah)
Alex Nightingale (Agent Rock)
Mick Williams (Sound Man)
Fruit (Flaky Birds)
Clive Underhill Smith (Top Agent)
Alison Goldfrapp (Another Star)
Earl 16 (The best voice)
Chris Bran (Stand up Visuals)
Johnny Milton (Travelling sound)
Donna Mckevitt (Voice of an Angel)
Rick Hussey (Third light)
Craig Taylor (Silver Fox-TM)
Ben Adams (Tech Supreme)
MC Spee , (The only MC)
Rob Marche (Rock and Roll Guitar)
Steve Roberts (Funky Dub Guitar)
Ben Balafonic ( The Next Generation)
Trudy Kerr (New Web Partner)
Marte Carne (New tech whiz)
John Power (Rhythm Scaffold)
Perry (Driving force)
Lady Lou (Merch supreme)

For current press shot please go to live booking page!

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Greg and Tim 1993 by Chris Floyd. You wouldn’t get that close these days
Backstage at Glastonbury 1994 by Daniele Roberts. L to R: Dan Donovan, Leo Williams, Tim and Greg. Just about to go on at 11am. First time at Glasto and first band on
Dreadzone on Virgin by Phil Knott. Flying high, great pic of a band on a roll
Ever changing Dread by Heather Favell L to R: Chris Bran, Leo, Greg and Dan, Musicians only please
The logo of the night by Dillan, Greg, Photoshop and some beer. Check out the small print.
The extended family 2001 by Daniele Roberts. Backstage at the Essential festival. The only time we have had seven onstage. L to R: Earl16, Rob Marche, Leo Williams, Ben Balafonic, MC Spee, Tim and Greg.
Funnily enough this is at the Essential festival a year later in Bristol. About to go on, taken by some local journo. L to R: MC Spee Earl16, Leo Williams, Ben Balafonic, and Greg.