How We Made It: Dennis Bovell + Mad Professor

Join us for a free evening of performance and explanation with two pioneers of British dub: Dennis Bovell and Mad Professor. Presented as a live performance-lecture, this special edition of How We Made It explores dub as a practice of innovation, adaptation, and sonic imagination. Programmed in dialogue with The Music is Black: A British Story, this event extends the exhibition’s exploration of Black British music-making through the live, experimental language of dub. 

For both Bovell and Mad Professor, Jamaican innovators like King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry were both inspiration and challenge: to understand how Jamaican studio visionaries advanced the sound of reggae and how their British reinterpretations of dub shaped reggae and lovers rock and carved unexpected paths into punk, indie, trip hop, and electronica.

Together they will unpack how dub expanded the limits of music production and sound-system performance. As described by Lloyd Bradley, dub ‘… combined resourcefulness, shared practice, advancing technology, and singular artistic vision;’ in Britain, these conditions sparked new possibilities. Through live listening, sonic demonstration, and conversation, on the night both men will reveal how bass, space, remix, and risk became tools for remaking music.

Expect deep bass, rare insight, and a first-hand account of how British dub raised the musical stakes—and changed the sound of a generation.

We will welcome walk-ups if places become available.  
Filming and photography will take place at this event.
Limited seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have any access requirements, please let us know in advance by emailing accessibility@vam.ac.uk