On this day, I arrived from Adelaide Australia for my BI-annual 2 week vacation, to be met at Heathrow Airport by my brother Terry Gad. He informed me that tonight, one of my favourite sound systems Jah Tubbys, would be playing their regular monthly dance.This was to be held at Chinnerys Night Club in South End on Sea. I was very excited because Jah Tubbys is one of the heaviest systems in the world.
I always get inspiration from Jah Tubbys due to the way that he plays his reggae music and operates the system “inna hooligan style!” The first occasion that I went to see him in action, was at The Jamaican Sports and Social Club in Gloucester 1978, where they played a sound from Birmingham called “Mafia Tone”. Jah Tubbys used about 4 or 6 quad boxes, containing four, eighteen-inch speakers and plenty of mid and treble boxes.
Both sounds normally took turns to play one record each, lasting about 5 to 10 minutes. When Jah Tubbys turned on the treble and midrange, the crowd started to dance gently! Tubbys would then start the tune from the beginning and this time with the bass fully on! The resulting sound almost destroyed the building and shook the large lounge TV off the wall! The crowd went berserk with excitement (well me & Terry Gad did anyway!) but the club committee were not impressed and threatened to ban JahTubbys from playing.
Fortunately this did not happen and Jah Trinity Sound System has since played many dances together with Jah Tubbys, throughout the UK…including at the Jamaican club and Ebony Youth Centre in Gloucester on numerous occasions, also in Bradford and Leicester.
