Ashley Beedle

Ashley Beedle is one of those people whose music is written through our record collections like the word Blackpool through a stick of rock, for those of us of a certain age. He recorded with David Holmes and Lindsay Edwards as The Disco Evangelists, as Black Science Orchestra and with Rocky and Diesel as X- Press 2 and The Ballistic Brothers, as a DJ in his own right and has been responsible for more great remixes than you could fit into one post. 

In 1995 The Ballistic Brothers released this tribute to a London record shop, a magnificent slice of uptempo dance dub. 

Peckings

Sadly Ashley has been very unwell. After recovering from prostate cancer Ashley suffered an enormous brain bleed and seizure in November 2023. During a sixteen hour operation to remove a brain mass he had a major stroke. He's been in hospital ever since, losing the movement in his arm and leg on his right hand side and his speech too. Ashley is recovering some speech but is still very unwell and requires a wheelchair and other assistance due to the loss of mobility on his right side. There is a fundraising page here with more details and if you wish to and are able, you can help. 

Back in 2009 Ashley recorded an hour long mix for New York's Beats In Space, an inspired mix that finds dub in all sorts of places. 

Electronic Rudie! Dub Can't Fail

Generations Walking - Midnight Bustling (Francois Kevorkian Dub)
Basement 5 - Immigrant Dub
The Pop Group - 3:38
Dub Pistols feat . Rodney P - You'll Never Find (Dub)
Stiff Little Fingers - Bloody Dub
Generation X - Wild Dub
Flesh For Lulu - I'm Not Like Everybody Else (Dub Version)
The Pogues - Young Ned Of The Hill (Dub Version)
The Clash - One More Dub
Bauhaus - Here's The Dub (She's In Parties)
Leftfield - Dub Gussett
Air - How Does It Make You Feel? (Adrian Sherwood Mix)
Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection)
Reverend And The Makers - Sundown On The Empire (Adrian Sherwood On U Sound Disneydubland)
The Clash - Robber Dub
The Specials/Rico Rodriguez - Ghost Town (Extended Mix)

Going Ballistic

The Ballistic Brothers made a handful of laid back, jazzy, electronic, street albums in the 1990s. I sometimes wish they'd toughen up at bit, dig deeper into Ashley Beedle's reggae and Rocky and Diesel's house backgrounds, but there's some good stuff in the back catalogue. London Hooligan Soul from 1995 has the very ace ska tribute song Peckings, which appeared here well over a year ago. The album also has highly entertaining sleeve notes romantically detailing 'London hooligan soul' life- bunking school, casual clothing (Fila, Lacoste, Lois, Tachini), Blair Peach, soul weekenders, Studio One, the Tory government, The Jam, Phuture, East Grinsted, Bognor, poll tax riots- 'a thousand stories of promised lands and meccas'. This song closed the album.

Uschi's Lament

The Ballistic Brothers 'Peckings'

The Ballistic Brothers were a post-Acid House supergroup of sorts, made up of Ashley Beedle, Rocky and Diesel, and Nuphonics David Hill, specialising in 'jazz influenced, down-tempo, funky electronica music' (quote from Wiki, doesn't sound too appealing put like that does it?).

This is Peckings, tribute a London reggae record shop. The track is a blast, sounding like it could have come out of Jamaica's Studio 1 in the late 60s rather than Shepherd's Bush in the mid 1990s. Proper skanking action.

Peckings.mp3