Musical Youth revived

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

In 1982, five boys aged 11 to 15, hailing from Birmingham, England, burst on to the international musical scene with a hit that, nearly 30 years later, can still get people rocking and singing.

Pass The Dutchie by reggae band Musical Youth, a remake of Mighty Diamond's Pass The Kutchie, shot the child musicians to instant stardom, worldwide pop charts and even a Grammy nomination.

However, three years later, the band disintegrated and was quickly forgotten. That is, until now.

American station TV One's Unsung series will be telling their story on October 25.

Unsung is a one-hour biography series which aims to celebrate the lives and careers of successful artistes or groups which, despite great talent, over the years have not received mass recognition.

In its third season, Unsung hopes to explore black music in America in much more depth than it would take to speak of the genre's 'acknowledged' superstars.

Jamaican roots

Musical Youth - made up of brothers Kelvin and Michael Grant, Junior and Patrick Waite, as well as Dennis Seaton - was borne out of England, where its members grew up, but had strong Jamaican roots.

Brothers Junior and Patrick Waite are sons of Frederick Waite, a former member of Jamaican group 'The Techniques'.

It was Frederick Waite, who alongside another former bandmate, trained the group to play instruments and to perform.

In 1982, Musical Youth 'ruled the nation' flying high but, as the documentary Unsung revealed, after the group's first album Youth of Today, stardom disappeared.

As well as Pass the Dutchie, the group's first album had four singles on the charts in the United Kingdom including: Youth of Today, Never Gonna Give You Up, Heartbreaker and Unconditional Love with Donna Summer.

But the group's second album, Different Style, was made up mostly of toothless pop songs thrust on them by the record company. It failed. In two years, the band was gone.

By 1994, one member, Patrick Waite was dead, another (Junior Waite) in a mental institution and a third (Kelvin Grant) was lost to the seedy Birmingham underworld.

survivors

Survivors tell this story to Unsung. Two of those survivors are active former members - singer Dennis Seaton and keyboardist Michael Grant - as well as former guitar player Kelvin Grant, who, fiercely at odds with Seaton and his own brother, gave his first interview in 15 years.

The Sunday Gleaner spoke to Michael Grant and Dennis Seaton recently about the documentary and their current work, including two upcoming double albums. Grant and Seaton reconnected in 2001 and once again formed Musical Youth. According to Seaton, they were approached to do the documentary last year and readily agreed to get their story out.

"I'm happy about it. We had a successful story, but then we disappeared, so the documentary kinda fills in the gaps. It was a humbling experience," said Seaton.

For Grant, it was also a positive experience.

"I think it was actually therapeutic looking back at all we had done. You tend to remember the low times, not remembering the highs, like getting a number-one song, meeting Michael Jackson - it was especially nice remembering that now that he's gone - and even meeting up with Stevie Wonder, who still remembers us," Grant explained.

Outside of the documentary, the two have been doing a number of shows across Europe and say they would like to perform in Jamaica once again.

last performance

The band last performed in Jamaica at The National Stadium for an event called 'Jamfest' in 1985. In fact, that was the last time the band, in its original format, performed together.

Seaton said, "Now, we're working on recording a new album. We're a reggae band - a duo. We want to show people our roots, so we're doing a tribute album to reggae artistes who we have looked up to and who have inspired us, like Dennis Brown, John Holt, the recently deceased Sugar Minnott, Freddie McGregor ... those people."

The album is tentatively titled Reggae for the People and should be released in Europe early next year, followed by their album of original work, set for release in March.

"We want people to know reggae music is still strong in the UK [United Kingdom] and we're representing for the music," said Grant, directing his comment to fans in Jamaica.

revived