About Roni Size
Ryan Owen Granville Williams , better known by his stage name Roni Size, is an English DJ and record producer. He came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and frontman of Roni Size & Reprazent, a drum and bass collective. That year they won the Mercury Prize for their debut studio album New Forms.
Williams, son of Jamaican immigrants, grew up in the Bristol suburb of St. Andrews. He cites reggae as one of his early influences. He was expelled from school at the age of 16 and started attending house parties run by Bristol soundsystem The Wild Bunch . He learned the basics about music production at his local youth club, the Sefton Park basement project, which provided record players, a mixing desk, drum machines and samplers. He worked with his brother's comprehensive collection of Studio One records and later set up a home studio, buying a sampler.
His future musical partner, Krust, had been a member of the Fresh 4, whose "Wishing on a Star" reached the Top 10 of the UK singles chart in late 1989. Williams, Krust, Suv and DJ Die founded Full Cycle Records.
Aided by Chris Lewis, Roni Size founded the record label WTP as part of Circus Warp. With Dave Cridge who also DJed for Circus Warp and ran Replay Records Bristol, the two would visit The Record Basement in Reading and in 1993, Full Cycle and Dope Dragon were established. RCA Records employee Bryan Gee was an early admirer. In 1994, when Gee founded V Recordings, the first releases were Krust's Deceivers EP as catalogue number V001 and Agility, the debut release of Roni Size and DJ Die, as V002.
In April 1997, Roni Size & Reprazent had their live debut at Tribal Gathering. Williams created the group to perform live tracks he had been working on in the studio. The group included Full Cycle members Williams , Krust and Die, operating 'banks of equipment'; as well as Dynamite MC , Onallee , Si John , and Clive Deamer taking centre stage.
The group's debut studio album, New Forms, was released on 23 June 1997, with singles featuring the vocals of Onallee including "Brown Paper Bag", "Heroes", "Share the Fall" and "Watching Windows". The album went five times platinum, won the Mercury Prize, and Williams returned to the studio to concentrate on his output for V and Full Cycle and Dope Dragon.
Map & Directions To Venue
