The Reggulites Hit Birmingham Hard With Some Festive Vibes
A little snap of the crowd after the show
OK, so the weather outside was frightful, but The Night Owl was so delightful! I'm not even sorry. We had such a blast with you, Brum! Here's a little taster of how our Friday night went...
It was frosty as heck early evening of Friday 9th December, the traffic was manic and off we went to drive straight into the origin of all traffic: Birmingham city centre. But it's all good, because we split off to get to Digbeth, which is much cooler and more cultural than Broad Street. We arrived at The Night Owl and they'd got some sort of industrial heater blowing into the venue to warm it up, but it was still cold. Twangers and Bangers were attempting to warm their hands, Blowers were attempting to warm up colossal hunks of metal, and Sugar was fine because, you know, he only has to sing! Only joking. Sorry, Sugar!
We sound checked randomly by creating a little song I will dub "Check the Mic", which was really just a jam, and then I put it on the internet and it went ridiculously viral for a hot minute and some reason we can neither fathom nor explain, and has apparently reached 66K people... Bizarre.
OUT SOON! Reggulites New Single - Check The Mic
I'm joking, that's not true. But isn't the internet a weird place.
Helen, Anna and Dennis having a lovely life
We had a brand new drummer with us for his very first performance. His name is Wayne Scott and we think he's the absolute proverbials! We were also very privileged to have James Crosdale of Yllavation Productions on Bass with us. So the band was sounding pretty nifty and tight in soundcheck, and we got all that sorted, and we all chilled out ready for the show.
It was so cool to see so many of you come and support us! Lots of familiar faces from The Reggae Cookouts we've done over the summer at The Night Owl, lots of fellow musicians joining us and people who we've met from all over! It was beautiful to be joined by Helen and Graham, who we played for at their wedding vow renewal in June of this year, and then at Helen's 50th in September. They're beautifully hearted people and we're so glad to have met them.
We introduced four new tunes into the set last night, which we'll be incorporating into our December shows yet to come. They included "Tears On My Pillow" by Johnny Nash, "Love Has Found Its Way" (or Wayne!) by Dennis Brown, "Rockaway" by Beres Hammond and our very own version of "Almaz" by Randy Crawford, arranged and put inna reggae by our fantastic Dennis Jarrett. We can't tell you how excited we were to unveil this, as it's something we've really been able to put our own stamp on and be creative with.
Helen, Graham, Helen and Anna after the show
We were joined by Basil Gabbidon of Steel Pulse for an extremely groovy and reggae-intensive DJ set which complimented the night fantastically. We enjoyed never before heard remixes and covers, Gabbidon originals and some absolute fire dub. Honestly, almost didn't want to go back on for the second set, but you know, we love what we do and we love that stage, so we got up there!
Caught just after we played when the band were packing down... that's Basil Gabbidon on the deck, that is!
The second set got dancy and shexy as usual. One lady requested "Ghetto"... but was informed there's plenty of ghetto on stage, yes? Shout out to you, random dancing lady, you had yourself a great time!
Managed to catch Sweet Sensimelia!
Big shout out to our sometimes keyboard player Izzy, the wonderful Joel Gibbs of Big Ship Alliance, and Sensi who came down to see us, as well. We just love that Birmingham Reggae supports Birmingham Reggae! That's how it should be! The vibe was absolutely to die for.
We revisited "Tears on My Pillow" for the Encore, because someone asked for it, and because we wanted to play it again, and because I really wanted Basil and Catherine Gabbidon to hear it, because they missed it in the first half!
Other highlights of the night are already circulating on't tinterweb, including when we
all decided that we wanted to play different instruments along with Basil's DJ set, and so Clive played the air drums, Dennis the air bass and James the air keys, with Helen on imaginary vocals (trust me, you wouldn't want the real thing)! We also caught a brilliantly synchronized moment between Dennis and Anna in the street outside.
Anna, Helen and the beautiful and amazing Catherine Gabbidon, or Lady G
Our next public performance is at The Wyggeston, Burton on Trent, (details in the events section) on Saturday 17th December 2022 (evening). It will be great to catch up with our Burton crew at our now-traditional Reggae Christmas celebration.
Thank you so much for kicking off our Festive Season with us, and we hope to see you real soon, but if we don't, have a Very Reggae Christmas and a Skankin' New Year.
If you'd like more details about our next events, take a look here:
If you'd like to see what else The Night Owl have in store, take a look here:
If you'd like to check out the work James does over at Yllavation, check that out here:
If you'd like to find out more about our new snazzy drummer, have a look here: Dark-eye - YouTube
We mentioned Big Ship Alliance. If you don't know who that is, you absolutely should! So we will help you. You can find them here:
And their next public performance is on 29th December at The Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath, tickets for which you can check out here:
We mentioned Izzy and Sweet Sensimelia, both of which work as part of Reggae Winehouse, who you can check out here:
If you do anything today, stop by this website and see the amazing things that Basil Gabbidon and his band do: ABOUT | Bgabbidonband
PS. Our bass player Paul is in the band :p
Well done to all. I really enjoyed the evening and couldn't stop dancing. The energy on stage was electrifying. Wonderful! Looking forward to working with you again and catching the next gig. Big up! Lady G aka Mrs G. 🌞
You are all doing a fabulous job in every aspect. A very talented team!😀