Additional headliner announced!
We are very excited to tell you about our final act of the Vale Earth Fair 2025 – Dub Pistols! Back for the first time in 16 years, we can’t wait for them to take to the stage and finish off the night with their raucous reggae tunes.
Few bands can boast the longevity to release ten albums but the Dub Pistols certainly can. Blending the reggae, jungle, hip hop, drum and bass, and break beat, with a nod to their punk, new wave and Two-Tone roots, their live shows are incendiary, and they have gained a reputation as one of the hardest working bands on the live circuit - these renegade Pistoleros are unstoppable!
The Dub Pistols grew out of the big beat explosion of the mid-1990s. Taking a cue from the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, main man Barry Ashworth began making block rockin’ beats with pal Jason O’Bryan, and bombastic first offering ‘There’s Gonna Be A Riot’ was signed by Concrete Records, a subsidiary of DeConstruction. A string of missives followed in its wake — ‘Best Get Better’, the explosive ‘Westway EP’, and then a chipper ‘Cyclone’, which dented the UK national charts — and debut album ‘Point Blank’ was released in 1998.
As the noughties unfolded, Terry Hall (previously of The Specials) started doing shows with the Dubs and featuring on new tracks such as ‘Running From The Thoughts’, ‘Peaches’ and their cover of ‘Rapture’ by Blondie. The rapturous reception Terry received when he appeared with the Pistols alongside his other former Specials bandmate Lynval Golding at the Rise anti-racism festival in London in 2008 — performing The Specials’ first single ‘Gangsters’, amongst other tracks — was a major factor in The Specials reforming at Bestival later that year.
Ambitiously, the Dubs threw their first festival in 2019 — Mucky Weekender in the Sussex countryside. Featuring Leftfield, Stanton Warriors, Don Letts, Manasseh Soundsystem and many more, it caught the tail-end of the summer sun and was raved about by all attendees. The success of the first Mucky set it up nicely to become an annual event.
As 2021 began and the pandemic saw little sign of waning, the Dub Pistols released their cover of New Order’s seminal ‘Blue Monday’ on the third Monday of January to raise funds for the Tonic Mental Health Trust. A couple of months later they released their ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ mix album on Jungle Cakes, featuring a whopping 50 tracks by various dubwise jungle associates as well as artists like Deekline, Ed Solo, King Yoof and the Beat Assassins remixing some choice Dub Pistols cuts. This release also shot to the upper reaches of the UK dance charts.
Once Covid restrictions were lifted in mid-2021 the Dub Pustols were delighted to get out touring again. They rocked an assortment of festivals and also staged the second iteration of Mucky Weekender, this time on a new site in Winchester, Hampshire.
Groove Armada, Leeroy Thornhill (ex-Prodigy), The Freestylers and the Ragga Twins were just a few of the acts to nice up the dance over the long weekend.
This year has seen the Dub Pistols release of a couple of limited 7” singles of cover versions with the first being a skanking version of Kaiser Chiefs “I Predict a Riot”, and the second Edie Brickell’s “What I Am”, which features vocalist Shniece who appeared at last year’s Vale Earth Fair.
They’re also sneaking out a live reggae album later this year and re-releasing their 1998 debut album ‘Point Blank’ on vinyl to cater for the collectors amongst their fans — new and old. Recently the reformed Happy Mondays tweeted that the Dub Pistols were the best live band they’d seen in years. If that’s not a reason to come and see them, we’re not sure what is!
The Dub Pistols join Big Special and The Lovely Eggs as the Vale Earth Fair’s headline acts for this year, and with be sharing Vale Castle with other UK, Jersey and local acts including The Risk, Honest Crooks, Pillars, The Shabs, Eloise Fabbri, Tarantulips, Lula & Gene, Rosemary and Claymore with many many more to be announced across our 6 stages over the coming weeks.
We have festival tickets still available at https://valeearthfair.org/tickets so get them soon as this year is going to be huge!
We are also looking for volunteers to help out at the festival on the day as well as in the lead up and the pack down in the week before and after. If you would like to get involved in some moving, lifting, painting, building, driving, bar work, merch tent or ticket sales, please get in touch with us on our social media channels or by contacting holly@valeearthfair.org.
