Saluting the icons of British reggae

On International Reggae Day (IRD) July 1, we recognise the various artistes, producers, labels, sound systems and promoters who keep reggae alive all year round, with little music industry support.

In a short article such as this, we cannot name everyone. So BBM/BMC ( BritishBlackMusic.com/Black Music Congress), as the UK convenor of IRD, would like to salute everyone who knows that they have been doing the work that promotes British reggae.

This year’s IRD UK region focus is Birmingham; we’ll kick off by recognising one of the biggest acts to come out of that Midlands city: Steel Pulse. Forty-eight years after its formation, the band is still going strong. Known throughout the world, there seems to be a particular appetite for them in the US, a territory they seem to tour every year.

Among the talking heads in their sadly abandoned Dreadtown: A Film About Music And Revolution documentary is Khulu Radebe, a South African anti-apartheid freedom fighter, who said this of the band’s far-reaching influence: “I fought in the June 16 uprising in 1976. We used stones to fight against guns. The music of Steel Pulse, it was like finding AK-47s, because it was giving us ammunition to fight.”

UB40 is another big reggae act to come out of Birmingham. Their success included not just topping the charts in the UK, but other territories, including the US. Their reggae covers provided the first opportunity for some Jamaican songwriters to receive publishing royalties.

IRD/BBM/BMC’s award-winning Trevor McIntosh does stalwart work promoting the annual Legends Of Legends show in Birmingham. The city has produced acts such as Pato Banton, Bitty McLean, Apache Indian, Leesha Mac and Audrey Scott. Scott will be on the ‘Women In Reggae In Conversation’ panel at the IRD London, UK hub event on July 1 at Goldsmiths, University of London, alongside Sista Culcha, Paulette Tajah and Sista Lexxy.

This year’s ‘In Memoriam’ session with Roy ‘Hawkeye’ Forbes will no doubt remember Frederick ‘Junior’ Waite, the drummer of Birmingham’s other big musical export – Musical Youth, who topped the UK charts in 1982 with Pass The Dutchie. The saxophonist and Club Skaaville promoter Ray Carless and singer Noel McKoy passed away last year.

Those who have passed this year include the singer Junior English, and producer and sound man Jah Shaka, who shared the joy of being presented with an IRD/BBM/BMC Award with his audience at a ‘ram-packed’ session in Tottenham, north London.

Another awardee is Orlando Gittens, who this year is organising the inaugural AURA (Annual Universal Reggae Awards) on the same day as his regular Giants Of Lovers Rock concert at London’s Indigo O2 in October. One of the earliest lovers’ rock producers is awardee Lloydie Coxsone.

The UK reggae variant has been a staple in the sets of sound systems such as Love TKO, Lovers Magic, Luv Injection, and others like Saxon, Studio One, Fat Man, Gemini Magic, Frontline, Nasty Rockers, Unity Sound and Hawkeye Sound.

RENOWNED ACTSMany of Britain’s renowned acts are lovers’ rock stalwarts, such as Peter Hunnigale, Maxi Priest, Aleighcia Scott, Sandra Cross, TeshayMakeda, Jo Caesar, Caron Wheeler, Kofi, Claudia Fontaine, Louisa Mark, Dennis Pinnock, Claire Angel, Chucky Bantan, Andrew Sloley, and Winsome Burrel, who also helps fellow artistes with specialist knowledge as a staff of music industry body PRS For Music. Other reggae acts worth saluting are Gappy Ranks and Glamma.

While it’s obvious with names like Jean Adebambo and Toyin Adekale that some of our favourite acts are of continental African heritage, it’s not so obvious that Sylvia Tella is also of Nigerian heritage, until you realise her birth name is Silifatu Mornii Wehabie Tella.

And while we mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, let’s not forget that people of other Caribbean heritage inhabit the UK ‘reggaeverse’. Black Slate member, producer and promoter Anthony ‘Sir George’ Brightly is from Antigua and Barbuda, and awardee producers Neil ‘Mad Professor’ Fraser and Dennis Bovell are from Guyana and Barbados, respectively.

Other producers of note are Tony Ruff Cutt, Bubblers, Richie Davis, Mafia & Fluxy, M-Beats and Jazzwad.

Although record companies such as Trojan, Island, Jet Star, and Greensleeves have made money from their huge reggae catalogues, it’s small labels like Kufe, Peckings, Buzwakk, Starr Vibes, Stevie P, My Boyz Beats and Studio 16 that keep the new releases coming. A plaque will be unveiled on July 1 on the site of the Shepherd’s Bush record shop which birthed the label in 1977.

Sorry for not being able to salute the numerous studios, cutting rooms, engineers, journalists, bloggers, clubs, radio stations, plus DJs and broadcasters. We’ll make a singular mention of Daddy Ernie, as a representative body. He and others will be marking the passing of his Hawkeye record shop comrade Gerry Anderson at the Brent Xtra IRD UK event on June 30 at Tavistock Hall in Harlesden, Brent – the capital of reggae in Britain.

If you ought to be in, but your name is omitted, please don’t blame me. You could blame those who attended the last BBM Reggae Stakeholder Meeting and contributed to the list. Hopefully, you’ll attend the next meeting and add your voice to whatever subject is under discussion. See bit.ly/BBMBTWSCEvents for more details.

Kwaku is a historical musicologist and the convenor of International Reggae Day UK and British Black Music Month.