Music > Live Reviews

BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH & THE REVOLUTIONARY MINDS AND PIERS HARRISON-REID

Norwich Arts Centre

19/05/19

For my fifth gig in eight nights, it is time for something a little different from my usual tastes. Instead of shouty people with loud guitars or folkies, it is an evening of deep dub reggae and performance poetry.
 
Tonight’s opener is Norwich-based, A&E nurse and performance poetPIERS HARRISON-REIDwith Marimo Beats (AKA the Heartsease Kid) providing the beats behind the poetry. Although I am aware of his odes to Norwich and the NHS - neither of which are performed tonight - this is the first time that I have seen Harrison-Reid and I am very impressed. Although the material may not be the cheeriest, referencing as it does WWI, the loneliness of the kids evacuated in WWII and the like, his delivery is warm, engaging and entertaining. With references to renaissance painting and Japanese pottery in the titles of Chiaroscuroand Kintsugirespectively, there is a sharp, questing mind at work. My only complaint is that the set could have been longer. Here’s to next time.
 
Now for BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH & THE REVOLUTIONARY MINDS. I was switched on to the poetry on Benjamin Zephaniah by my late grandmother. A proud Welshlady who lived through the Great Depression and Second World War, she wasn’t the most obvious of fans for the Rastafarian dub-poet but she was always full of surprises.

 
Much as I love Zephaniah’s poetry, I have not previously paid much attention to his music. On the basis of tonight’s performance, that is very much my loss. The Revolutionary Minds are a crack unit. The Sea (real name Corin Pennington) on keys, bassist Inaki Yarritu and drummer Craig Borrman provide cracking deep dub reggae backing to the vocals of Zephaniah and Amy True. The words are, of course, powerful and thought-provoking but this is more about having fun than preaching, with Zephaniah, True and Yarritu skanking like crazy throughout the set. A fair few of the sell-crowd do the same. The songs - or, as Zephaniah refers to them, the poems - are predominantly from 2017’s Revolutionary Mindsalbum, with the likes of Earth Liberation Sound, What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us andThe Bass Is Coming Down being highlights. The absolute standout for me, though, was main set closer One Tribe,originally on the Hazardous Dub Company album Back to Roots.