February 2003, by the Easy Star All Stars (https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/albums/easy-star-all-stars-dub-side-of-the-moon.html). Using the pick of the reggae and soul community, who spent over three years on the work, Dub Side Of The Moon was one of the more outrageous attempts at reworking Floyd tunes that has come along over the years. And it works really well – so much so that Nick Mason has mentioned it on occasion as a version he enjoys, particularly over renditions by tribute bands and suchlike. The idea came about in 1999 when New York reggae label vice president Lem Oppenheimer convinced his colleagues that this was a viable concept to cover. He imagined it would “echo Dark Side’s album artwork – refracting Pink Floyd’s music vision through a prism of reggaes’s rich rhythmic and instrumental possibilities”. Gathering some of the best musicians of their genre, the producers approached the work seriously – so seriously in fact, that the (alleged) Wizard Of Oz synchronicity apparently works throughout! For those who missed out on it originally, or who fancy it on vinyl, Rough Trade (https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/easy-star-all-stars/dub-side-of-the-moon-a8b64474-be8b-435d-8336-ef0b3d906812) have announced an exclusive, coloured vinyl edition of just 300 copies available to order currently, ahead of the 5th August 2022 release date. As far as we are aware, it is the first time that this has been released on vinyl, previously being released on CD. Our thanks to Brendan Docherty for letting us know about this!
