Oh. (Russ L going to and fro in the Earth)

Sunday the 26th of March saw me attending a bit more of Gigbeth, at The Sanctuary’s Dragon Bar and Barfly. Initially, I’d heard about a free reggae gig going on at The Barfly featuring Patto Banton and Musical Youth; as time grew closer I learned that Musical Youth weren’t playing but Neville Staple of The Specials and Roger Rankin of The Beat were, and that there was also a hip-hop night going on upstairs.

I arrived and headed up to The Dragon Bar just in time to see The Heard (no website as far as I know but there is some information about their members at www.StronghornRecords.com) take the stage. I have to confess that I don’t know too much about the local hip-hop scene (something I need to sort out, obviously), but The Heard were likeable despite suffering from a bad sound. The mics were initially too quiet, but once they were turned up the lyrics still weren’t perfectly audible but the beats still suffered in comparison. It’s a shame, but they still had a fair bit of charisma about them and I wouldn’t be opposed to checking out a bit more.

S-Squad were on shortly after and, while suffering from similar mic problems (they seemed to have some black consciousness/awareness lyrics, but I just couldn’t make ‘em out all that often), their beats cut through the sound a lot more strongly and sounded pretty good. They did the ‘whole big crew onstage, half of them not actually doing anything’ thing (I was reminded of the Dilated Peoples lyric – “Twenty Guys, five mics/Who the fuck is rhyming?” I can never decide whether I think it makes for a more impressive visual or just looks foolish), and there were some of the inevitable telltales signs of inexperience with performing live (at least a couple of times a guy would be happily rapping away as his voice got quieter and quieter when he let the mic get too far away from his mouth), but again – I wouldn’t be opposed to hearing more.

A bit of a break followed before GT & RD performed a couple of more grime/garage-influenced type songs, and sounded bloody good with it. The sound seemed a bit more balanced by now, and these two MCs had more of an easier air of confidence about them than anyone else so far. Apparently their “I Know What You Did” is all over Channel U, although I wouldn’t know myself. I don’t get it on my telly.

I headed downstairs to The Barfly as soon as they’d finished, to find the absolutely gorgeous Yaz Alexander already onstage. I enjoyed her set a lot – she has a divine voice as well as a likeable way about her, and some really good songs in a mix of reggae styles. She managed a decent cover of Billie Holliday’s version of ‘Summertime,’ too, which most would stumble over.

Immediately after her set Pato Banton hit the stage (he seemed to be acting as compere for the evening) and surprised both Yaz and one of her backing singers (I think his name was Sensimilia. Subtle…) by demanding that they accompany him on a couple of songs. Judging by the looks on their faces, the surprise was genuine…
All-out energetic and enjoyable stuff, anyway. Alongside ‘Groovin’ they did ‘Baby Come Back” – a song I dimly remembered from my youth as not being exactly brilliant, but hearing it reminded me just how fun it was. The smile on my face was huge.

I headed back upstairs, in time to see most of Moorish Delta 7. There’s was the best set I heard in the upstairs room by a good way – varied sounding hip-hop, with good beats and a lot of stage presence. If Birmingham hip-hop is to start becoming more nationally known then I’m sure this lot will be at the forefront.

I went back downstairs after, in time for Neville Staple and his band. I saw ‘em last summer at the Reggae Rocks event in Centenary square and liked their set, but close up in a slightly less stupidly-large setting he was something else. Pure, pure energy, and classic songs (mostly Specials material with bits of other stuff, including a brilliant version of The Maytals’ “Pressure Drop”). It is a bit of a shame that he doesn’t do too much of his new/own material as I would be interested to hear it, but I cannot possibly complain at all about this performance. Being fairly pished by this point, I sang along and danced with all my little heart.

Rankin Roger came straight on stage after, assuming Neville’s position in front of the same backing band. Time was getting on a bit, though, and as much as I would love to have stayed (and I really, really would) Travel West Midlands waits for no man.

Between all of this and that which has been detailed in the last couple of posts, I had a very fun Certain Day Of The Year (alright, I’ll admit, it was my for birthday) weekend.

~ Russ L