KING SIZE

Roni Size was born in Bristol to Jamaican immigrant parents and grew up in the star-studded suburb of St. Andrew s (also home to Massive Attack, Tricky and (ahem) Smith and Mighty). He learnt the fundamentals of hip-hop through the area s sound systems, house parties and club nights, and started dabbling in reggae production in the late 80s.

He met his current labelmates DJ Krust, Die and Suv at the Glastonbury Festival in 1990, and the quartet stayed in touch and went on to form the Full Cycle label. A decade later, Roni is still largin it at the festivals, except this time round as highly billed live performer.
The last time I went to a Spanish Festival I could have got a better reception robbing a bank! laughs Size. But this time it was unbelievable. The crowd who always come to see us were brilliant and people like Ian Brown were playing. We did our own thing, and it stood out as
something different. We are different. There is no one else doing what we re doing. We re eight strong onstage and what we are doing is different. You could tell your kids about what we re doing.
Roni Size and Reprazent s live extravaganza certainly stands out in this season s summer line-ups. Size is one of the few contemporary exponents of breakbeat and drum n bass performed totally live.
I think there is plenty of good stuff out there, its just harder to find and for people to break into, explains Roni. It s become harder to take risks and gambles. But maybe if someone sees us doing it, they will form their own Reprazent and trust in it to break boundaries. We have our own label, Full Cycle, on which we ve just brought out our album Through The Eyes featuring the talents of Die, Krust, new artists such as Deep Products and Surge. It s all material which we ve played on dub plates DJing for the last two years. It s been tried and tested and we ve got a lot of stuff on the shelf waiting to come out. We have very active breakbeats so it immediately gets people. In Ireland, it is brand new. This is our first time here as Reprazent.
Is Roni familiar with any of our indigenous drum n bass producers?
Bass Odyssey came on tour with us last summer, so we know about everything that s going on here. It s all about spreading the gospel. It is music that people get excited about it and read about it. It s important that someone like, you, too spreads the gospel. Without you there is no us. The show is hard. There is no strings attached and it s real.