Rodigan: My Life in Reggae
David Rodigan
(Constable, £9.99)

Whether you’re a reggae aficionado or not, DJ David Rodigan’s story is a fascinating piece of musical and social history.

[[{"fid":"2778","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]The son of a soldier, Rodigan spent his early years in Libya before moving to the outskirts of Oxford, where he discovered Jamaican music as a 13-year-old watching Millie Small’s My Boy Lollipop on television in 1964.

Riding the wave of a consistent British love for Jamaican music over more than 50 years — which has manifested itself in everything from skinhead ska to the more modern variants of drum & bass and grime — his life since that epiphany has been dedicated to evangelising about reggae, most notably as a DJ with Radio London, Capital, Kiss FM, and latterly the BBC.

Each chapter in this book begins with a small historical study of some aspect of reggae, neatly tying each short lesson into Rodigan’s own story as he tries to fit his passion into his everyday life.

In general, the storytelling — nicely constructed by ghost writer Ian Burrell — strikes an excellent balance between providing enough detail to keep the reggae fan happy while also allowing the lay person to understand and enjoy what’s going on.

Right from the off we’re drawn into Rodigan’s world through a fleeting, almost magical, 1973 encounter with Bob Marley in Fulham and from then on we begin to understand his obsession with a form of music that has dominated his thoughts and actions since teenage years.

It’s gripping stuff, though not in any dramatic sense — there are no great revelations or headline-grabbing confessions and Rodigan is clearly not a man to dish the dirt, even if he has any to distribute.

Much of what we hear is of an ordinary world of girlfriends and damp flats, jobs in record shops, nights out and new musical discoveries.

Even as fame and a certain amount of fortune comes his way, the story moves only in the modest direction of heroes met and of dreams fulfilled.

If that sounds boring, then it’s not. It’s an inspiring tale about a humble, honest man whose determination to stick to his musical guns has led him into a whole world of pleasure.

Only over the last few pages, when we get rather too much detail about various sound system clashes and live gigs does the book begin to falter. It’s as if the author can find no way to bring the narrative to an end.

Maybe that’s because, at the age of 66, Rodigan is still going strong. No doubt there will be more anecdotes to tell in the future, perhaps in an updated version of this highly entertaining book.