Previewing UB40 and Steel Pulse with Brian Travers
This is the Big One! The ultimate, Rock-Steady/Reggae Birmingham shindig of all time. Local boys, come global legends, UB40 and Steel Pulse, performing back to back. Consecutive Christmas special shows – for the first time ever – sees the warm-up gig at London’s O2 Academy, Brixton on Sunday, 20th December. But anticipate the following evening’s hometown heroes’ show at the O2 Academy, Birmingham, to go utterly wallop-mental!
‘This is history in the making when the two Birmingham giants have come together to make our city proud!’ Says Steel Pulse’s lead singer, David Hinds. ‘This is a legacy to be witnessed and documented and treasured for the rest of our lives. Forget about the million-dollar question as to why it took so long. The hard-core fact is that it is happening and we hope everyone will “show up” for this “showdown” come December 2015. We, Steel Pulse, will be celebrating our 40th anniversary, too.’ Thank you David, impassioned as ever — and there’ll be a three generational dedicated fan-base to do you all proud!
Formed in 1975 at Birmingham’s Handsworth Wood Boys School, Grammy Award- winning Steel Pulse have been true to their roots for the past forty years. One of Bob Marley’s favourites, the band has maintained a sense of fierce integrity as it strives to get the message of love and justice across to all people. They won a Grammy for their 1986 album ‘Babylon The Bandit’, and received further Grammy nominations for the albums ‘Victims’, ‘Rastafari Centennial’, ‘Rage & Fury’, ‘African Holocaust’ and ‘Vex’.
For many, the band’s defining message/moment of defiant self-identification was their 1978 battery-acid ironic/iconic Ku Klux Klan parody wearing peek-a-boo tablecloth pointy hoods. They use to sometimes dedicate it to the, then current, Grand High Wizard of self-deluding White-Supremacist Wankerdom. Donald ‘The Rug-Twat’ Trump has to be in for a name-check this time round.
The announced line-up (and isn’t it a joy to hear these evocative band-member sobriquets again!) consists of (above spokesman) David ‘Dread’ Hinds (lead vocals, rhythm guitarist, composer and harmonica player), Selwyn ‘Bumbo’ Brown (keyboards, vocals), Sidney ‘Predator’ Mills (keyboards, backing vocals), Amlak ‘AmBASSador’ Tafari (bass), Wayne ‘Ceesharp’ Elvis Clarke (drums), Moonie (lead guitar), Keysha McTaggart (backing vocals), and Jerry ‘Saxman’ Johnson (saxophone).
It’s a given that, if you’ve read this far, UB40’s history is already encoded in your DNA. The band’s latest press release brings us up to speed –
At the end of 2013 Astro decided to leave the group, despite the band having just announced the first leg of their 2014 UK tour. Regardless, every date on the tour went on to sell-out, with the band picking-up some of the best reviews of their career.
Such was the success of the tour that a second 22-date leg was scheduled for autumn 2014, with a further 35 UK dates added over two legs in 2015, making the Getting Over The Storm UK tour the biggest of UB40’s career, performing to nearly 200,000 fans along the way.
To end 2015, the band played sold-out shows in mainland Europe, a sold-out tour of Australia and the Polynesian Islands. 2016 sees them headlining the Raggamuffin Festival at Auckland’s Trusts Arena, NZ, on February 20th, before finishing work on their new album, scheduled for release in Summer 2016.
UB40’s Robin Campbell said, ‘I’m looking forward to seeing Pulse again, they’re one of the best live reggae bands, a class act.’
The announced line-up reads as – Robin Campbell (co-lead vocals and guitar), Duncan Campbell (lead vocals) Earl Falconer (bass, vocal), Brian Travers* (saxophone and keyboards), Jimmy Brown (drums), Norman Hassan (percussion, vocals). The band also feature, Martin Meredith (sax) and Laurence Parry (trumpet) and Tony Mullings (keyboards).
This gig promises to unwrap a forty-years in waiting Christmas wish, box of delights. Brian Travers, the Prince of Parp, Mr. Joy of Sax himself, gives Brum Live a call …
BL. Hi Brian, thanks for dropping in. Now then – can you finally scotch these dreadful rumours that you and the band were recently forced to stop-over, mid-Polynesian Tour, in Tahiti, to be force-marched on to a sun-drenched beach and drip-fed endless cocktails by bikini-clad natives.
BT. Well, yes and no, and it’s an outrage! I’m considering retiring from this business. All those interminable cocktails in the unbearable heat. We got into this to make music — not sitting all day on beaches, mate!
BL. It’s been a bonkers year for you in particular, especially with your highly received debut art exhibition #POP! this September
BT. It’s been an absolutely wonderful year. I’ve been lucky because we’ve had the opportunity to work all over the World. We did something like ninety gigs. And, it’s been great, and will be great, to get to meet the great British public again. We played all over Europe and cap it all with the O2 gig this 21st. We’re incredibly privileged, and know it, to be able to do this for a living.
BL. Word is there’s album in process for 2016 release.
BT. We started with a company called Pledge Music. Your readers are probably aware how the set-up works. Fans buy in to be involved with the whole process. We’ve only just started selecting songs really, and still writing stuff. We’ll get down to it from Christmas through to February – right up until the gig in New Zealand and back to the sultry parts of the Pacific again.
BL. Oh no, bikini-beach & cocktail Hell again, Brian?
BT. Frankly, I’ll be outraged if that happens again — be looking at my contract, that’s for sure…
BL. Tell us about how the double-up gig with Steel Pulse came about?
BT. When UB40 started doing gigs in the late 70s Steels Pulse’s star was already in the ascendant. They were role models for us. If they could make it then maybe we had a chance. And they faced some pretty big obstacles in those days as you can imagine. We still cross paths now and then and are all friends individually. They’re a rootsy, cultural outfit — what they did in those early days needed saying. Young, black kids needed to get the information from peers they could respect — and look at us now — all grown up! It really is an honour and a privilege to be on the same stage as them.
BL. So, Brian. 37 years and still going strong. What do you put on your cornflakes every morning? (There ensued a laugh so horsey it probably woke Shergar)
BT. I tell you what, mate! We put happiness on our cornflakes! A bloke once said to me — there are two types of people in life — those who come looking for a party, and those who bring the party with them! We bring the party to the people…
And there we have it: the tweed-capped troubadour of homespun wisdom and beach-cocktail privation, the horn-honking ambassador of hilarity, Mr. Ska-Face himself – Brian Travers at your service.
Words: John Kennedy
(With thanks to Dave Clarke @ Planet Earth)