UK REGGAE: The story continues.

It's been a few weeks since I started my series of posts, the basic theme is about how a white boy from the home counties of the UK found his way into the world of Reggae. To recap my interest was sparked as a young teen when I discovered the UK Ska movement of the late seventies, yearning for more of this great "new" sound (it was to me) I broadened my horizons and with the help of Trojan records learnt about the roots of my new found love. This introduced me to all sorts of genres of reggae some of which I have covered to date, last time finishing with dancehall.

Today my story continues and I am going to cover UK reggae and it's influence on British culture, After the Windrush generation moved to the UK a new sound came with them and many of the youth and children of these families went on to become recording artists. Today I want to put them in the spotlight.

One of the first UK reggae bands I became aware of were Steel Pulse, my sister who was three years older than me was a big Bob Marley fan and this opened her up to more like minded artists and in turn she introduced me by way of her record collection. Steel Pulse were a group of school friend who were inspired by Marleys "catch a fire" album. Growing up in Birmingham they had suffer racial tensions and this was reflected in their songs. In 1977 "ku klux klan" was their first single release after signing to Island records and early the following year the brilliant "Handsworth Revolution" album was delivered to the public, full of social commentary it gave the audience some food for thought while fighting back against injustice. Still recording to this day and with 12 albums to their name, one winning a grammy they continue to speak their minds and spread the word about anti racism.

Although artists like Steel Pulse and Bob Marley were getting mainstream success in the UK it was still a underground scene and it would take a few years before it started to become more popular the UK Ska movement played a big part in that. Another big influence was producer Dennis Bovell a performer in his own right known as Blackbeard, through his work with many artists he brought a mix of pop and lover reggae to the table and this was lapped up by the British audience and in 1979 his song "silly games" was a smash hit for Janet Kay Seen here on top of the pops a BBC chart show, those with delicate ears you have been warned.

Reggae had made it through to the mainstream and the floodgates were open and the band that took the most advantage of that were UB40. Hailing once again from Birmingham with members of many ethnic backgrounds. Fronted by Ali Campbell along with his brother Robin, they took their name from a unemployment benefit form as all members were out of work at the time of forming. Their first album "signing off" a reference to leaving the ranks of the unemployed was a major success, the politically charged lyrics struck a chord with a nation suffering mass unemployment and racial divide. The band went on to have many hit albums and charted with more than 50 singles in the UK and selling over 70 million records worldwide. This song 1 in 10 refers to the average number of jobless people in Margret Thatchers Great Britain.

Birmingham was a hot bed of talent and some were pretty young none more so than Musical Youth, this band were formed with the help of their parents who had previously had careers of their own, most famously Frederick Waite Sr who had been a member of the Jamaican group The Techniques. After a couple of single releases they had a number one hit with "pass the dutchie" a remake of the Mighty Diamonds' "Pass the Koutchie" it was changed from Koutchie (a weed pipe) to Dutchie (a cooking pot) as it was felt it would be bad PR for a bunch of teenagers to be singing such lyrics. This tune went on to become the fastest selling record of the year.

Although a bunch of kids their song introduced the wider public to the art of toasting, new acts came along and put a very British twist on it. Smiley Culture real name David Victor Emmanuel was a London artist who became know for his "fast chat" style, his cockney accent shone through and he played very much on it to give himself a unique selling point.

Smiley had been a member of Saxon Studio International system before breaking out on his own, his career was short lived along with his life. Things didn't go great for him and in later life he was arrested for cocaine supply in 2010, one week before he was due to go on trial in 2011 police raided his home, after being in the property for 90 minutes they claim Smiley committed suicide by stabbing himself in the chest, these weird events were challenged by his family and members of the public but the police complaints commission found no wrong doing on the part of the officers involved. It is believed that this incident resulted in a build up of anger and contributed to riots in London 5 months later. Smiley Culture 10 February 1963 to 15 March 2011 aged 48 RIP

On that sad note I will sign off for now, to be continued......


Check out previous posts in this series below, stay safe folks


(https://hive.blog/hive-183952/@biggypauls/ska-d-for-life-finding-reggae)

(https://hive.blog/hive-183952/@biggypauls/trojan-a-short-story-about-a-legendary-record-label)

(https://hive.blog/hive-183952/@biggypauls/discovering-toasting-and-dancehall)