Roots, Rock, Reggae, and plenty of Rimshots
Written by Nev Brooks
Sunday, 07 September 2014 03:20
I’ve been meaning to put a little something together for a while based around my love of reggae and more specifically around the roots sound that was prevalent throughout the 70s and early 80s within the UK and specifically the three Hubs of London, Birmingham and Bristol. I’m not however talking about bands like Steel Pulse and Aswad, as good as they were and are, I’m talking about the bands and singers that never necessarily broke out of their community. I’m talking about the bands championed by Mike Darby from not one but two reggae labels, Bristol Archive Records very firmly focused on the Bristol scene and its sister label Reggae Archive Records that focuses on the vibrant communities elsewhere within the UK.
So where better to start than with Mike himself and a question that I recently posed to him “So why Reggae, what’s your interest?” Well, turns out Mike, was the lead singer in a Bristol Ska/Two Tone band called The Rimshots based not on the title of a yet unrecorded new Trigger McPoopshute track but on the drum technique prevalent throughout Reggae and Ska.
Who? You might well ask. Well the band, recorded their very first demo at a studio near Bristol and mailed it off to The Beat in Birmingham who had recently signed with Sire Records whilst also starting their own label Go Feet. While the demo didn’t get them signed to Go Feet, it ended up securing them a support slot with The Beat at the Bristol Locarno in front of a full house – 1,500 people – and the band were quickly a household name in their hometown. Almost immediately after the gig with The Beat, the band secured a singles deal with the Bristol-based Shoc Wave Records. Through the owner of Shoc Wave Records they ended up playing regularly with both Black Roots and Talisman, who were Bristol’s premier Reggae acts of the time. Two bands that are now at the forefront of a resurgent Reggae scene within Bristol and both bands that I’ve written quite a bit on over the last couple of years right here on Uber Rock.
The Rimshots also managed to play some shows in London and supported The Bodysnatchers and Hazel O’Connor as well as more shows with The Beat. The band went their separate ways in early 1981 with a few of the band members forming notable Bristol band The Blue Aeroplanes. So that’s where Mr Darby’s interest came from, and as with most of us somehow involved in music, we live the life and it sticks with us.
Enough of the background though let’s talk about some of the music Mike’s labels have been releasing recently, and first up on Sugarshack through Reggae Archive records some female vocals courtesy of Jean McLean. Jean McLean’s solo album ‘Everlasting’ has certainly been a long time coming with it being thirty years since her vocals and musicianship were such a highlight of Sceptre’s ‘Essence of Redemption Ina A Dif’rent Styley’ (incidentally reissued on Reggae Archive Records) but releasing Reggae has always been a struggle and talent always wins out in the end. There’s a lovely roots vibe on this record with the pre-requisite strident horns pushing forward a classic vocal line within opener ‘Meant for U’, the Lovers message strong within the Roots setting.
The Roots message comes fully to the fore within ‘Ancestors’, out of the Sceptre back catalogue, and like any classic Roots Reggae, it’s timeless. This is very much an LP that you drift away with, it stays with you and you find yourself stopping and looking up as the emotions within the vocal lines catch you, really noticeable on the cover of Marley’s ‘Wait in Vain’. There’s a nice Ska skank underpinning ‘Love me Baby’ and this really shines through in possibly the most experimental track ‘Higher’ that’s at times Ska, at times Lovers and at times Roots, WORKS WELL!!! On top of this we are also treated to the Dub versions of seven of the tracks, and in this stripped out format you realise how strong the music is, but it also shows how powerful the vocals are. Jean McLean’s ‘Everlasting’ is a fantastic solo debut from Birmingham’s best-kept secret.
Next up, again on Sugarshack we have flagship band Talismanwith the ‘Oldwah Deconstruction’ Dub version of last year’s classic LP ’I-Surrection’. As with any good Dub music, you drift along when listening to the dozen original songs stripped down, expanded, the focus taken away from the vocals you begin to pick out different sounds, instruments, effects, constantly changing focus as your mood changes. You end up following different aspects of the music each time you return to the LP, picking up a series of different things from the original release. This release stands as a cracking alternative to the original (or maybe Ghost would be the right term?) and I personally would have loved them to have been made available as part of a double vinyl package, because they really do belong together, fitting as sweetly as Burning Spear’s ‘Marcus Garvey’ and ‘Garvey’s Ghost’, each supporting and enhancing the other in turn.
If you have more than a passing interest in Roots Rock Reggae then check out both the sister labels, play through some of their back catalogue you can even find some of The Rimshots tracks on free download if you look hard enough…. Cracking stuff!
http://www.bristolarchiverecords.com/index.html#
http://sugarshackrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://reggaearchiverecords.bandcamp.com/