The Easy Stars All-Stars have established themselves as one of the top international reggae acts on the scene today by blending musical versatility, instrumental prowess, beautiful vocal harmonies and a premier rhythm section.

The US/Jamaican band have a wide range of backgrounds which takes them around the world – they’ve toured in over 30 countries on six continents, bringing together fans of reggae, classic rock, dub and indie rock into one big family. Some of their best-selling releases are dub covers of work by Pink Floyd, our own Radiohead and Michael Jackson, with Dub Side of The Moon, Radiodread, and Easy Star’s Thrillah.

They were inspired by Stevie wonder, James Brown, Steel Pulse and Bob Marley & the Wailers.

Ivan Katz has been drumming with the band since the beginning, 16 years-ago. “Everyone in this band and at Easy Star Records is a true reggae lover,” he says. “And that is the simple reason we are all in this. The band is a very diverse, interesting, and unique group of singers and players of musical instruments.”

Ivan encourages us to come and “leave all our worries behind for 90 minutes and walk away feeling enlightened”. This year the band are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing with a series of shows in Europe. “We’re basically all coming together to get down” he says. “Each time we return to the UK, we feel honoured to be back in your town and have the opportunity to move y’all one more time. Y’all get what we’re doing, and that makes it more meaningful for us, we can’t wait to see everyone at the shows and are truly grateful for all the love the UK has had for our project over the years.”

Oxford Mail:

Ivan described their target audience as “Reggae lovers, rock lovers, soul lovers, pop lovers, jazz lovers and hip hop lovers.... young, old, anyone who is open minded or needs their mind opened and is ready to get down.”

The band are playing at the Bullingdon on Wednesday with the Gentlemen’s Dub Club. The show will include complete plays of Dub Side of the Moon, along with the usual cross-section of music from the rest of the band’s tribute albums and original material.

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“We’re always striving to be better than the last tour, the last show,” says Ivan. “ Even when we’re playing tunes we’ve performed for the last 16 years, We want each performance to be better than the last. Over the years in addition to adding new tribute album projects to expand our musical pallet, we have written and created a nice collection of original tunes that can be heard in our live set and on Easy Star All-Stars albums “Until That Day” and “First Light”, as well as on solo albums from various band members.” To all aspiring musicians Ivan advised “Play from your heart, never ever give up, find your own unique voice and build and cultivate that over a lifetime.”

  • Easy star All-stars play The Bullingdon, Oxford on Wednesday
  • easystarallstars.net