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Two decades later, The Wailing Souls reunite
By Basil Walters Observer staff reporter
Sunday, December 23, 2007
As the year draws to a close, 2007 will be remembered as the year of reunification for two of reggae's most enduring groups, The Congos (and the Wailing Souls, which takes the spotlight this week.
Like The Congos, The Wailing Souls had been separated for more than two decades, and celebrated their reunification with a rave performance at the famous Hollywood Bowl in California on August 12, followed by a memorable appearance at The Club Revolution in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the following week.
THE WAILING SOULS: celebrated their reunification with a rave performance at the famous Hollywood Bowl in California on August 12
The original members, Winston 'Pipe' Matthew (lead vocalist), Lloyd 'Bread' McDonald, and Rudolph 'Garth' Dennis, along with Devon 'Ziggy Soul' Beckford (who had a previous stint with the group), also made a special visit to the Inner Circle's Circle House Studio, to record the single for an upcoming Shanachie Records' reggae tribute CD by the British-based reggae/pop group the Police, themselves recently reunited.
The Wailing Souls continued their reunion celebration at the annual Monterey Bay Reggae Festival for which they were headliners on what was in a way a kind of dress rehearsal ahead of an extensive tour of North America and Europe before the release of their new album.
"It's a lasting reunion, once we get back together all that happened before is behind us," affirmed Bread who along with two other founding members were still in high school in the late 1960s when they formed the Renegades, which later evolved into the Wailing Souls. The group recorded its first song Gold Digger around 1971 for producer Lloyd Matador. That song was actually banned.
Bread described the reunited Wailing Souls as "The Channel One line-up basically, with myself, Buddy, Garth, Pipe. Right now we have three of the four (original members) because Buddy didn't make it, so Devon Beckford who sang with us from 1985 to 1989 is with us. We have Ziggy, who was a member after Garth left the group; he joined in 1985 and we worked together until 1989 when Pipe and I migrated to America."
He explained how at one stage the group was called Pipe and the Pipers, as there was a level of confusion between The Wailing Souls and The Wailin' Wailers. It was Bob Marley, whose Tuff Gong label they were recording for at the time, who suggested the name change.
"But people kept asking for The Wailing Souls, so we eventually went back to the original name. In terms of the way forward, we just did this big show at the Hollywood Bowl, The Reunion Kick Off, along with Sly and Robbie and the Burning Spear. There is a tribute album being made by Shanachie Records to the Police (out of England) and a lot of different artistes are on it.
Ourselves, Gregory, Horace Andy, Inner Circle, Toots, among some other people. As I'm speaking to you, we're recording our song - One World - originally done by the Police."
The group, now based in Los Angeles, has recorded music of lasting quality such as Things And Time, Firehouse Rock, Shark Attack, Back Biter, Bredda Gravalicious before its soulful wailing was put on pause 23 years ago.
In the early 1980s, the quartet worked with a number of prominent producers, including the Riddim Twins Sly and Robbie, for whose Taxi label they recorded Old Broom; on the late Henry 'Junjo' Lawes' Volcano label they recorded Firehouse Rock, and in 1988-89 they put out an album for Lloyd 'King Jammys' James called Stormy Weather.
It was around this time the group was reduced to two members, Pipe and Bread, with the return of Garth Dennis to Black Uhuru. In the 90s, Pipe and Bread recorded two Grammy-nominated albums. The Wailing Souls has earned three Grammy Nominations over the years, All Over the World in 1991, Psychedelic Souls in 1998, and Equality in 2001.
The Wailing Souls, who also did a cover of John Holt's Tide Is High, has been part of many movie soundtrack appearances such as Disney's Cool Runnings and have performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC and Late Late Night with Craig Kilbourn on CBS.
By Basil Walters Observer staff reporter
Sunday, December 23, 2007
As the year draws to a close, 2007 will be remembered as the year of reunification for two of reggae's most enduring groups, The Congos (and the Wailing Souls, which takes the spotlight this week.
Like The Congos, The Wailing Souls had been separated for more than two decades, and celebrated their reunification with a rave performance at the famous Hollywood Bowl in California on August 12, followed by a memorable appearance at The Club Revolution in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the following week.
THE WAILING SOULS: celebrated their reunification with a rave performance at the famous Hollywood Bowl in California on August 12
The original members, Winston 'Pipe' Matthew (lead vocalist), Lloyd 'Bread' McDonald, and Rudolph 'Garth' Dennis, along with Devon 'Ziggy Soul' Beckford (who had a previous stint with the group), also made a special visit to the Inner Circle's Circle House Studio, to record the single for an upcoming Shanachie Records' reggae tribute CD by the British-based reggae/pop group the Police, themselves recently reunited.
The Wailing Souls continued their reunion celebration at the annual Monterey Bay Reggae Festival for which they were headliners on what was in a way a kind of dress rehearsal ahead of an extensive tour of North America and Europe before the release of their new album.
"It's a lasting reunion, once we get back together all that happened before is behind us," affirmed Bread who along with two other founding members were still in high school in the late 1960s when they formed the Renegades, which later evolved into the Wailing Souls. The group recorded its first song Gold Digger around 1971 for producer Lloyd Matador. That song was actually banned.
Bread described the reunited Wailing Souls as "The Channel One line-up basically, with myself, Buddy, Garth, Pipe. Right now we have three of the four (original members) because Buddy didn't make it, so Devon Beckford who sang with us from 1985 to 1989 is with us. We have Ziggy, who was a member after Garth left the group; he joined in 1985 and we worked together until 1989 when Pipe and I migrated to America."
He explained how at one stage the group was called Pipe and the Pipers, as there was a level of confusion between The Wailing Souls and The Wailin' Wailers. It was Bob Marley, whose Tuff Gong label they were recording for at the time, who suggested the name change.
"But people kept asking for The Wailing Souls, so we eventually went back to the original name. In terms of the way forward, we just did this big show at the Hollywood Bowl, The Reunion Kick Off, along with Sly and Robbie and the Burning Spear. There is a tribute album being made by Shanachie Records to the Police (out of England) and a lot of different artistes are on it.
Ourselves, Gregory, Horace Andy, Inner Circle, Toots, among some other people. As I'm speaking to you, we're recording our song - One World - originally done by the Police."
The group, now based in Los Angeles, has recorded music of lasting quality such as Things And Time, Firehouse Rock, Shark Attack, Back Biter, Bredda Gravalicious before its soulful wailing was put on pause 23 years ago.
In the early 1980s, the quartet worked with a number of prominent producers, including the Riddim Twins Sly and Robbie, for whose Taxi label they recorded Old Broom; on the late Henry 'Junjo' Lawes' Volcano label they recorded Firehouse Rock, and in 1988-89 they put out an album for Lloyd 'King Jammys' James called Stormy Weather.
It was around this time the group was reduced to two members, Pipe and Bread, with the return of Garth Dennis to Black Uhuru. In the 90s, Pipe and Bread recorded two Grammy-nominated albums. The Wailing Souls has earned three Grammy Nominations over the years, All Over the World in 1991, Psychedelic Souls in 1998, and Equality in 2001.
The Wailing Souls, who also did a cover of John Holt's Tide Is High, has been part of many movie soundtrack appearances such as Disney's Cool Runnings and have performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC and Late Late Night with Craig Kilbourn on CBS.
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