Dub Pistols

Dub Pistols play The Hairy Dog on Saturday 14 November, with doors opening at 19:00. They're a British electronic band formed in London in 1996 and led by frontman Barry Ashworth, who's been at the helm since the start. Their sound pulls from a fair few places — dub, punk, ska, reggae, hip-hop and breakbeat all sitting in the same set.

They grew out of the mid-1990s big beat explosion, with Ashworth and Jason O'Bryan signing to Concrete Records; their debut album, Point Blank, came out in 1998. The breakthrough followed a few years later with Six Million Ways to Live in 2001, which gave them tracks like 'Problem Is', 'Cyclone' and the title track. After 9/11 the band returned to the UK, and Terry Hall of The Specials began appearing with them — an encounter that helped The Specials reform. They've stayed active for decades since then, throwing their first festival, Mucky Weekender, in 2019, and Ashworth has become a patron of Tonic Music For Mental Health, staging an annual 'Flying Circus' fundraiser.

There's new material to hear, too. Their most recent album, Frontline, arrived in 2023, and they've got a collaboration with The Freestylers, Enter The Sound, due in early 2025. So the set will draw from the newer stuff as well as the older records. The Hairy Dog is at 1 Becket Street, Derby DE1 1HT, and tickets are £22 including fees — that's £20 face value and a £2 booking fee. Doors open at 19:00.