Mikey Dread
Michael Campbell began his career as a DJ and sound engineer at Jamaican Broadcasting Corporation (JBC), where he adopted the moniker Mikey Dread and hosted "Dread at the Controls." His mixture of crucial reggae sides and stirring between-song soliloquies quickly made him one of the country's most popular on-air personalities, but his clashes with JBC management led him to resign in 1979. By that time, however, he'd already begun recording his own music.
His early albums won him acclaim in Jamaica (as did his production work with fellow reggae artists like Sugar Minott and Jah Grundy), and he appeared at the '79 Reggae Sunsplash festival with such luminaries as Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Third World. But it was with 1980's "World War III" that Mikey Dread broke onto the UK charts. This led to collaborations with The Clash (he produced "Bank Robber" and several tracks on "Sandinista" for Joe Strummer and company), UB40 and other acts. He hosted the British TV series Rockers Roadshow, among many others, became an accomplished editor and photographer, and educated himself sufficiently about the music business to gain control over his own catalog.
In 2008, just a year after releasing the acclaimed album "Life Is a Stage," Mikey succumbed to brain cancer. But his powerful recordings and extraordinary range of accomplishments represent a heady legacy.
Our Mikey Dread T-shirts are fully licensed, endorsed and made from the softest prewashed and shrunk cotton jersey. We faithfully reproduce the original articles as tracked down by Worn Free from archive images.
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Mikey Dread T-Shirts
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