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#SoundsofCroydon
RAVE
Croydub was a regular event held in Croydon's Black Sheep Bar from 2008 to 2013, playing the latest dubstep songs by pioneers of the scene such as Benga, Chefal, Crazy D, Hatcha, Skream and more.
Dubstep was born in South London and combined the sounds of dub-reggae and 2-step garage to form a new musical creation. Dubstep was underground in the early days, but thanks to pirate station Rinse FM they were able to get dubstep to the masses.
By the early noughties it was really beginning to take off, with the BBC's Radio 1 even getting in on the action, playing the dirty beats of dubstep to its late night audience. With the rise of blogs and social media sites during this time, these helped to accelerate the growth of dubstep and soon dubstep songs were entering mainstream charts across the world.
After dubstep took flight, the Croydub event at Black Sheep Bar brought Dubstep back to its roots. The song you can hear playing now, Night by Benga and Coki, was the first dubstep song many people had heard for the first time and it remains a classic to this day.
The Rave section of this exhibition highlights the impact of dubstep on the people of Croydon, taking you through a night of dubstep, thanks to photographer Ben Donoghue who shot this series of black and white images during his time as resident Croydub photographer at The Sheep, he perfectly captures this moment in music history.
Press play and enjoy
Ben Donoghue always found it more comfortable to be behind the camera instead of in front of it, realising he enjoyed pointing and shooting along with the challenge of trying to get the right angle and settings to take a photo that mirrored the way he saw things with his own eyes.
After a few years of self teaching and practising, he went to university but quickly came to the conclusion that he didn't need a degree, to do what he wanted to do with a camera and so he continued his photographic journey alone.
Diving deep into the underground music scene in London, he found photographic playgrounds to hone his skills. Places such as Cable, Plan B and The Dome became a home away from home for meeting new friends to call family and discovering all kinds of new opportunities.
Skip a few years on and now all of those places he called home have been shut down. He now finds comfort where ever his camera takes him, becoming a tool for capturing the things he enjoys the most.
Whether that may be documenting skate competitions in the Netherlands, or halfway up a Himalayan mountain shooting music videos in India, he no longer feels grounded to a particular place anymore, just wanting to help people in anyway his camera can.