Goldie has spoken candidly about the lasting impact of his son’s imprisonment and the wider societal breakdown he believes is fuelling violence among young people in the UK.
The drum and bass pioneer’s son, Jamie Price, was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for the fatal stabbing of a rival gang member, Marlon Morris, in Wolverhampton two years earlier.
He was 23 at the time and must serve at least 21 years before he is eligible for parole.
Around the same period, Goldie relocated to Thailand — a move that, while never publicly linked to the tragedy, came at a pivotal moment.
In Thursday’s edition of The London Standard, available in print and digital, he reflected on the political and social shifts he’s witnessed over the decades.
“Politically, we are in a more negative space than we were in the 1990s,” he said. “Gentrification is inevitable, we know that, but in certain environments we need genuine social cohesion.”
Goldie said the disappearance of community resources — youth clubs, local schools, and shared spaces — has left many young people vulnerable.
“Take away the youth club, the local petri dish, or you close the school, or the community spirit, and you get disruption. That’s what happened when I was young,” he explained.
“Speed bump money doesn’t get fed back into the community. I was there for my kid growing up.”
He added: “But when you remove schools, and kids have nowhere to go growing up, they start getting into knives and carving each other up.
“Anyone who knew Jamie said what a lovely young man he was until he got involved with the wrong people. But there are a lot of very angry young men out there.”
Price still has eight years of his sentence left. Goldie believes things could have turned out differently had his son had access to the same kind of community support that shaped his own path.
“If the community centre had still been there, I don’t think he would have turned out that way. I know,” he said.
Having spent part of his childhood in care, Goldie recalled the instability he endured: “I lived in the care system, and I knew what it was like, in different foster homes, living in places you know you’re not going to stay, where you don’t unpack your suitcase… You never felt like you belonged anywhere.”
He credits music with saving him.
“With me, I was lucky because when I discovered music, I discovered somewhere where I could unpack my mental suitcase. Not everyone gets that.”
He ended with a scathing criticism of how communities are managed today: “The Government still has no idea how to manage those communities.
“They don’t know how to deal with anger. It’s no wonder people are making drill music, because there’s nothing for them to do and no one for them to look up to.”
Read the full interview in Thursday’s edition of The London Standard
