Radical Dance Faction

Radical Dance Faction (RDF) were founded by Chris Bowsher in Hungerford in 1986, originally under the name Military Surplus. The band has been through many line-up changes, with at least thirty people involved over the years, and Bowsher is the only person who has been in every line-up.

Their music combines punk, dub and ska. Bowsher's lyrics, spoken rather than sung, deal mainly with political issues, such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in "Chinese Poem". He also witnessed the Hungerford massacre first hand and describes the experience in "Hot on the Wire".

In 1990 RDF signed to Southern Records and released two albums on their own imprint, Earthzone, touring Germany and elsewhere in Europe, including as support to Rebel MC and, on one occasion, Ziggy Marley. They played Summerjam in Germany in July 1993, and were a regular act on the UK free festival scene before the 1994 Criminal Justice Act. They called it a day in the mid 1990s, reformed in 2006, and again in 2012 with the album Ammunition. In recent years they have played Glastonbury, Boomtown, Rebellion, Willow Man and Green Gathering.

Their latest album, Daydream Dystopia (2018), was produced by Youth of Killing Joke, and extends the bass-heavy, spacious dub sound with brass and new versions of older songs. The current line-up is Chris Bowsher (vocals), Shanks (drums), Murph (guitar) and Dan Foster (bass).