MUSIC fans will be able to get hands on with Huddersfield’s rich dub and reggae past.

Mirfield-based Let’s Go (Yorkshire) is building a sound system based on the kind used by Jamaican artists visiting Huddersfield in the 1970s.

The sound system will be built by Huddersfield DJ and reggae enthusiast Paul Huxtable (aka Axis Sound System) as part of the Let’s Go Sound System Culture project.

The Heritage Lottery-funded project celebrates the history of the town’s Jamaican immigrants and the sound system, a linchpin of post-war Jamaican culture.

The sound system will tour the Huddersfield Carnival on July 13, the Deighton Carnival on June 29 and two other carnivals yet to be confirmed.

And tied in with it, organisers plan to stage an exhibition of photos from the days of the reggae clubs and concerts in Huddersfield.

Now they want people who went to the gigs and clubs to come forward with photos.

Axis’ system, which will also be on display at the Tolson Museum, will include a turntable, speakers, an empty speaker displaying a film and a set of rare dub and reggae records.

DJs, MCs and record selectors (known as ‘selectas’) would build their own custom sound systems to play at street parties.

They would compete against other sound systems.

Huddersfield played a major part in the UK’s Caribbean music scene during the 1970s.

Touring artists from Jamaica and the West Indies would often play the town, including at Silver Sands (later Cleopatra’s) music venue, on Venn Street.

The club had been home to the town’s West Indian community for many years.

Musicians would remix reggae songs and record them onto ‘dubplates’ to create their own exclusive versions of tunes.

In keeping with this tradition, the project will be making dubplates mixing dub and reggae tunes with oral histories from Huddersfield’s Jamaican immigrants.

Project manager Mandeep Samra said: “The installation will inspire audiences to find different ways of relating to stories, sound and space.

“It will allow its audience to touch as well as listen to the past.”

Mandeep added: “If anyone has any photos we can borrow for the exhibition, please get in touch via: Mandysamra@hotmail.com”