A heartfelt tribute to the dubplate master
I woke up this morning with a tune stuck in my head: “Book of History” by the Meditations, a powerful song with great harmonies on the same riddim as Linval Thompson’s “All Night Long”. Natty Frontline played me a oneaway dubplate cut of it in 2024 during one of my dubplate hunting visits to his house, straight from mastertape. And for some reason, I didn’t buy the cuts that day.
About an hour later, I left for the climbing gym, convinced that I had to plan another visit to Natty’s to catch up and listen to dubs, and also wondering why he hadn’t called me for some while. When I looked at my phone, I read the sad news that the dubplate master passed away this morning. Instant chills.
Since my early days of running a sound system about 10 years ago, people had been telling me that there was only one person who could provide you with the best foundation dubplates: Natty Frontline; a somewhat mysterious soundman who had piles and piles of acetates lying around his house. It took me a few years, but I eventually managed to link up with Mr. Frontline and we immediately spent hours talking about his life in music, even cracking jokes with Jah Thomas through the phone.
There was one rule during these talks: I should not ask Natty anything about his childhood, as that would make him very sad. Natty was born in London during the mid-1950s as a child of the Windrush Generation. He started following Dennis Bovell’s Battersea-based Jah Sufferer Sound System as a youth during the early 1970s and soon took over the sound as a selector when Bovell’s Matumbi band started touring more often.
Natty continued his sound system journey amongst greats, selecting for Sir Coxsone Outernational from the mid 1970s on. At that time, Sir Coxsone was one of the leading sounds in the UK, with Festus and Natty at the controls and Lloydie Coxsone running the business. Around 1977, a Brixton-based sound owner by the name of Trevor Frontline took on Natty in his crew because he already had a good dubplate catalog. With Trevor’s funds, Natty and the Frontline crew were able to buy boxes and amplifiers from Lord Koos Sound and the rest is history.
Frontline International soon became a leader on the UK sound system circuit during the 1980s rub-a-dub days with Natty at the controls and talented MC’s such as Welton Youth, Colonel Flux, Chuckie and Grandfather on microphone duty. On top of that, the sound was also a launching platform for many deejays. A few examples are Joe 90, Smiley Culture and Asher Senator.
Natty packed up Frontline Sound towards the end of the 1980s when dancehall became the main thing on the Jamaican music circuit. But this didn’t mean that his musical career came to an end. Right up to his death in 2026, he stayed ever relevant in collecting and selling dubplates, in playing out all over the world with his sparring partner Welton Youth and in licensing music from Yabby You and Roy Francis, among others. Natty was a true character and a figure of inestimable value for reggae music and sound system history. Roots reggae dubplates are of great value in the sound system world and Natty was a reliable source, even though he wouldn’t just drop his plates into your lap. Those who know, know…
Rest in peace, dubplate master.