Reggae lovers are in for a treat. It’s not every weekend that an absolute legend like Dawn Penn comes to sing in Cowley.
For just £15 you can witness a live performance from a living icon of Jamaican musical history at the No8 Club (formerly Buddy’s and more recently Buzz Club) in Cowley Road on Friday night.
Dawn’s 1967 rocksteady hit, You Don’t Love Me (No No No), shot her on to global recognition, and some say that very song is where the reggae style of lovers’ rock was born.
Dawn was there at the heart of the scene, recording in Studio One, Kingston, Jamaica, when demigods such as Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry were also cutting their legendary tracks.
It’s hard to imagine a world without ska or reggae, a unique sound which even today is almost impossible to not move to. And Dawn was there at its birth in the mid 60s.
At last count, sections of You Don’t Love Me (No No No) have been sampled eight times on major hits by other artists, and has appeared on tracks with Bob’s own sons Stephen and Damien Marley.
Other Dawn Penn hits include Why Did You Leave?, Broke My Heart and covers of To Sir With Love and Here Comes The Sun.
You may want to familiarise yourself with those lesser known tunes (as I just have) on YouTube before attending the gig. See you there.
If you are driving, punch UB8 2DX into the sat nav, otherwise the 222 and U5 buses from Uxbridge bus station (with Tube connection), and up from the south, stop at Station Road, Cowley, more or less opposite.
