Capital Letters: Headline News - 1979
In 1979, UK roots reggae was booming. Groups were many. The punk/reggae crossover was at its height and groups like UB40 and The Specials were forming under its influence.
A comparatively little-known band nowadays was Wolverhampton’s Capital Letters, although they were championed by John Peel at the time and their influence acknowledged by The Specials’ Jerry Dammers.
Capital Letters had a feel of Burning Spear about them in places, particularly in the deadpan vocal delivery on a track like Fire. However, Daddy Was No Murderer has a lighter vocal and skank and has the group sounding like Steel Pulse mixed with UB40’s One In Ten. President Amin is in the same vein.
This material is very much in the Steel Pulse style - heavier than Matumbi, Aswad or Reggae Regular. It has a strong roots/social message. Like many UK reggae bands, their message was more of a protest against social conditions than a Rastafarian one.
Rumours is a wonderful serving of Marley-esque portentous warning, backed by some excellent I-Threes style female backing vocals, Wailers-influenced guitar and some truly fetching melodic piano. Great track. The same can be said of the very 1979-80 skank of Smoking My Ganja. My, that’s a fine bassline, isn’t it? Get a load of the drums on the Steel Pulse-ish Unemployed, and on the lively Rejoice for that matter.
At the time I was lapping up my Signing Off by UB40 yet this one slipped under my radar, despite probably hearing some of it on the radio. That was a shame, because it’s another great lost album of its time. If there wasn’t stuff like this, there probably would have been no UB40. Like Trafalgar Square by Pablo Gad and Ghetto Rock by Reggae Regular, this was a really impressive, enjoyable and sadly almost long forgotten album, save amongst a few of the cognoscenti.
The group then disappeared before re-appearing a full thirty-five years later in 2014 with Reality, an album which was made up of material that dated back to 1985. The material is largely upbeat, poppy and brassy, exemplified by This Is Club Dance and the title track. It really is an excellent album, one that almost been forgotten about.
