Turning On and Tuning In Dubwise at the Henry Ward Hall

There has been something very magical unfolding at the Henry Ward Hall in Hastings, of late. Built in 1848, HWH is a kind of village hall space with a rich history of supporting local people, with its community cafe which hosts various support groups, music and arts workshops, table tennis, board games, crafts and the focal point of Nashville import Mike Willis’s passion-project ‘Mike’s List’ which aims to bring to Hastings some of the music scene’s finest and funkiest performers.
Yay! Andrew Logan writes.

The hall itself, is part of the ‘His Place’ charity and presents rather like a small
church, because it is! An independent evangelical community church ‘where
people can come and join in with worship, dancing, flag waving, and praising the
Lord however they choose’.

With a rather magnificent pipe organ hanging over the pulpit, and traditional pews beneath it, the hall is a very beautiful piece of architecture. A grade 2 listed building, with original stained glass windows and a proscenium stage that ends so close to the audience that a wonderful level of intimacy is achieved between performers and audience (be they punters or parishioners) although, to be honest, it was never easy balancing my pint on the edge of the pulpit.

But whether it was the amount of extra-strength IPA I had consumed, or perhaps the chocolate brownie that someone kindly offered me after I’d sat down, this gig was absolute chaos, but the very best kind of chaos. As historian Henry Adams once said “Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.” And that was what was on the menu at HWH tonight. Life, in all of its exuberant, shoe-shymmying, hip-swinging, get-down-and-boogie-on glory.

At the core of Third World, which formed in 1973, are its two remaining original members Stephen ‘Cat’ Coore (guitars and cello) and Richard Daley (bass), who alongside drummer Tony ‘Ruption’ Williams, keyboardist Norris ‘Noriega’ Webb and vocalist AJ Brown embody the current rendering of the band. Supported on the night by Earl Gateshead, a key figure in the UK sound system culture and Henry ‘Matic’ Horn, a Hastings-based champion of deep roots who’d played with the likes of Aswad, UB40 and The Beat, and who, when push came to shove, was a pretty damn cool trombone player.

 

Third World kicked off their set with some new blood, a young vocalist and some chilled new songs, but what soon followed, much to the audience’s delight was an absolutely tub-thumping rendition of their cover of the O’jays Now That We’ve Found Love which was remixed for Island records as a major dance 12 inch and became a hit single on both sides of the Atlantic in 1978, reaching number 2 in England. But tonight was definitely going to be far more than a greatest hits package.

Of course, Third World offered us 96 Degrees in the Shade, Dancing on the Floor and Irie Ites, but also a beautiful rendition of the Police’s Message in a Bottle, Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and the incredibly audacious yet beautifully executed parting shot Time to Say Goodbye (Con te partirò) an Andrea Bocelli cover of operatic proportions.

Personally, I was blown away by their presence and the vitality that they brought to the stage, the warmth and good humour and what could only be described as a profound spiritual dynamic (most appropriate in a church) which took on an almost ritualistic quality when drummer Tony Williams proceeded to come out and dance like a mad thing with members of the audience (much to their delight) while playing a powerful djembe solo. It made me think of Obeah, an ancient African healing tradition, for that is what I experienced myself, on the night. A deep sense of love and healing emanating from the heart of Third World’s performance.
In January 2013, Third World were awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in Montego Bay, and quite right too. They really are quite a phenomenal act!

 

 

Three days passed, three days of rest, and then a resurrection and a return to the Henry Ward Hall where an ecclesiastical elevation was made possible through the offering of sonic sacraments from Guyanan dub producer and arch knob-twiddler the Mad Professor (Neil Joseph Stephen Fraser, a man who had worked with talents as diverse as Lee Scratch Perry, Sade and the KLF).

I arrived at the gig way too early and sat through about half an hour of sound checks and requests from various people to have a photo taken with the Professor. When finally the sound checks were finished and the vibes came flooding out of the speakers, you realised that ultimately this could only ever be about the music.

Supported by Brighton based sonic sorcerers bitKIKR, with their hypnotic lo-fi beats, they reminding me of early On U Sounds, while Coreysan & Ink Project hit the ground running, their frenetic energy and uplifting set culminating in an absolutely blinding version of I’m Deranged (the theme from David Lynch’s Lost Highway).

And then, with a great sense of foreboding drama, dry ice filled the auditorium, we all coughed a little, and out of the haze, the Mad Professor emerged, an archbishop of dub, playing over two hours of remixed Massive Attack. Remodelling those Bristolian blunted beats from Mezzanine and No Protection into rich sonic tapestries and outrageous dub symphonies, the high point of which for me was the Professor’s remix of the Tracey Thorn/Massive Attack title track Protection – a truly religious experience.

The audience skanked like there was no tomorrow. Henry ‘Matic’ Horn made a further cameo appearance. The light show was extraordinary. It was as if we were part of a giant dub-rave.  Riddim and roots were in the house. And there was much electronic-noodling and expertise knob-twiddling that carried on deep into the night.
On reflection, these two gigs, as well as being stupendously entertaining, beautifully uplifting and a great deal of fun, offered quite an extraordinary peak into our shared musical past. Be it 1970’s reggae/dance fusion (with a healthy dose of operatics thrown in for good measure) or a dub take on 1990’s Bristolian Trip Hop.

The tangible pleasure felt by audiences on both occasions suggested a deeply satisfying ‘preaching to the converted’. But amongst the ageing old school die-hards like myself, there were younger folk who had hopefully found themselves introduced to musical cultures of the past which they found to be as vibrant and alive today as they were when they were first unleashed.

Bless ups to all those whose hard work made these two evenings of infinitely beautiful music possible, and hopefully see some of you on the 2nd August for pioneering dance technicians The Egg, Sound artist and summer of love DJ Ramjac and ambient evangelist The Irresistible Force. Blimey Missus! That sounds good!

*Photos by Andrew Logan unless stated otherwise

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