It was perhaps inevitable that Steel Pulse were my first stop on the Glastonbury highlights tour via BBC iPlayer.
A week or so previously, I watched a recent episode of Later...With Jools Holland, featuring former member Dr. Mykaell Riley, there to promote Beyond The Bassline: 500 Years Of Black British Music at the British Library in London and inevitably including an archive clip of Steel Pulse.
Mrs. K and I have also been catching up with This Town, the latest BBC series by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. Starting off in 1981, as with its predecessor, Birmingham and Coventry are as much characters in the narrative as the people and whilst it's taken a few episodes to bed in, the soundtrack is pretty great. But nothing from Steel Pulse, who formed in Erdington. A licensing issue, perhaps?
No matter, their 10-song, 50-odd minute Glastonbury set is a blaze of colour, energy and righteousness, spanning their 1978 debut album to their most recent release in 2019. Well worth a look whilst it's still available on iPlayer.
1) Ravers (True Democracy, 1982)
2) Rally Round (True Democracy, 1982)
3) Soldiers (Handsworth Revolution, 1980)
4) Chant A Psalm (True Democracy, 1982)
5) Drug Squad (Caught You, 1980)
6) Wild Goose Chase (Earth Crisis, 1984)
7) Don't Shoot (Mass Manipulation, 2019)
8) Babylon Makes The Rules (Tribute To The Martyrs, 1979)
9) Bodyguard (Earth Crisis, 1984)
10) Steppin' Out (Earth Crisis, 1984)
2) Rally Round (True Democracy, 1982)
3) Soldiers (Handsworth Revolution, 1980)
4) Chant A Psalm (True Democracy, 1982)
5) Drug Squad (Caught You, 1980)
6) Wild Goose Chase (Earth Crisis, 1984)
7) Don't Shoot (Mass Manipulation, 2019)
8) Babylon Makes The Rules (Tribute To The Martyrs, 1979)
9) Bodyguard (Earth Crisis, 1984)
10) Steppin' Out (Earth Crisis, 1984)
The only song that appears to be available more widely online is set closer Steppin' Out, available in versions galore on YouTube. Here's a performance from 1990, no idea where, in a set which flips the opening and closing songs, so you get Steppin' Out right up front. The version later appeared on the 2002 DVD Live From The Archives.
A notable omission from Steel Pulse's Glastonbury set this weekend is another song from their debut album Handsworth Revolution, which was my introduction to the band.
Sitting in my brother's bedsit, sometime in the late 1980s, I pulled out an intriguing album called URGH! A Music War, which featured 27 songs and artists across four sides of vinyl. All live performances, some familiar names, some I'd never heard of, all great.
Side Two ends with Steel Pulse and this version of Ku Klux Klan, recorded at The Rainbow Theatre in London on 18th September 1980. Things were never the same again.
Thanks for the tip-off. I have been attempting to blank the whole thing out so would have missed this otherwise
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ernie. There seem to be fewer "highlights" to draw me in this year, but this Steel Pulse set is worth (just under) an hour of anyone's time.
DeleteBeing from the Lowlands my introduction was the Urgh! album. Totally in love with their ''True Democracy'' album. After that most reggae diverted to electronic backing and I soon lost my interest in reggae all together....Thanks to the internet though there is a lot to discover from that golden era!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Anon! Not that I have an extensive Steel Pulse collection to begin with, but I thought I had True Democracy...only to find that I don't. Although I listened to a fair bit as a teen, it was much later that I started buying more reggae and dub (financial reasons, as much as anything else).
DeleteLike you, the blogosphere has been a real education in the albums and artists that I'd previously missed, with seemingly no end in sight!