Dreadzone are an amazing live band and to see that they are gracing the main stage at this year's Beautiful Days Festival bought a HUGE smile to our faces! We chatted to MC Spee about what festivals mean to him, his top tips to getting the most out of a three day music festival and the all important hangover cure!
I don't think there's many people who attend Beautiful Days Festival that AREN'T familiar with you but for any 'BD Virgins', please describe your band and music.
The band is made up of the rhythm section from B.A.D. (Big Audio Dynamite) a very successful band from the 1980's (Greg & Leo), a legendary Studio One vocalist (Earl 16), a technical alchemist, rising drum n' bass star, producer and DJ (Bazil) and of course me, jack of all vocals, master of most! We're a soundtrack to people's lives with a sprinkling of reggae, hip-hop, dance and dub!
I took a look back over the past few years and saw that we have covered a number of your live shows when you've played in Exeter, how do your festival shows differ from a regular show?
With festivals, you're going to get people who haven't seen us before so that really widens our audience, you can play in front of thousands of people, club gigs are more intimate and close up and you might only be playing to a few hundred but the energy can still be electrifying!
Standing in a field watching bands has become a popular pastime for us Brits, what do you think it is about music festivals that appeals to so many people?
When the weather is good, standing in a field listening to your favourite bands with friends, food and drink, what more could you ask for?
Please give me your top three tips to get the most out of a three day music festival?
- Put your tent up before you start drinking or partaking in 'other things'....
- Pace yourself, you're there for three days, not three hours!
- ALWAYS take your tent and rubbish home with you!
What is your preferred tipple at a festival?
A nice cold beer if the weather is good, plenty of water and after the show, a decent bottle of red wine!
And best hangover cure?
There are so many to choose from, eat something, do something, hair of the dog, mine is get a nice ice cold supermalt because it replaces all of the 'B' vitamins that you lose when you're drinking!
We’ve had some stunningly good weather in the UK over the past 6 weeks, please predict the forecast for Beautiful Days using your music instead of snow/rain/wind etc.
The temperature will 'Rise Up' and the weather front will come over 'Little Britain' and there will be a scattering of 'Life Love & Unity'
Where can people keep up to date with you?
You can catch us on the Dreadzone Facebook page, we've got our own YouTube channel where you can see loads of videos that the fans and we have uploaded, just type 'Dreadzone' into any search engine and we'll be there!
Lastly, please tell me WHY people should come and see you when you perform at Beautiful Days?
You will experience one of the BEST bands that have ever played at a festival!
We'd like to thank MC Spee for sparing his time to chat to us and we wish them every success for the future. For information, the band are playing at The Pig's Nose in East Prawle on Friday 16th August but you'll probably already be at Beautiful Days Festival by then!