This is the very first biography of Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock, the Dub Inventor and the operator of the best sound system ever. In the late 60s, he totally reshaped the musical landscape in Jamaica.
He’s at the root of Dub, Dub plates and of the deejays phenomenon, as U Roy was the resident deejaying at the King Tubby’s Home Town Hi-Fi .
Later in the 1970s, King Tubby shaped the roots sound of reggae music thanks to the iconic MCI console (and its big knob) that he set up in his mother’s former bedroom at 18 Dromilly Avenue, in Kingston 11, Waterhouse. About the King Tubby’s Hometown Hi-Fi Ehrengardt says “In the 1960s, King Tubby was operating a small “beer garden” sound system. His childhood friend Snaffles was always here when he played. Before setting up the Hi-Fi, they listened carefully to find out whether another sound system was playing around. “The first thing we used to do was to find the tallest breadfruit tree around to put our steel horns,” Snaffles says. “The idea was to direct them towards the rival sound systems. If let’s say Lord Kelly’s was playing two miles away, we directed them towards him, to make sure he’d hear us (laughter)!”
