The pulse of reggae

It may not fit into typical playlists or record company lineups, but the long-running band Steel Pulse calls itself "a class act,'' dealing with issues everyone can relate to.

By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Correspondent

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 16, 2000

The group, organized by the offspring of West Indies immigrants living in the Handsworth ghettos of Birmingham, England, proved prophetic. Riots, in response to the ruling government's colonial-racist attitudes, subsequently erupted on the streets of Handsworth and in other communities across Great Britain.

The success of Steel Pulse's controversial first single, Ku Klux Klan -- "rock against racism/rock against fascism/rock against Nazism" -- and the album resulted in a tour of the United Kingdom and Europe with Marley.

"We were against the whole politics within England at the time," singer-guitarist David Hinds says by telephone from his London office. "It was in reaction to the police, unemployment, the way the working class was treated compared with the high echelons of society. It was making a statement."

The band's anti-authoritarian attitude resonated with exponents of punk and new wave, and Steel Pulse made important connections with young audiences thanks to concert pairings with the likes of the Clash, Generation X, the Slits, the Stranglers and the Police.

"They went against the grain," Hinds says of those acts. "They were totally lead-footed when it came to falling in line with the infrastructure and the status quo. They decided to like anything else that also was falling out of line, and reggae was one of those things.

"It was policy for them to have a reggae band opening for them. Initially, reggae acts didn't want to be affiliated with them, because of the spitting, and because of the idea that "It's just another form of white music, blah blah blah.' But we immediately saw where we shared common goals."

What a difference two decades make: Hinds, keyboardist Selwyn Brown and drummer Steve "Grizzly" Nisbett are the sole survivors from the early days of Steel Pulse. The band, after several blatantly commercial efforts in the late '80s, went in a rootsier direction for 1994's Vex and 1997's Rage and Fury. A concert disc, Living Legacy, was released last year on Tuff Gong.

Hinds and Co. have contributed tracks to Grateful Dead and Police tribute albums and recently put their own spin on classic singles by the Rolling Stones (You Can't Always Get What You Want), Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. But they're no longer in the vanguard of reggae, and major labels haven't come calling.

"We don't really fit in at all," he says. "If you go out there and you hear a lot of people playing reggae music, or dance hall, the last track you're going to hear among all that is Steel Pulse, because we simply don't fit in. We're a class act. We stand alone."

By that measure, Hinds and his band mates may indeed constitute a revolutionary approach: Many of the other exponents of contemporary Jamaican-rooted music are known for "slack" (sexually explicit) lyrics, a de-emphasis on melody and vocal harmonies, and rhythms heavily influenced by hip-hop. Steel Pulse, although mellower and less confrontational than in the old days, has stayed the course.

"There's still a lot of conscious (spiritually/politically minded) lyrics out there now, by acts like Sizzla," Hinds says. "I don't think they're cutting-edge. We're into tackling issues aside from the religious aspects of Rastafarianism. When we talk about Rally Round the Flag, you don't have to be a Rasta man to appreciate it. When we talk about Ku Klux Klan, you don't have to be black to understand the hatred perpetuated around the earth because of skin color. No one's talking about the real issues. I think that's what's missing from reggae music."

At a glance

Steel Pulse, 8 p.m. Thursday, Tampa Theatre. Tickets are $24.