After 17 years of mixing up the best foot-stomping music this country has to offer, Tim Hughes discovers Dreadzone are still going strong – and show absolutely no sign of flagging.

FUSING rock, reggae, rap, dub, dance, techno, punk and even folk, Dreadzone have a sound that could only have come from modern Britain.

And they are proud of it.

Big, brassy and bursting with life, this bass-heavy multicultural collective provide fuel for the head as much as the feet. And they don’t know when to stop.

“We don’t think there’s anything wrong in mixing up styles says founder and frontman Greg ‘Dread’ Roberts.

“We are quintessentially English and are proud of who we are. The idea of multiculturalism is not very popular anymore, but it sums us up as a band.

“We represent who we are through our music, and the genres are so meshed together they can’t be pulled apart.

“People from all ages and cultures come to see us and are infected.”

Formed from the remnants of Big Audio Dynamite – the sample-happy pop project of The Clash’s Mick Jones – they have been going strong for more than 17 years – and the current line-up of Greg, original bassmaster Leo Williams, MC Spee, reggae vocalist Earl 16 and new members Chris Compton and Chris Oldfield are still going strong – rarely off the road.

The band are part-way through a truly epic seven-month tour, which began in June, and has already taken them to Poland, Croatia, Greece, Scotland’s Wickerman Festival – and our own Cropredy – where many hailed them highlights of the weekend.

I caught up with founder and frontman Greg this week, before a gig in the Welsh town of Narbeth, ahead of tonight’s show at the Oxford O2 Academy.

And the band are in bargain-hunting mode. “We’ve been going round the charity shops,” he says, as if the lads had just come back from Disneyland.

“It’s a good thing to do when you get to a new town. Last time I was here I found a wicked Bob Hoskins-style sheepskin coat for a tenner. This time my mate got one for £20. They are brilliant though – and would have cost at least £75 in London.”

Boasting such unlikely backing singers as Denise van Outen, All Saint Melanie Blatt, and Alison Goldfrapp, they have released six albums – including 360°, named by the late John Peel as one of his all-time favourites.

Their biggest hit came with 1996’s exuberant Top 20 record Little Britain – featuring that memorable sample from cult Brit movie If.: (“Britain today is a powerhouse of ideas, experiments, imagination.”).

And while the dub-dance shakedown remains a firm favourite, Greg says the band have become more song-based. Yes, with proper lyrics and all.

“In the early days we were more stripped down, with no vocals at all, but now we are much more song-based. We have moved away from being just a dance group and now sound like a proper band.”

The tail end of the tour will see them releasing a new album showcasing the new material.

“It will have something for everyone,” says Greg. “We’ve all been through a lot and this has been very cathartic. My brother (bandmate) Steve took his own life in 2006, and I also lost my father recently. Others have also had ups and downs, with relationships and other things.

“But there is a lot of goodness in this band. In most bands you struggle to get a good balance because of all the egos flying around, but we are like a family.

“It’s hard to define what we do,” he goes on. “But we play dread music. It comes from reggae roots, but also from BAD, there is lots of guitar-based stuff with a ‘jump-up’ rock flavour.

“We are representative of where we are, and I continue to soak up the culture around me as part of my character.”

And he has no plans to stop doing what he does best. “We are going to keep gigging, making records, remixing, Djing, playing live and doing what we can to survive.”

And why should people come out to see them tonight?

“Because we have never failed to rock a crowd,” he says with cast iron confidence. “They always love us – especially the girls, who work their way to the front. It’s the rhythm. They can’t resist those sexy grooves!”

Dreadzone play the Oxford O2 Academy tonight. Tickets are £14. Support comes from Sultan from Raggasaurus Soundsystem, at 7pm.FREE! Download a legal copy of Dreadzone's single Tomorrow Never Comes by logging on to myspace.com/gregdread