Heart of a Punk - Soul of a Rasta

Pic by: www.ollyhearsey.co.uk

Choice No. 2
6th May 2009
Devo at the HMV Forum Kentish Town
or
Easy Star All-Stars at the O2 B'ham

The Prologue
The choice was well, Easy. However consecutive weeks at the O2 Academy 2 Brum - The Wailers on the 22nd April - Art Brut on the 28th April and now Easy Star All-Stars on the 6th May. Would this self constructed musical treadmill eventually take on an air of familiarity? A familiarity which would inevitably lead to first contempt and then madness?

I pulled the ticket from slot; the barrier quivered for a moment and then shot up. My foot depressed the pedal on the far right, and the car limboed under and in. A man in a luminous jacket stepped out of the shadows and into my way.
My foot decided to depress the pedal in the middle and the car came to a halt. The flash jacketed stranger spoke to me through the open window "Hi Ed I've got spot three on level one reserved for you, follow me up". He jogged off up the ramp. My car followed him. He removed the bollard blocking spot 3 and ushered me in. He waved heartily to me or was it a salute? Then like the storekeeper from Mr Benn he was gone. Lovely guy, who was he?

Down the NCP car park steps for the millionth time, the stench of piss and bleach and blood and bleach in my nostrils and clinging to my clothes. Out once again through the Dale End exit and into cool welcoming air of Birmingham. Immediately I was captured by two dark beady eyes peering out at me from beneath a once white hooded sweatshirt. A slightly raised arm blocked my intended path and made me stop. "Hi Ed, are you alright?" He said as the hoody shroud was lifted and a pink shaved head and a salient unshaved chin was revealed. Not another bloody stranger mistaking me for some other Ed. "Yes I'm quite alright, thank you very much" I replied. Both his hands suddenly vanished into the pockets of his grey tracksuit bottoms. He fidgeted and fumbled in there as if he was trying to restrain something alive. Then his beady eyes fixed on me once more and he repeated his initial question, but this time in a far more aggressive tone. "I said are you alright Ed?" "Are you all right for tonight?" I was staring at his brilliant white Nike trainers thinking, that this was the only thing about this chap that was ever going to be brilliant or white, when the penny finally dropped. It made an audible sound. Kerching! The sound echoed and reverberated around the city centre bouncing off shop windows and office block walls. I finally had got the message. "Yes I'm sorted for tonight, I had two cans of Rockst*r on the way here but cheers anyway". The hood was raised high and dropped dismissively over his head. There would be no transaction. The shutters were down.

100 yards now between me and the venue, surely it was impossible to be waylaid any further? Wrong. I had only covered half the distance before I was hailed by Birmingham's omnipresent Rasta tout who'd clocked me from the other side of the road. "Hey Ed, got a ticket you want to sell". His interruption was not unwelcome, because after many years of polite exchange, all dialogue had ceased between the two of us. We'd had a bit of a disagreement in the rain outside the Irish Centre in Digbeth over the price of a Hard-Fi ticket - but that is a different story all together and it didn't account for how all of a sudden he knew my name. But at least we were talking again. I shook my head and shouted back "No sorry, nothing". We passed and continued on in different directions.

One black attired security guy and two smokers outside the Academy. No strange occurrence to be had here surely. "Good evening Ed, there's more in tonight than for The Wailers" he said staring at the shiny silver counter in the palm of his hand. "OK Ed lets see your ticket". So this is what it's like when the whole world knows your name I thought as checked every available pocket for my ticket. "Your ticket Ed!" he said. It was as he repeated his request that reality struck home; I hadn't actually bought a ticket for the gig. I looked up into his massive cat like face unable to respond. He stared back unflinchingly into my flabby sweat strewn face. Our eyes locked. Our minds became one. I immediately knew I had the upper hand in this inward communion. I'm slightly ashamed of myself now but needs must when the Lord drives, so I began to work upon his mind. His name was Gary, he was from Castle Bromwich and he wished I'd hurry up and hand over my ticket. The two smokers took a last deep toke before squeezing past us and in. The mental battle was won. With a swift flick of his index finger he pushed his counter on by one digit and waved me past. I proffered no ticket; no ticket was taken. But all the same I was in and Gary was left behind ripping an invisible ticket with his oversized hands. Under the ultra violet light in the karzi I regained consciousness.
Ed Rome & the Connectors
A piss and coke later (not in the same glass obviously) and Ed Rome and the Connectors stepped out through back stage door and set about the task of warming us up. Ed Rome plays Reggae and he also plays Ska. Ed Rome has moments when his voice sounds vaguely like Ian Dury but Ed Rome is a much bigger fellow than poor old Ian was. In fact he's a big bearded beamoth of a guy who makes a full grown guitar look like a kid's toy in his grasp. If he inadvertently slipped and fell now and landed on the exquisitely beautiful & talented petit sax player "Bella Connector" who is standing by his side; the result would be certain and instantaneous death. But fear not for Eddie is steady. He's a steady Eddie. He's a Rock Steady Eddie. He's a………ok I'll stop.

Ed Rome and the Connectors are a tight and pumping combo playing rough around the edges reggae. They keep it simple and to the point, the way it should be. They did the business on the night getting the shoulders a movin' and the soles of the feet a slidin'. If you haven't already then you should now! http://www.myspace.com/edromereggae


Easy Star All-Stars
Today the album "Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band" is No.1 on the US Billboard Reggae Charts and tonight they're playing Birmingham, West Midlands, UK - have they got that right Birmingham? Apparently they have. Yeah they're No.1 on the US Billboard Reggae Charts but they're on stage here in Brum tuning up and setting up they're own equipment - quietly and with great humility preparing themselves. No ego, no side. Hey bloated pretentious superannuated bands of the world take heed; this is how it should be! Respect to Easy Star even before a note has been played.

Luckily whilst the musicians prepared onstage they did keep deejay Menny More under tight supervision behind the scenes. But when the first note was played and the klaxon was sounded he was discharged in a flash like a greyhound from a trap on a mission to rap. Straight into Sgt Peppers they went, Ras I Ray leading the line on vocals before flowing majestically into "With a Little Help from My Friends" Menny More still just a blur of motion. A moment's pause just to be sure that everyone present is on board (they were) and then Shelton Garner Jr took up the vocals for "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". On the record the first three Pepper's tracks are sung by Junior Jazz, Luciano and Frankie Paul respectively. On the record we stay for two tracks: "Getting Better" performed by "The Mighty Diamonds" in their unique and sublime harmonic style. Then the dubtastic version of "Fixing a Hole" with the laconic vocals of Max Romeo - with a gated snares & tripping drums a plenty and a melodica drifting sweetly in and out - it's truly masterful.
On the record and live "She's Leaving Home" is sung with great intensity by sparklingly resplendent Kirsty Rock. It is the most immediate song on the album and was definitely one of the high points of the night.

On the album Rankin Roger sings "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite!" and Rankin Roger did appear at the Academy 2 on the night. But he chose to quietly watch proceedings from the back of the venue with a wry smile on his face. I'm pretty sure he couldn't have stopped Menny More doing the live honours even if he'd wanted to.

"Within You Without You" is sung by Matisyahu on the record. And his vocals do lend it an otherworldly feel. I saw Matisyahu at the Academy 2 a couple of years ago and it was the first time since…………….that I'd attended a gig that was half musical half religious happening. I think it had something to do with the bouncing Spurs posse that had come up the motorway on mass that gave the night that strange something extra.

Back at the Academy: Menny More deputised for Sugar Minott with a splendidly comical version of "When I'm Sixty-Four" The white and gold teeth were flashed, the dark shades removed but only for a moment. When the song ended sacrament was proffered by a punter and gratefully received by More.
Back to the record for a moment and "Lovely Rita" which is performed by the combined talents of Bunny Rugs and U Roy - it's big on energy and humour and quality. The brass is given fell vent and Ras I Ray bass is quiet simply, sublime.

"Lovely Rita" is followed on the album by Birmingham's own "Steel Pulse" with their take on "Good Morning Good Morning". I always thought the original version of "Good Morning Good Morning" was a really good song maimed by too many sound effects. The version that appears on The Beatles Anthology 3 has most of effects removed and for me this is by far the best version. On the Easy Star version the effects are controlled so the song remains strong.

After "Good Morning" the album continues with the "Sgt Pepper Reprise" and concludes with "A Day in the Life" featuring Michael Rose (doing the Lennon part) and Menny More (doing Mr McCartney's part). The attention to detail and the quality of the Easy Star All-Stars "Lonely Hearts Dub Band" album is such that you know even though you can't hear it that there is a dog whistle being blown somewhere on side two. And that after the last piano chord has finally decayed the snippet of conversation will be there in the groove. And it is! With "Lonely Hearts Dub Band" Easy Star All-Stars have produced something that the likes of Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, Travis et al were unable to do for the anniversary recording of the album back in 2007. They have stayed true to the original and at the same time reinvented and reinvigorated it. It might be an outrageous thing to say but the original seems a little dull now.

As well as the big chunk of "Sgt Peppers" on the night we also got a goodly slice of the "Radiodread" album and several of helpings of "Dub Side of the Moon". All of it was majestic but for me "Karma Police" and "Paranoid Android" with Kirsty Rock vocalising was something to savour. Two hours of immense rub-a-dub, brass section rasping, tiny keyboard clunking, drum syncopating, bass booming, and guitar skanking music. Oh you lucky, lucky visitors to Glastonbury, you can see them three nights running:

June 26, 2009 DUB SIDE OF THE MOON
June 27, 2009 RADIODREAD
June 28, 2009 EASY STAR'S LONELY HEARTS DUB BAND


The Epilogue
So what did the Beatles think of reggae?
Well there's no doubt in my mind that if Lennon & Marley had both lived a longer mortal life they would have certainly recorded together (and it wouldn't have resulted in Ebony and fuckin' Ivory either!) At the time of his murder Lennon had already begun to grapple with reggae with his track "Borrowed Time".

We know what Ringo's reggae preference was from the pages of his "Postcards from the Boys" book.

Good old Ringo. His favourite was Winston Rodney. The great protector of the DUB himself.

Easy Star All-Stars keeping the DUB burning!