Headline News

Album review

Capital Letters mashed up the U.K. sound systems in 1978 with "Smoking My Ganja," a punchy rockers styled single with a distinctly British flavor. The irrepressible song wafted straight up the reggae chart, prompting the Greensleeves label to send the group into the studio with Chris Cracknell to record a full-length. Headline News arrived in the new year, immediately garnering critical acclaim and sending reggae fans running to the shops. Hailing from Wolverhampton, the Letters were a big band, eight-strong (adding another guitarist/vocalist for their 1979 John Peel radio session), and boasting four vocalists, two drummers (one the conga player) and two percussionists, among their ranks. In Jamaica, brass and/or organ filled out the arrangements, the Letters, however, used percussion, giving the band a surprisingly fleshy, rhythm driven sound. And then there's keyboardist Earl Lynch, a decided jazz fan, who unlike his Jamaican counterparts didn't provide atmospheres to the songs, but a snazzy flare instead, a predilection best heard on "Rumours" and "Run Run Run." However, it's the album's opening track, "Fire," that best epitomizes the band at their bubbly roots reggae best, a song driven by a plethora of propulsive beats and percussion, a compulsive bassline, sharp reggae guitar, bouncy keyboards, and infectious vocals. Elsewhere, bass player Junior Brown shines on "Daddy Was No Murderer," while the entire band swaggers across the more free-form styled roots reggae instrumental "Buzz Rock." Moving deftly from militant steppers style to the punchy almost ska-ified "Ganja" hit, every one of the ten tracks on the set was worthy of sound system play.
A pure roots and culture band, Headline's themes range from the religion to self-affirmation, as the band batter down Babylon, rally for unity, push for marijuana legalization (of course), and discuss injustice and unemployment. Unusually, the group also strongly condemn Ugandan President Idi Amin, not that he wasn't thoroughly deserving, but at a time when it was de rigueur to praise Black African leaders (and overlook those with flaws), the British band refused to pull their punches.
This CD reissue further sweetens a classic set with the inclusion of the extended mix of "Smoking," as well as the equally excellent "discomixes" of two of the band's other singles. Capitol Letters only lasted a few years, and this was their sole full-length, a masterpiece that leaves one yearning for so much more.

© Jo-Ann Greene /TiVo