Newport produced some wonderfully loud bands during the 90s. One of the loudest was Dub War, a ragga-rock band fronted by the inimitable Benji Webbe. Long before I moved here, I knew who they were thanks to my mate Higgz who had their debut mini-album 'Dub Warning'. I was immediately taken by the track Original Murder, still my favourite track of theirs and one of their scariest.
Original Murder (re-titled Mental) was later re-done in 1995 for Dub War's debut full-length 'Pain', which was followed by their second and final album 'Wrong Side Of Beautiful' in 1996. Sadly, a dispute with their record label Earache led to Dub War splitting.
Benji joined metal supergroup Mass Mental alongside members of Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Religion and Ugly Kid Joe before returning to Newport to form ragga-metal band Skindred. Dub War reformed for a one-off show in Newport at Christmas 2014 (which I bloomin'-well missed!), but last year also played the Download Festival, and the brilliantly-named Velvet Coalmine Festival in the valley town of Blackwood, which also featured Gwenno, Slaves and the Meat Puppets.
Currently, all three of Benji's bands remain active, and he also put out a solo reggae album in 2015 entitled 'I Haven't Been Nicking In Ages'. More recently, Benji was in the news after he was attacked with a knife by two drunken women in Newport, leaving him needing 24 stitches![1]
Which kind of brings us back to Original Murder with its chilling cries of "BLOODTHIRSTY!"
Here's a piece on a TV show back in the day (not sure which show) about the Newport music scene. It not only features Dub War, but also the late, great John Sicolo, owner of the legendary (and much missed) music venue TJ's.
[1] Follow-up story - they got them!
Loved the documentary, cheers for posting
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