Chronicle Podcasts : Reggae
The News Review:
- Chronicle Podcasts : Reggae
- The Harder They Come: All-singing all-dancing no drama
- Mikey Dread – forever at the Control
Chronicle Podcasts : Reggae
San Francisco Chronicle – Mar 17, 2008
Born as rville Burell in Kingston Jamaica in 1968 Shaggy was raised in Brooklyn and is a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War. He’s known for his booming baritone vocals and his hits include “Mr. Boombastic” “h Carolina” and “It Wasn’t Me. ” Also members of Shaggy’s entourage comment on his style and international popularity.
The Harder They Come: All-singing all-dancing no drama
Telegraph.co.uk – Mar 17, 2008
You get a similar sensation at The Harder They Come the reggae stage musical based on Perry Henzell’s legendary 1972 Jamaican movie about a country “bwoy” who comes to Kingston determined to make it as a pop star and ends up as a doomed small-time gangster. A very simple story takes almost three hours to unfold and it feels a great deal longer than that. There is remarkably little dramatic incident the characters are sketchily drawn and the Jamaican patois is often dauntingly impenetrable. This is the kind of show where the audience needs to have taken a mood-altering substance of some kind even if it’s only a couple of stiff drinks in order to get into the relaxed swing of the evening. All around me people seemed to be having a fantastic time but whenever the admittedly terrific music and dancing stopped I found myself becoming bored and fractious… But the many young black people in the audience responded with whooping enthusiasm. Perhaps I am being excessively censorious – gangsters have long been popular figures from Robin Hood to James Cagney and on to today’s gangsta rap stars and there will always be a youthful affection for bad-guy rebels. The music however proves irresistible even if the hit songs – Rivers of Babylon You Can Get It If You Really Want and the title number – are endlessly repeated. There is some glorious gospel singing too and the skanking dance routines with much provocative shaking of the booty are a sensuous pleasure. Respect too to the ace onstage musicians who marvellously capture that addictive mixture of jauntiness and melancholy that characterises reggae at its best. Rolan Bell gives a star performance as our anti-hero Ivan with an expressive voice that climbs to a thrilling falsetto tremendous stage presence and the niftiest dance moves in town. Chris Tummings is memorably sinister as the corrupt cop who controls the ganja trade and gets maximum value from that great song Pressure Drop while Joanna Francis is a delight as the sweet love interest.
Mikey Dread – forever at the Control
Jamaica bserver – Mar 17, 2008
Broadcaster singer songwriter and producer he toured Europe and Scandinavia as support artiste for UB40 and produced 10 dub tracks for them; he made several appearances and performances on BBC and Sky TV Music Box London and Bristol UK and did live appearances with UB40 Bob Dylan and Carlos Santana at Rock Music Festival at Wembley Stadium in London and Slane Castle in Dublin Ireland. He produced artistes such as Sugar Minott Junior Murvin Earl Sixteen Wally Bucker Sunshine Jah Grundy and Rod Taylor and was integral in the career development of singer Edi Fitzroy who was an accountant at during ‘the Mikey years’. May his soul rest in peace. Talk Back No comments have been posted.
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