Mike Anthony, co-founder, DJ
My mum was a singer and my dad had a band and played football with Bob Marley when he lived in Britain. My uncles were musicians, too, so as a child growing up in London, I was exposed to the Caribbean culture of setting up speakers in halls to listen to music. When I was 11, I saw a DJ and knew what I wanted to do. Four years later, I was at an under-16s rave when I saw Richie P [Richard Pascoe] grab the mic. From that night, he became my best friend. We started DJing at house parties as Rampage, which stood for “Richard and Mike performing and giving entertainment”.
Because I was naughty at school, my mum sent me to live with an uncle in Switzerland who, it turned out, ran the biggest music agency in Europe. I met James Brown, Nina Simone and Tina Turner and was soon DJing around Europe six days a week to earn my keep. When I saw my face on a poster for the first time, I thought: “I can do this in the UK.”
We borrowed some speakers from my dad’s band and drove them round in a Rover 3500 with the bass bins hanging out the back. Then we brought over artists like Naughty By Nature, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre to play their first shows in London, just as sound systems were starting to blow up. One morning, I came home at six after DJing and was woken up by bass rattling my windows. Jazzy B from Soul II Soul had set up a sound system outside my house for the Notting Hill carnival. The next year – 1993 – he wasn’t there. But because we knew the site, and could run a power cable from my house, they let us take his place. The first time we played the carnival, there was a loud screeching sound – it turned out a neighbour’s washing machine was interfering with our speakers! But the street was packed.
Rampage has benefited from playing a vast array of music: our only rules are never play a record twice and never stop the flow of music, which is why the BBC came to us when they wanted to set up Radio 1Xtra. We’ve always platformed new talent: the likes of the young Wiley and Stormzy have done carnival sets at Rampage. Idris Elba came down before The Wire. We had to turn down Mary J Blige because the police thought the crowd would be too crazy. When Ms Dynamite played, the crowd surge bent the metal barriers. Over 30 years after starting, we’re now the biggest static sound system in Europe. The most frequently asked questions at carnival are: “Where’s the nearest tube station?”, “Where are the toilets?” and “Where’s Rampage?”
Omar, singer
I first went along to Rampage at Notting Hill carnival in the early 90s. As a punter, it was the go-to place because they played all kinds of music, not just soca, reggae or calypso. They were trying to create a sound system for youngsters, so you’d hear jungle and hip-hop. I remember one time, when it was pissing down, they played When I Think of You by Janet Jackson. It didn’t matter that it was raining – the whole street was rammed.
When I released There’s Nothing Like This in 1991, I did quite a few personal appearances and one of them was at Rampage. That song blew up because of pirate radio stations and sound systems, so we stayed in touch. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve sung at Rampage since. I knew them when they were doing a pirate radio station in someone’s flat and I’ve been on 1Xtra with Rampage DJ Maurice Dennemont and the boys, as well as singer Terri Walker.
Rampage is Caribbean-influenced but has always been a very British sound: it’s Bob Marley’s Lively Up Yourself meets Knees Up Mother Brown! You know you’re going to hear horns and whistles. Whenever I sing there, I’m fortunate, in that the crowd ask to rewind the track. Standing next to their speaker boxes is the closest thing I’ve experienced to an earthquake.
• Rampage Sound System will be at Notting Hill carnival, London, 26-27 August. Omar performs at Rampage: Carnival Classics with the Jules Buckley Orchestra at the Barbican, London, on 1 July.
