Joe Yorke
Angleterre | Live
Hailing from the North-West of England, singer and composer Joe Yorke found his true love for music during his teenage years. Seduced by Punk, Folk and Reggae music, he started diving into the styles and after learning guitar he was a common sight on the streets of Wigan and Manchester busking his favourite songs. In 2006, he went to the Notting Hill Carnival and experienced the UK’s soundsystem scene for the first time. Shaken and moved by the sounds in the streets of the famous north London festival, his desire to become a part of the movement was galvanised.
He moved to Moss Side, Manchester, in his late teens and started to get fully immersed in the Dub and Reggae scene centred around the Junction pub and The Big Western. Spending his days working a day job alongside producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eeyun Purkins, and his nights shaping songs in studios across the city a musical partnership was born. They both played in a band called “Black Star Dub Collective” and took part in weekly jam sessions in Hulme. This training ground exposed Joe to a lot of talented musicians from the local reggae community, including alumni from the legendary Jamaican Alpha Boy School. Around this time, Joe joined “Conscious Youth” and alongside his comrades met Nucleus Roots’ Paul Lush, from whom they learn many valuable lessons.
Fusing live music on the one hand and soundsystem on the other, Joe Yorke embraces the full spectrum of the Reggae scene, without ever being limited by its codes. His musical foundation comes from Jamaican Rocksteady and Dub but he also takes a strong influence in Soul, Folk, Dub Techno and Experimental music. Today Joe is based in Bristol and manages his own label, Rhythm Steady, on which he’s released some of his own productions on 7” vinyl. He continues to live the Reggae life making good use of his exceptional tone of voice, laying vocal gems for artists such as The Co-Operators and more recently Stand High Patrol, with whom he has collaborated on several singles. Classed as one of the most promising UK artists of his generation, he continues his musical progression to the beat of his own drum.