Big Audio Dynamite
Big Audio Dynamite were formed in London in 1984 by ex-Clash
guitarist Mick Jones, who was still under contract with CBS. He
recruited Dan Donovan, Leo Williams, Greg Roberts and film-maker
(and non-musician) Don Letts.
Although their 1985 debut single The Bottom Line soon
became a favourite it narrowly missed out on a chart placing. The
follow-up single, E=MC2, gave them a close brush with the
Top 10 the following year, resurrecting sales of the critically
acclaimed but commercially disastrous album This Is . . .
Mick's unique punk-ish vocals with the funky band sound was not
unlike a danceable version of The Clash. The follow-up single, Medicine
Show, went Top 30. A second album, No. 10 Upping Street
(1986) was even more ambitious, featuring contributions from
Jones' former mucker, Joe Strummer.
The following two years saw the band struggling as Jones
survived a near-fatal bout of pneumonia, and the albums Tighten
Up Vol. 88 (1988) and Megatop Phoenix (1989) bravely
attempted to further push the boundaries between different genres
of music (mixing up reggae, hip-hop and even country).
By the end of the decade, the B.A.D blueprint was being more
successfully and inventively interpreted by a new wave of white
kids armed with samples, drum machines and an attitude - enter
EMF, Jesus Jones etc . . .
The original line-up split at the turn of the decade although
Jones recruited new players for Big Audio Dynamite II - namely
Nick Hawkins, Gary Stoneage and Chris Kavanagh (ex-Sigue Sigue
Sputnik). The revamped band recorded a further couple of
critically and commercially underwhelming albums, Kool-Aid
(1990) and The Globe (1991) - with DJ Zonka adding his
turntable skills to the latter.
Though Jones continued working under the B.A.D name into the
90s, his output was largely confined to a cult following.
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