HE has worked with artistes as colourful and disparate as Marvin Gaye, Madness, The Slits, Bananarama, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Boomtown Rats, Wet Wet Wet and more recently Joss Stone.

His band once supported The Wailers, featuring classic Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer line-up. Still to his embarrassment, more than 40 years later, it was Matumbi who won the critical plaudits.

Now Dennis Bovell, one of the giants of British reggae, has something new lined-up – a one-off gig with Swindon’s reggae-rock steady ambassadors, The Erin Bardwell Collective.

The show at The Vic in Old Town on Saturday, October 17, will see the Swindon quintet backing Bovell after they invited him to play in the town.

The multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, composer, band leader and producer says: “Erin asked me ‘come and do a gig in Swindon’ and I said ‘OK, but I’m not bringing a band – I’m going to sing with your band.’”

He had seen the EBC a couple of times and was suitably impressed. “They know how to play. They’ve been rehearsing some of my songs for a few weeks now. It’s going to be a merger, a fusion - something new.”

Barbados-born Dennis attained fame with Matumbi, with Steel Pulse and Aswad one of Britain’s all-time leading reggae bands who reached the UK Top Ten with Point of View in 1979.

Their 1973 London gig supporting The Wailers saw Matumbi win over the critics rather than Bob Marley’s outfit. Dennis puts it down to The Wailers’ engineers still getting to grips with their sound, whereas Matumbi had their own well-drilled crew.

However, it was his expertise in the control room that saw him become one of the ‘must have’ producers of the Late Seventies/Eighties, with bands of numerous musical colours and angles calling on his services.

Dennis still relishes diving into so many styles of music.

“It’s been a pleasure. No-one wants to eat the same dish every day. I can’t understand anyone who says ‘I only like this type of music.’”

He goes on: “I have produced something different for all of them – not just the same thing every time.” He recalls teaching Bananarama the art of singing harmony.

“All their songs had been singalong things. They were very young…”

One of his greatest achievements is surely producing The Slits seminal 1979 album Cut, regarded as one of the finest LPs of the era and still gaining rave reviews upon its occasional re-release.

Dennis recalls. “They knew what they wanted but didn’t know how to get it. They needed a referee, someone they could all adhere to.

“The girls were going ‘we want to do it this way, nah we want to do that, nah let’s do it like this.’ Budgie (drummer and only male member) was sitting around saying ‘let me know when you’ve made your minds up’

“Then I’d be leaping in saying ‘it’s going to be like this,’ taking elements from each person. It took about ten weeks. When it was done we knew it was breaking new ground. No-one from their age or era had ever done anything remotely like it.”

Over the years Dennis has recorded many of his own albums, produced music for films and TV, worked with Marvin Gaye and produced and played bass on Edwyn Collins’ worldwide smash A Girl Like You.

He’s especially pleased with his recent work, Joss Stone’s new album Water For Your Soul – hailed as her best yet – on which he applied production, playing and writing skills.

“She’s fantastic, an absolutely gorgeous voice,” says the man often referred to as Blackbeard.

“I’ve shaved if off,” he laughs “but some people still call me Blackbeard.”

  • Catch the legendary Mr Bovell, ably assisted by the EBC at The Vic, Saturday, October 17. Advance tickets £7. More information at www.thevicswindon.com/gigs