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PULSE - ARTICLES
Steel
Pulse at Triangle Theatre, Birmingham
Mark
Kamba in Black Beat International
September
1985
A Steel Pulse affair in England is
such a rare occurence that an avid supporter like myself wouldn't
think twice about making a 200 mile motorway roundtrip to be a
part of the festivity. It was early '84 the last time they graced
these shores with a live performance and they've since been up to
many things including building up their reputation in the States
and taking a prominent role in the 'Land of Africa' famine appeal
record released in Jamaica this year. Meanwhile, the most we can
get is their back catalogue, which may be enriching...but not
half as satisfying as the thrill of them live in the flesh.
It's harder
than hard, almost impossible to watch or listen to Pulse without
drawing the inevitable comparisons with their London counterparts
Aswad. It's not completely fair, but to me the idea is
irresistable. Why? Because there are so many intriguing
similarities and differences. The two groups sprang up during
roughly the same era of the music's development and they are the
two title contenders for the reggae crown in England groupwise
(but I dare you to say one is better than the other!); and in
concert the Steel Pulse sound is on the whole more dependant on
subtlety and harmony than Aswad's brainstorming double-barrel
approach!
"Greetings
to the Birmingham Posse!" was the official salute from the
stage as the group arrived looking trim and relaxed to play this
Ethiopian benefit in their home town. Flamboyant David Hinds,
looking loud in a broadly striped waistcoat and pants was the
immediate visual attraction as usual - that towerblock dreadlock
stack is shooting up so high now that it could be a segment from
a Manhattan skyline! Half of me ws expecting to hear some shots
from the forthcoming album but instead, we got the bulk of the
LP, Earth Crisis and assorted blasts from the past ... which
isn't to say that the selection they served up wasn't anything
less than devastating. The resonant title track, with flighty
vocoder effects, was a fitting lyric for the time (check out the
famine for evidence), while Rollerskates, apparently hot in
America, ended in a climactic slow motion sequence which was
stunningly effective to see and hear. And Raid I Blues from the
Wiseman Doctrine album, driven on by some dynamic percussion by
Fonzo Martin had everybody getting down.
But music took
a brief backseat when things were interrupted by a verbal machine
gun blast by Hinds, on the subject of Live Aid which he preferred
to call 'Jive Aid'. "More black acts should have been
there," said Hinds. "Geldof said there were no reggae
bands of a high enough calibre to make it onto the bill...What
about Steel Pulse, Aswad, Third World?" He recited a lyric
called Save Black Music which will feature on the new album,
Babylon The Bandit and followed with the opening bars of what
else but Handsworth Revolution...fire burning!
There was more
too...Ku Klux Klan brought back memories of the days when Pulse
were heavy on theatricals; Soldiers - a militant one drop; Throne
of Gold - a charming love song...on drums Steve Nesbitt, a figure
of phlegmatic concentration, is such a cool contrast to someone
like Drummie (there I go again!) - he holds the rhythm skintight
but makes the drums do the talking and the sticks do all the
walking...at the end there was a tremendous ovation for
Birmingham's best reggae combination. Steel Pulse - you are big!
Text copyright Black Beat International 1985,
used without permission.
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