Mark Stewart and the Mafia - Jerusalem
(W.Blake/M.Stewart)
The original incarnation of the Maffia with Noah (Bonjo), Eskimo (Fox) and Ever as band members - Steve Beresford joined for the first live gig at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Originally released as a 12 inch single with the addition of "Liberty City" and "High Ideals and Crazy Dreams" (ONUDP5), "Jerusalem" remains a high point of Mark StewartÕs recording career, the production is one of those flawed yet fauultless affairs with the sublime Casio keyboard fills coming from Kishi Yamamoto. Also to be found on the artistÕs debut album, the brutal and unsurpassed "Learning to Cope with Cowardice" (ONULP24/CD11).

Congo Ashanti Roy / Singers and Players - Breaking Down the Pressure
(Roydell Johnson)
Out in late 1983 as an On-U Sound 10 inch Disco Plate (ONUDP9) the flip features Mikey Dread with "Autobiography (of the Dread Operator)" on the same rhythm. Remixed versions of both tunesappeared on the 1984 Cherry Red/On-U album ÒLeaps and BoundsÓ credited to Singers and Players. The dub mix following the vocal features Sherwood at his loose and lucid best in cranking up the drum echo to ear-bleeding proportions, whilst ex-Congos Ashanti roy turns in one of his best performances on this classic sufferers tune.

Akabu and the Circuit - Watch Yourself
(Akabu/Beresford)
A 12 inch On-U Sound Mixout Entertainment Plate (On-U Mix 1) from the year 1983 - the only other pressing to bear this legens was the barely teenage Shara NelsonÕs "Aiming at Your Heart" from the same year. One of the rarest On-U collectibles, this Akabu tune was never released in the U.K. and only available as a test pressing. The song, generated from the OÕJays classic "Backstabbers", was re-recorded for issue in the U.S.A. on the Tommy Boy subsidiary Body Rock. The edits on the American 12 inch were courtesy of none other than Double D and Steinski.

Doctor Pablo and Dub Syndicate - Doctor Who?
(Ron Grainer)
Recorded over two years and finally issued in 1984 ÒNorth of the River ThamesÓ (ONULP30) showcased the melodica talents of one-time Creation Rebel, Doctor Pablo a.k.a. Pete Stroud. Under the influence of the great Augustus Pablo, the albuumÕs title reflected PabloÕs "East of the River Nile". This version of "Doctor Who?" still sounds awesome in the dancehall today and is often played out clubwise in the excellent dub selection of Mr. Andrew Weatherall.

Creation Rebel - African Space
(Creation Rebel)
From the 1981 album "Psychotic Jonkanoo" whaich was leased to and released by Statik in the UK due to the embryonic On-U mega-corporation not quite having the financial stability or the organisational wherewithal to get through the tedious mechanics of actually releasing a record. During this period the release of an On-U album was at best ignored or at worst derided by the majority of the press and radio. The UK was in the grip of the ground-breaking New Romantics - whilst in the Bronx, Africa Bambaata was cutting zulu beats in a gymnasium. How things have changed, the hip gradient is so short these days! John Lydon guested on the "Psychotic Jonkanoo" album providing vocal harmony (?) on the track "Mother DonÕt Cry".

New Age Steppers - State Assembly
(New Age Steppers)
Inevitably the earliest On-U track on this compilation as it featured on the label's first album the self-titled "New Age Steppers". Not only was this On-U's first LP but it also boasted the label's daftest cover art by the never-to-be-forgotten Bill Bell - the front depicted a mock gyrating Elvis with a car tyre around his knees and a jeep in his face aside a giant footballing baby accomplishing a neat dribble, all this was set in the context of a minimal Soviet neo-constructivist design! The other side captuured a flipperless frogman in an Action Man pose juxtaposed with his missing flippers blown-up artfully above a minature crazy-paving design. Now lost for retrieval is the N.A.S. Peel session. Or is it? Seventeen assorted ex-Slits/Pop Group, Aswad and Creation Rebel members turned up for the musicians fees. Come on BBC - dig this out, we have a right to know!

Barmy Army - Sharp as a Needle
(A.Maxwell)
12 inch mix (ONUDP18) preceeding 1989's "The English Disease" album (ONULP48/CD8) and the true initiation of the new subbuteo generation born between the Heysel incident and the football club stock market floations of the 90's. The cut features Ministry's Al Jourgensen on keyboards and the Woodentop's Rollo on bass! The track was originally demo'ed as "Glory Glory" and intended for a Mark Stewart and the Maffia "B" side. A tribute to "King Kenny Dalglish in his Anfield days, or as Blackburn Rovers fans now refer to him - "that scotch bastard"!

Bim Sherman - Slummy Ghetto
(J.Vincent)
Lifted from the 1982 album "Across the Red Sea" from the singer with the silken larynx, Mr. Bim Sherman. Of the set's ten titles, seven were produuced by Sherwood at the Berry Street Studios in London, whilst the remaining three were produced by Jarrett Tomlinson a.k.a. Vincet a.k.a. Sherman in Kingston, jamaica. "Slummy Ghetto", one of the singer's most enduring tunes, was recorded and mixed at Harry J's and voiced at King tubby's - classic style! The albuum also included the song "Golden Locks", versioned by Bim for his 1996 Mantra album "Miracle" - a collection which has already achieved legendary status.

Dub Syndicate - The Show is Coming
(A.Maxwell/E.Wellington/N.Plytas)
Two enduring On-U classics, both tunes were originally released either side of one piece of 12 inch vinyl on the Italian Lacerworld/Contempo label, accompanied by Bim Sherman and the Roots Radic's "Lighthouse". "Night Train" and "The Show is Coming" were both later versioned by Lee Perry as "Music and Science Lovers" and "Train to Doomsville" respectively. Bim Sherman severally versioned "Night Train" as "Life", most notably on his recent "Miracle" album. Both tunes feature the sampled voice of D.J. Emperor Rosko, an early mentor to Sherwood in his soul boy days.

Gary Clail/Tackhead - Hard Left
(Maxwell/LeBlanc/Wimbish/Alexander/Clail)
Coinciding with Thatcher's avowed mission to pursue the death of socialism "Hard Left" found Gary Clail in controlled full-throttle following taking "Half-Cut for Confidence". Clail, the West country ragamuffin gypsy-boy, came into the On-U fold via Mark Stewart and ended up fronting the awesome Tackhead Sound System - later to become the On-U Sound System after Tackhead made the mistake of attempting to become an actual, as opposed to virtual, band. gary Clail subsequently became somewhat wealthy but rather less wise as a result of the On-U studio's biggest chart hit "Human Nature".

Fats Comet - D.J. Programme
(McDonald/Wimbish/LeBlanc/Maxwell)
Issued on World Records as a 12 inch, the other cuts on the rhythm being "D.J.'s Dream" and "Eat the Beat", and also the same rhythm as Mark Stewart's "Hypnotised" - versions of which came out via Mute. Cuts and scratches on this tune are reputedly coutesy of D.J. Cheese, although not credited on the label, circa his fifteen minutes of hip hop fame with Word of Mouth.

Tackhead - What's My Mission Now
(Maxwell/LeBlanc/Wimbish)
About as brutal as the affair got in the mid eighties. Released as a 12 inch in late 1985 and fuelled by global conspiracy theory, Reaganomics and the increasing dominance of the military-industrial complex - all lyrical concerns of LeBlanc and Stewart et al - this tune did not exactly rule the dancehall. However, along with a few other notable outsiders, this noise initiated the furrow that many other "industrial" musicians have been stuck in ever since. But there again we don't blame Elvis for Whitesnake and Rainbow!

Starnge Parcels - Disconnection (Original Mix)
(A.Salvador/A.Maxwell/D.Wimbish/D.Harrow)
The original version and the opening track to Pay It All Back Volume 3 (ONULP/CD13). The MC introduction is courtesy of the Snakeman Show, Tokyo - Sherwood productions for the show can be sought out on the Japanese ALFA label, now sadly defunct. Featuring lead from Mark Stewart and a complex of vocal samples including a legendary contribution from W.S. Burroughs which inspired the series title. This track was re-recorded as the title track for the Strange Parcel's debut, and only, album (ONULP/CD57). The Stange Parcels unguided attempt to pick up where Fats Comet left off is probably best epitomised by the track ';To Be Free", also featured on PIAB Vol.3, on which the exquisite voice of ex-Peech Boy Bernard Fowler leads a spee-fuelled doo-wap beore the glorious late chorus from Akabu and the challenging interventions of Andy Fairley's voice.

Keith LeBlanc - Major Malfunction
(LeBlanc/Maxwell)
A masterpiece contained within a masterpiece and, despite his undisputed musical pedigree, the album from which this title track is taken remains as LeBlanc's most complete and satisfying work. Recorded rapid style in February 1986 in the immediate wake of the US Shuttle disaster.

Che - (Be My) Powerstaion
(Johnson/Sherwood/LeBlanc/McDonald/Wimbish)
A production contemporaneous with Sherwood's work on Ministry's "Twitch" album, the single appeared in 1986 on Virgin's Siren imprint, with different mixes surfacing on the US 12 inch version (Logarhythm). The rhythm was created for LeBlanc's "Heaven on Earth" track on his "Major Malfunction" set. The mysterious Che a.k.a. A.J.Johnson is ruumoured to have left the music biz after the release of his only album - 1989's "Narcotic" - and was ruumoured to be running a bar in his home town (Liverpool or Los Angeles?)

The Missing Brazilians - Igloo Inn
(A.Maxwell/K.Yamamoto)
Another On-U one-off, this time from 1984, and about as abstract as Sherwood got as a producer - that is in a sort of king Tubby meets Kraftwerk inna East End Gamelan stylee! The Missing Brazilians' set "Warzone" remains un-reissued to date and as such the vinyl is an On-U rarity. The album artwork presented an image straight out of German expressionist cinema but was actually made up of a black and white photo montage of the warehouses of Wapping which was at the time the base for On-U operations. Sherwood appeared enigmatically on the credits as "The Prisoner" continuing to eschew any pretence at being a "musician".

Dub Syndicate - Wadada (means love)
(S.Scott/A.Maxwell/B.Alexander)
From the album "Stoned Immaculate" (ONULP56/CD12) and released as a 12 inch promo in Japan on Spin/Alfa. The Prince Far I vocal samples are taken from his spoken introductions to the tracks "Give Love", "Hello Love Brother", "Glory to God" and "Good Music Brother" from his album with the Arabs "Dub to Africa". The set was originally on Sherwood's Hitrun label but it is now released via Pressure Sounds (PSCLP/CD002). Sherwood was greatly affected by the murder of his mentor Prince Far I, in Kingston in the early eighties, and very little reggae was produced at the On-U studios in the ensuing years. It was probably the collaboration with the Upsetter which fully eased the producer back into the groove.

African Head Charge - Dervish Chant
(B.Anderson/A.Maxwell/B.Alexander)
The definitive Head Charge album, "Songs of Praise" (ONULP50/CD11) was African Head Charge's fifth. Five years in the making the set was finally released at the end of 1990 providing the blueprint for the tide of inferior ethno-chant variations that followed in its wake. Even versioning the theme from "Neighbours" and releasing it as a single did not slow the rapidly growing cult status of Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah in the hearts of the festival going masses.

Andy Fairley - Jack the Biscuit
(A.Fairley)
Introduced to the On-U Sound by the Bristol contingent - Clail and Stewart - Andy Fairley was a poet/voice-over specialist who had been making distinctive, but largely uncredited, vocal contributions to On-U ouuput from the mid-eighties, notably the "Tackhead Tape Time" album and a wonderful "space orbit" section on Keith LeBlanc's "Stranger then Fiction" set. Andy's solo and sole album 1992's "System Vertigo" (ONULP61/CD17) features a particularly vicious set of rhythms with lyrics to match. However, "Jack the Biscuit" is another track lifted from "Pay It All Back Vol.3".

Little Annie - I Think of You
(A.Anxiety/D.Wimbish)
In 1992 former dancer, croupier, Face model and "cutsman" in a Bronx boxing gym, Little Annie a.k.a. Annie Anxiety a.k.a. Annie Bandez came up with an On-U mega-hit that never happened. With a rhythm reminiscent of another New York resident's chart moment - Lou Reed and "Walk on the Wild Side", Little Annie took a much more prosaic view of relationships. Despite achieving the distinction of being hailed as "Single of the Week" in Melody Maker (whah?), the On-U promotion machine spectacularly failed to take advantage and generate the interest required for radio Djs to actually listen to and play this single, let alone getting them to believe it was as great as it actually was!

Lee 'Scratch Perry' - Jungle (Urban Breakdown)
(Perry/Maxwell)
The 10 inch discoplate mix of the tune versioned from "Ravi Shankar Pt.1", the opener of "Tunes from the Missing Channel" (ONULP38) and still the theme tune for "On the Wire". The album which featured the track, "Time Boom X de Devil Dead", had a limited run pressed up by On-U before being picked up for issue by the EMI-owned Syncopate label later in 1987. Maybe the Sherwood/Scratch collaboration was merciless mutual expoitation or openly creative joint effort, who knows? - but the result was the re-birth of the Upsetter as a viable and confident artist.

Audio Active - Free the Marijuana (12" mix)
(Audio Active)
Featuring Bim Sherman on vocals, this is a take by Audio Active on Lee "Scratch" Perry's "Free the Weed", produced by Sherwood and Skip McDonald and released as a 12" in 1994. The outfit started life as Vital Connection in the burgeoning and extremely knowledgable Japanese reggae scene (look out for the rare compilation"Mambo presents Yentown Dreadbeats" on Spin/Alfa where both incarnations appear). Since falling under the On-U spell they have made many trips to Europe and have become an established act on the label. Unusually for On-U artists Audio Active are a real band who ply gigs and record together!

2 Bad Card - Weed Specialist (Remix)
(C.Ogilivie/A.Maxwell)
2 Bad Card are Adrian Maxwell Sherwood and Carlton "Bubblers" Ogilivie. Named aftera Prince Far I tune, their next mutation will be as Badder Card, no doubt followed by Baddest Card. The debut album, "Hustling Ability" (ONULP/CD78), released in 1995 contained reggae classics both new and old, notably featuring Dennis Alcapone revisiting many of his famous DJ interjections. This version of "Weed Specialist" is the Audio Active remix on Japan's Massive label and to date has only been available on import.

Little Axe - 15 to 4
(B.Alexander/A.Maxwell)
The "house" in the title of Little Axe's debut album, "The Wolf that House Built", refers to the legendary Missippi bluesman Son House, not house music. "Wolf" is of course Howling Wolf. The two men are not known to have met, Wolf's greatest influence bing Charlie Patton. The albums title is therefore a mere play on words which is meant to indicate the interdependence of all blues music and inseparability of influences. Blues musicians did and do "sample" each other all the time and caried on their work with or without the interference of contractually releasing records. This rare track, one of the band's tuffest grooves, is only previously located on "Never Turn Back", the true album debut on Japan's Alfa imprint in 1993.

Jalal - Children of the Future
(Jalal/B.Alexander/A.Maxwell/D.Wimbish) Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin, late of The Last Poets, self-styled grandfather of rap, was to be found operating out of Europe in the mid 90's. This track was contained on his On-U produced album "On the One", issued out of Germany in 1995.

Little Roy - New Song
(E.Lowe)
The criminally under-recorded roots legend Litle Roy managed two album releases in 1996 - both via the On-U conglomerate. Firstly the Pressure Sounds compilation of the singer's strongest archive material ("Tafari Earth Uprising") - PSCD006) and then a collection of material which mixed versions of some old tunes with "new songs". Little Roy's "Longtime" (ONULP/CD87) is on schedule to become another cultural reggae classic.

Steve Barker
"On The Wire"
BBC Radio Lancashire