Heart of a Punk - Soul of a Rasta

22nd April 2009 The Wailers
(Play Exodus)O2 Academy Birmingham

48 hours prior to seeing a band play live I always impose a total ban on their music. A total radio silence, no CD, tape, record or wax disc by the band I'm about to see is played. Why I do this I've no idea, like a lot of things in my life I've just been doing it for so many years I can't remember why I started it in the first place. Was it superstition, or did I once listen to the entire back catalogue of a band prior to a gig and just to be totally under whelmed by their live performance? I can't remember. Anyway, as the Bigot is always quick to remind me nowadays I have "pretensions", and so I fool myself that the total musical ban cleanses my mind like water cleanses the palate, and that my prior to gig abstinence will heighten my appreciation of the impending performance. He is actually right I am a pretentious tosser.

The preamble despatched, here comes the contradiction. En route from Shropshire to Brum to see The Wailers I found it necessary to deviate slightly from a total ban by sticking on the "Blackheart Man" album by Bunny Wailer. OK the bass playing on "Blackheart Man" is not exclusively executed by the longstanding lead Wailer: Aston Familyman Barrett (basses are also taken up by Robbie Shakespeare & Bunny Wailer too) but at the expense of saying anything too controversial I think on tracks like "Dreamland" and "Armagideon" we hear some of Barrett's best work, his rhythm guitar playing on the album is pretty snappy too. The hour and a half drive from scenic to sprawl seemed like five minutes lost in Barrett's bass and Bunny Wailers perfect vocal phrasing.

Once in Birmingham there is only one place I intend going, down the ramp to what was once the backstage entrance of the Birmingham Odeon. What the F are you going there for Ed, I hear no one shout, The Wailers are playing at the O2 Academy no one plays the Birmingham Odeon anymore! I go there because I have to pay my respects.

I stand in the middle of the dirty dead end alley next to the over flowing bins, the rat poison boxes and the crates of empty beer bottles and wait. I wait in this place that hasn't changed one jot in my life time. I wait patiently for Robert Nesta Marley to appear, to walk towards me down the concrete slope, to walk through and then past me, to turn and enter the open backstage door and disappear into the confines of the Birmingham Odeon. And usually he does.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green
And was the prophet Marley
On England's pleasant pastures seen

Yes Bob Marley was here in Birmingham - ok he lived in exile in London and he played many gigs across the whole country but here caught in time, caught in this picture Bob Marley was here in Birmingham. And here in Birmingham on a big bloody ugly grey brick wall that Marley walked past, here in your city, you have the opportunity to do something to make the connection again.

Why not reproduce this wonderful photograph on a massive scale printed on fabric covering the entire space. Failing this why not commission local artists to re-create the photo and place it here - COME ON BIRMINGHAM THIS IS DOABLE. "How good and how pleasant it would be before God and man" to see Bob Marley in this place amongst us once again.

The present - good for nothing Birmingham Odeon 2009

Anyway the classic picture of The Wailers from '74 also graces the back of the latest biography of The Wailers - The Story of Bob Marley's Wailers"Wailing Blues" by John Masouri. I don't know what the book is like, I haven't bought yet let alone read it, I'll tell what I think when I've read it, only if your interested of course, but at the moment I'm too busy I'm goin' to see The Wailers.

Into the Top Rank I went following the sweet sound of Yaz Alexander's voice to its source, not into the main auditorium as I'd expected though, but into the snug room which is know as the Academy 2. Shit not enough punters to fill the main auditorium, on The Wailers last visit, only a couple of years or so ago they were in the main space, but not today, hum. Anyway don't dwell on it Ed. I'm not allowed to, Yaz Alexander swiftly relieves my oncoming depression, she is able to do so simply by her presence, she is stunning beautiful (am I allowed to say this nowadays), she sounds great and she exudes positivity with every word and gesture. Along with her backing girls Black Pearl they ably and deftly vocalise creating a perfect thirty minutes for those of us in attendance.

A short break followed and I found myself counting the crowd and slowly starting to descend once more into a sloth of despair. "Exodus" "the greatest album of the century" - according to Time Magazine, and this is the best turn out Birmingham can muster. My depression is not alleviated by the promoter informing us that this is the smallest turn out on the tour and that the good people of Bristol were able to pack out the Bristol Academy.

Hey Laidblak do something for f**ks sake, hit me with music, hit me with music make me feel no pain. They do and I don't. Opening with "Roodie" and closing with "Red" throughout their set Laidblak were an irresistible and seemingly unstoppable physical and musical force; however incongruous the individuals look collectively somehow musically they were in perfect balance. A high vocal range hat wearing rapper lead, and a spaced whiskered acoustic toting guitarist; a solid (like myself) syncopating drummer and a sturdy bespectacled finger tripping bassist; a hooded double deck knob twiddler and a big swinging singing dread lock swaying tattooed geezer in a skirt! Surely together it shouldn't work, but it did! I try to join in with those gathered close around the stage, I really did, but dancing was impossible, the soles of my trainers were stuck to the dance floor with lager glue, honest.

A white middle aged man in the O2,
There is only one thing I can do,
Keep my feet stock still and abide,
I move my shoulders gently from side to side.
Inwardly happy,
Outwardly a fool.
Inwardly happy,
Outwardly a fool.
(and so on)

Everyday I try my best to ignore the media arseholes, the careerist politicians, the suited speak your weight machines, the so called experts, but tonight the recession has finally entered my recession proof existence and stark reality has hit me right between the eyes. Back in '06 when The Wailers played here last each member of the band was issued with at least one if not four cans of Red Stripe tonight all they get was one bottle of water. Shit things must be really, really, perhaps irredeemably bad.

After the Promoter's intro Aston and The Wailers take to the stage. Watching a master craftsman at work in whatever field of excellence he pursues is always engrossing, the master craftsman Barrett plies his trade with little fuss, great humility, and absolute accuracy. The Wailers instrumentalise beautifully for five minutes or so, and then it's time for Exodus. "Natural Mystic" and the abruptly ending "So Much Things to Say" fly quickly by but during these two opening songs Elan Atias the returning Wailers front man didn't seem to be fully awake, part way through "Guiltiness" though he suddenly awakens and hits his stride, and by the time we reach "Heathen" he is in full flow. "Exodus" begins with the Cali Kumga and Cegee Victory resplendent in both sound and vision, the song segues neatly into a fabulous rendition of "Punky Reggae Party" before segueing once more back into "Exodus". It is a big and wonderful slice of music and was for me without question the zenith of the night's performance.

Side Two (yes side two) and the hits "Jamming", "Waiting in Vain", "Turn Your Lights Down Low", "Three Little Birds" and "One Love" are danced to and smoked to,(no it must have been a smoke machine - let's not get anyone in the shit here Ed), before the perfect chronological exercise was finally complete.

Aston Familyman Barrett's feet have stood upon an incalculable number of stages; his eyes have looked out to see an incalculable number of faces looking back at him, he keeps on keeping on and in so doing He, Elan Atias/vocals, Keith Sterling/keyboards, Chico Chin/trumpet, Nambo Robinson/trombone, Ceegee Victory & Cali Kumba/b vocals, Anthony Watson/drums and Chizzy/guitar keep the music that Aston made with Bob Marley and The Wailers live & alive.

Things are certainly proceeding in fine chronological order this week at the O2, Wednesday night The Wailers, Saturday night The Specials. It makes even me want to shout out Jah Rastafari