Wubble-U

WUBBLE-U: A POTTED HISTORY Formed in the pub after a Millwall FC match in 1993, Wubble-U seemed like a good Idea at time. Dave “Deptford” Pine, Justin Bailey, Laurant Webb and David “Pigbwoy” Coker - four headstrong individuals from differing backgrounds, brought together by football and the early rush of Acid House – surely a recipe for disaster….Part of the bands initial charm was a cheerful ignorance of how dance music was made. They also quickly showed a taste for the eclectic; on signing to Go!Discs (home at the time to Portishead, Paul Weller and the Las) in 1994 their first release was the Patti Smith sampling “Love Is The Fire”. The Wubble-U philosophy gradually emerged: a love of all things British, from mod pop culture to eccentric word play; a firm belief that nothing is sacred; and a desire to create a hybrid sound that somehow summed up their diverse record collections. Dub, punk, techno, music hall, mod, old English folk – everything was thrown into the Wubble-U melting pot.After a spluttering start with Go!, they created what would go down as Wubble-U’s most successful track – “Petal”. Combining the sounds of progressive house, bumble bees, cricket bats and the poetic, spoken word nonsense in the tradition of Lear, Elliot and Milligan, Wubble-U set out to write the first quintessentially English dance tune. They collaborated with Professor Stanley Unwin, inventor of the language Unwinese and famous in pop lore as the provider of the psychedelic spoken interludes on the Small Face’s classic “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake”, who provided the vocals along with the gorgeous Charlotte “Charlie One” Fairman. “Petal”, which was later given a proper release on Indolent in 1996 became a bona fide anthem around the world, making the top 5 of the UK dance charts and championed by DJs from Seb Fontaine to Norman Cook.Changing labels after Go! lost its independence to PolyGram, in 1996 Wubble-U signed to Indolent (BMG RCA), which at the time was a mid table Brit Pop label not known for dance music. After the success of Petal (and it’s truly hat stand video shot in Paris – heavily rotated on MTV and now on You Tube!), Wubble-U followed with a string of club floor gems – “Smoking Pot”, “Slap and Tickle” and “Pointye Shoes” to name a few – and prepared to release the album “Where’s Wubble-U?”. During this time Wubble-U was building a formidable reputation as a live act, touring extensively in the UK and in Europe, culminating in a performance at Glastonbury in 1997 and several sell out shows at the Roxy in Prague.Owing to the changing market, the music industry took a sharp swing towards pop at the end of the Nineties, with Indolent putting pressure on Wubble-U to come up with chart material. The result was “A Bit Like You” – a blistering 3-minute slab of punky dance mayhem with the catchiest chorus in history. It was made Steve Lamaq’s Essential Tune of the Week on Radio One, Jane Middlemiss said on her daytime show it was a “sure fire hit – or I will eat my hat” and Jonathan Ross championed it on Virgin radio. The band were invited onto the first ever CD:UK as the song was nationally play listed. Then disaster struck. Owing to the stupidity and incompetence of BMG RCA’s departing marketing director (last seen handling the meteoric career of “Pop Star” winners Hearsay – need we say more?), “A Bit Like You” was dropped from the schedule a week from release date. It was a blow from which the band never really recovered.The band soldiered on until 2000 when they finally called it a day. They remain friends and still collaborate on a variety of musical projects.THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT…. For the first time, Wubble-U’s entire catalogue will be available to buy online, including several unreleased tracks, mixes and remixes, in the very near future. Watch this space for more details….