Dub Vendor is a long-standing, and pioneering, London vendor of ska and reggae music, that is now, mainly a London-based,

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing ...

company specialising in Jamaican music. In 2006, ''

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an engine ...

'' termed it "the best source of Jamaican music in Europe".

History

Founded by John MacGillivray and Chris Lane, Dub Vendor began life in 1976 as a market stall in London's Clapham Junction in response to the considerable lack of

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

music at the time. Clapham Junction at that time was a poor inner suburb, and the surging population of immigrants from the West Indies made Battersea and nearby Brixton their new homes. The stall, and the shop that followed, were instant successes, and the second Dub Vendor store (or 'record shack' as it's known) opened four years later in

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given to ...

right next to the Underground station. In response to London's reggae scene flourishing in the early 1980s, larger premises were required to cater for the increasing demand for reggae, ska, and allied genres. Subsequently, 274 Lavender Hill became Dub Vendor's flagship store and also the home of its home-brew recording studio label,

Fashion Records Fashion Records is a UK-based record label, publishing reggae music. Founded in summer 1980, Fashion Records is one of the more successful UK-based reggae labels, and one of only a few British reggae labels to release records that were prod ...

. The Ladbroke Grove shack continued to operate alongside the

Lavender Hill The A3036 is an A road in London, England, running from Waterloo to Wandsworth. Route It starts at the southern tip of the County Hall roundabout where the A302 Westminster Bridge, York Road and A23 Westminster Bridge Road all interse ...

store until 1991, when it was moved down the road to 150 Ladbroke Grove, due to the lack of space in the shack to accommodate the ever-increasing patronage. The future for the Ladbroke Grove branch began to look bleak, however, as sales fell and the rent increased. The final nail in the coffin came in 2007 in the form of the introduction of the Western Extension of London's congestion charge, which resulted in the store closing its doors to the public just over a year later on 28 June 2008. In September 2011, it was announced that its store in Clapham Junction is closing down after damage sustained in the riots that took place in London the previous month.

Dub Vendor more recently

As of September 2015, Dub Vendor now have a shop on

Portobello Road Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London. It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is ...

in the Mau Mau Bar and a live music venue in Ladbroke Grove.

References

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External links

Official site

A sample of Dub Vendor's CTP - Pod 16 - Martin Jondo ia available online at the Internet Archive
Music retailers of the United Kingdom Retail companies based in London Reggae culture

History

Dub Vendor more recently

See also

References

External links