More Classic Reggae from Omnivore: Junior Byles, Ethiopian & Gladiators

Omnivore Recordings has been crushing it since buying the catalog of the legendary reggae label Nighthawk Records a year or so ago. The first pair of Nighthawk titles, released at the end of 2017, were the Gladiators’ Full Time and a very cool, previously-unreleased Ethiopian & His Allstars’ album titled The Return of Jack Sparrow.

Two more titles, both critically-acclaimed albums by Gladiators, were released in April 2018. Now Omnivore has announced another pair of acclaimed reggae albums, which will be released on CD and as digital downloads on June 22, 2018 – Ethiopian & Gladiators’ Dread Prophecy and Junior Byles’ Rasta No Pickpocket.

Leonard Dillon, a/k/a Ethiopian a/k/a Jack Sparrow first met Albert Griffiths of the Gladiators back in the mid-1960s. Dillion had already formed the Ethiopians and had been working in the studio with legendary reggae producer Coxsone Dodd for his Channel One label. The sessions inspired a musical collaboration between Dillon and Griffiths, who would later form the Gladiators, the pair recording the classic “Train To Skaville” single.

The Ethiopians were one of the most popular bands in Jamaica during the late 1960s and into the early ‘70s while the Gladiators hit their creative and commercial peak during the late 1970s and the early ‘80s. A recording session in 1986 for Nighthawk Records reunited Dillon with Griffiths and the Gladiators, which resulted in the classic roots-reggae album Dread Prophecy.

Meanwhile, reggae singer Junior Byles formed the vocal group the Versatiles in 1967, recording with noted producers Lee “Scratch” Perry and Joe Gibbs, resulting in the hit single “Children Get Ready.” When the Versatiles split up in 1970, Byles continued to record as a solo artist for Perry, garnering a minor hit with the song “What’s The World Coming To,” released as ‘King Chubby,’ Byles’ nickname. Byles continued to record numerous singles for Perry, including classics like “Cutting Razor,” “Place Called Africa,” and “Rasta No Pickpocket” which made Byles a major star in Jamaica.

Byles suffered from mental illness, however, and moved in and out of sanitariums during the late 1970s and early ‘80s. The artist scored a final hit with the Joe Gibbs-produced “Heart & Soul.” His session for Nighthawk Records was arranged by Byles’ longtime friend Niney the Observer, which resulted in his final album, 1986’s Rasta No Pickpocket. He released a handful of singles during the rest of the decade and would end up homeless, begging in the streets.

Byles would return to performing in the late ‘90s, though, and would travel to the U.K. for a short tour in 2004. The Omnivore release of Rasta No Pickpocket is the first time the album has appeared on CD, remastered from the original tapes and including bonus tracks.

Buy the CDs from Amazon.com:
Ethiopian & Gladiators’ Dread Prophecy
Junior Byles’ Rasta No Pickpocket

Two Classic Reggae Reissues from the Gladiators

Late last year, the esteemed archival label Omnivore Recordings announced that it had acquired the back catalog of the Nighthawk Records label, which was good news indeed for hardcore reggae fans. Among the bands recording for the long-gone but revered Nighthawk imprint was the Gladiators, a legendary Jamaican outfit founded by talented singer and guitarist Albert Griffiths way back in the 1960s (long before any of us had heard of Bob Marley and the Wailers). Throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, the Gladiators released a string of acclaimed albums for various labels, including several late ‘70s discs for the British Virgin Records imprint.

Nighthawk Records was formed in St. Louis in 1976 and originally released a handful of post-WWII blues compilations before re-focusing on reggae by 1980. Before closing the doors in the ‘90s, Nighthawk had released classic reggae albums by the Itals, Justin Hinds, the Morwells and, yes, the Gladiators as well as a number of vinyl collections that compiled rare reggae singles seldom heard outside of Jamaica.

The band’s association with Nighthawk Records was a fruitful one, the Gladiators releasing a pair of classic LPs for the label in 1982’s Symbol of Reality and 1984’s Serious Thing. On April 20th, 2018 Omnivore Recordings will reissue both albums on CD, remastered and with expanded track lists. This is the second wave of Nighthawk reissues from Omnivore, the first including the Gladiators’ 1995 compilation LP Full Time and the previously-unreleased Ethiopian & His All Stars’ album The Return of Jack Sparrow. Both the Gladiators’ Symbol of Reality and Serious Thing are being reissued with previously-unreleased bonus tracks.

With Symbol of Reality, the band’s Nighthawk Records label debut, the Gladiators revisited their own back catalog, re-recording songs like “Dreadlocks the Time Is Now” (as “Streets of Gold”) and “Big Boo Boo Deh” (renamed “Cheater”). They also recorded a pair of Bob Marley tunes in “Small Axe” and “Stand Alone.” The Omnivore reissue includes the original ten-song LP as well as the two bonus tracks that appeared on the previous 1997 CD reissue, as well as four unissued tracks. For Serious Thing, the band added more social commentary to their material, including topical original songs like “Freedom Train” and “My Thoughts” along with re-recordings of vintage tunes like “Rearrange” and “Fling It Gimme.” This reissue also includes six previously-unreleased bonus tracks, including dub versions like “My Thoughts Instrumental Dub” and “Good Foundation Dub.”

According to Griffiths, quoted in a press release for the new reissues, “Dread is me culture, know wha’ I mean? Me could not a sing reggae music and really be a man that trim. Ha fe be a dread. When I say dread, a Rastaman, know wha’ I mean? I ha fe dread because every song that I sing is dread. The way I sing it is dread. Yeah, the music itself dread . . . A real reggae singer ha fe be forceful. A forceful reggae singer will always survive. Reggae music, man – it might look simple, but it naw so simple, you know. You ha fe ready and you ha fe ready with the punch. You ha fe ready to attack and very swift. You see a karate man punch a man, you know, and move again. Well it’s just same way reggae. You ha fe tense your body to sing reggae.”

Buy the CDs from Amazon.com:
The Gladiators’ Symbol of Reality
The Gladiators’ Serious Thing

Short Rounds: Ethiopian & His All Stars, Gladiators, Moloch & Phil Seymour (2018)

New album releases in 150 words or less…

Ethiopian & His All Stars – The Return of Jack Sparrow (Omnivore Recordings)
Singer Leonard Dillon (“Jack Sparrow”) was frontman of 1960s-era reggae group the Ethiopians, which experienced some success in Jamaica. By the late ‘70s, tho’, Dillon was a solo artist then known as the Ethiopian and 1987’s The Return of Jack Sparrow (the title a callback to his original nickname) was recorded with the cream of the island’s instrumentalists, but never released when the label ran out of cash. Omnivore Recordings recently grabbed up the Nighthawk Records catalog and promptly released the LP for the first time. A hearty blend of traditional reggae, ska, and dub remixes – including remakes of several Ethiopian tracks –Dillon’s voice is in fine form here, whether revisiting his foot-shuffling hit “Train To Skaville” or trying out new material like the mesmerizing “Straight On Rastafari” or the R&B-tinged “Slender Thread.” The intermittent dub versions of songs provide a welcome shot of adrenaline to a pleasingly laid-back collection. Grade: A   BUY IT!

Gladiators – Full Time (Omnivore Recordings)
As part of their restoration of the Nighthawk Records catalog, Omnivore has rescued the Gladiators’ 1995 Full Time LP from obscurity and making it available to a larger audience. A compilation of sorts culled from the band’s trio of ‘80s-era albums for the defunct reggae label, Full Time is nevertheless a solid collection of mesmerizing, dub-tinged reggae. Fronted by singer/guitarist Albert Griffiths, whose pipes remind of Peter Tosh from that other reggae outfit, Gladiators’ performances often feature vocal harmonies provided by bassist Clinton Fearon and guitarist Gallimore Sutherland. With Clinton Rufus providing subtle albeit innovative lead guitar and with a solid rhythm section, Gladiators prove with tunes like “Ship Without A Captain,” the transcendent “One Love,” or the gorgeous “I’m Not Crying” that they were a self-contained, creative, cutting-edge reggae harmony band on par with the Mighty Diamonds or the pre-stardom Wailers.  Grade: A   BUY IT!

Moloch – Moloch (Stax Records)
Like Motown attempted with their Rare Earth imprint, so too did Memphis soul giants Stax Records try to grab some of that sweet rock ‘n’ roll cash with recordings from Big Star and UK progsters Skin Alley released on their Enterprise subsidiary. Local lads Moloch, featuring phenomenal guitarist Lee Baker, released a single self-titled 1969 album for Enterprise that went nowhere, disappearing until this über-cool 2016 vinyl reissue. A hard-rockin’ blues band, Moloch transcended the Clapton/Cream blueprint by incorporating Fred Nicholson’s uranium-weight keyboards into songs years before Deep Purple or Uriah Heep. Baker cranks molten riffs while singer Gene Wilkins does his best Jack Bruce impersonation on a rock-solid collection of bluesy jams penned by producer Don Nix, a Memphis legend. Moloch’s performance of Nix’s “Going Down” offers an incendiary, exotic reading that stands proud among a thousand covers. Period blues-rock fans will dig this overlooked relic of the era. Grade: A   BUY IT!

Phil Seymour – Prince of Power Pop (Big Beat Records)
Phil Seymour was an integral part of power-pop legends the Dwight Twilley Band, singing and co-writing with longtime friend Twilley. Breaking up after Shelter Records crashed and burned after just two albums, Seymour launched a modestly successful solo career mining much the same ‘60s-influenced pop-rock musical territory as his former band. Seymour scored a Top 30 hit with the lovely “Precious To Me” from his 1980 solo debut, faring less well when his 1982 sophomore effort fell victim to Boardwalk Records falling apart. Prince of Power Pop is a fine tho’ incomplete career retrospective that includes just six songs from Seymour’s debut and only two from his second LP. The selling point here is eleven previously-unreleased tracks recorded in 1980 with Seymour’s touring band, all of ‘em red-hot and ready to rock; covers of Bobby Fuller’s “Let Her Dance” and Twilley’s “Looking For The Magic” should-have-been monster radio hits. Grade: B+   BUY IT!

Previously on That Devil Music:
Short Rounds, December 2017 - Flat Duo Jets, Focus, The Original Blues Brothers Band, Uriah Heep & John Wetton
Short Rounds, November 2017 - Tommy Castro, NRBQ, Radio Moscow & the Replacements
Short Rounds, October 2017 - Action Skulls, Arthur Adams, the Nighthawks & UFO