Aswad are best-remembered for the memorable reggae makeover they gave “Don’t Turn Around,” the Albert Hammond-Diane Warren penned B-side to the Tina Turner single “Typical Male,” which they took to the summit of the UK singles chart in 1988. Although the group’s mainstream industrial success solely started within the Eighties, they’d been lively since 1975, when – impressed by their musical hero Bob Marley – they began enjoying collectively in Ladbroke Grove, a suburb of West London.
By the time of their UK No. 1, Aswad – whose identify is Arabic, that means black – had slimmed right down to a core trio, however they started as a quintet, all with Caribean roots. The group have been led by the soulful vocals of rhythm guitarist Brinsley “Chaka B” Forde, who shared the microphone with the band’s drummer, Angus “Drummie Zeb” Gaye. The different members have been lead guitarist Donald “Dee” Griffiths, George “Ras” Oban – famed for his rumbling, seismographic bass strains – and keyboardist Courtney “Khaki” Hemmings. By 1975, the band was gigging usually, their music with its soul, blues, and even rock influences placing a uniquely British spin on the Jamaican “roots reggae” model, which articulated socio-political considerations whereas exploring themes of spirituality, Black pleasure, and racial oppression over deep, throbbing, bass-heavy grooves.
Aswad’s self-titled debut is obtainable on vinyl through the Black Story initiative. Order it now.
As no solidified British reggae scene existed at that time, Aswad provided one thing distinctive, however getting their music heard – particularly by report firms – wasn’t simple. They determined to focus on Island Records as a result of, as Drummie Zeb put it in 2009 to Blues & Soul, the label “had Bob Marley, and no other major label back then had any reggae artists.”
Island Records, based by a visionary entrepreneur-turned-record producer Chris Blackwell in 1959, had established shut musical hyperlinks between the Caribbean and the UK because the label’s inception, introducing the world to Jamaican artists like Millie Small, Toots and the Maytals, and, in fact, Bob Marley & The Wailers. Aswad took an unconventional route in getting Blackwell and Island’s consideration. Drummie Zeb: “What was funny is we didn’t even organize a meeting with them. We just went there, sat in reception, and demanded to see somebody.”
Rather than being ejected from the premises, the group piqued Blackwell’s curiosity, who listened to the band’s music, appreciated them, and added Aswad to his label’s decidedly eclectic roster, making them the primary British reggae band to signal with a significant report firm. Blackwell recalled the band with pleasure in his 2022 memoir, The Islander: My Life in Music and Beyond, writing: “Signing them to Island, with its reputation as the home of reggae, was proof that British Jamaican reggae was authentic.”
Aswad debuted for Island in 1976 with the infectious single “Back To Africa,” outlined by Drummie Zeb’s soulful lead vocal, supported by lush harmonized backgrounds and flutey keyboard strains. Though it didn’t hassle the UK Top 50, the monitor topped the reggae singles charts in Britain’s cities and have become the centerpiece of the band’s self-titled debut album, launched later that yr.
For the album, Blackwell put Aswad within the studio along with his trusted producer and engineer Tony Platt, who had combined Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Catch A Fire album and its follow-up Burnin’ for Island. Aswad recorded eight tracks with Platt on the helm, principally message songs that blended revolutionary militancy (“I A Rebel Soul”) with withering critiques of slavery (“Concrete Slaveship”) and African colonialism (“Natural Progression”). There have been additionally expressions of Rastafarian mysticism, represented by the dub-style soundscape “Ethiopian Rhapsody,” that includes visitor artist Bunny McKenzie’s breezy harmonica.
Presented in a vividly coloured entrance cowl depicting the Ethiopian flag alongside a topped black Zion lion, symbolic of Emperor Haile Selassie, the figurehead of Rastafarianism, Aswad proved an eye catching sight in report shops. Musically, the album was largely well-received, however as Brinsley Forde noticed, some reggae aficionados have been snobbish concerning the band. “Back then, a lot of British reggae music wasn’t considered to be authentic,” he informed Jamaica Gleaner in 2009. “It was often seen as a lukewarm copy of what was coming out of Jamaica. But we didn’t listen to Jamaican tracks or try to copy them. We told our own story, so it was original.”
Drummie Zeb concurs. “The social problems that we have in the UK are very different from what they have in Jamaica,” he stated in 2009. “So, from the start, our messages have always pertained to what we’ve seen and experienced here in England.”
Aswad’s eponymous debut album marked the primary small step in what would finally develop into a wonderful profession outlined by a No. 1 UK single and three Grammy nominations. Profoundly influencing many different younger Black British reggae musicians, Aswad proved a landmark launch that sparked a musical revolution.
Aswad’s self-titled debut is obtainable on vinyl through the Black Story initiative. Order it now.