Steel Pulse

Steel Pulse may have explored various styles of music since they started out in 1975, but when it comes to the message, the UK’s Grammy-winning reggae band has remained close to their roots. The group have continued their commitment to fighting injustice, educating the masses, and promoting positive messages through spiritually uplifting music.

“We just can’t ignore the politics, because every life and soul that’s born on this earth is a political maneuver for someone, at some stage”, Hinds explains. “From a spiritual aspect, it’s really an upliftment through facing reality – what’s out there. We deal with positive spirits. It means putting aside the guns, the drugs and all of the things that are ailments of society – especially the black communities right now”.

Steel Pulse initially had difficulty finding live gigs, as club owners were reluctant to give them a platform for their “subversive” Rastafarian politics. Luckily, the punk movement was opening up new avenues for music all over Britain, and also finding a spiritual kinship with protest reggae. Thus, the group wound up as an opening act for punk and new wave bands like the Clash, the Stranglers, Generation X, the Police, and XTC, and built a broad-based audience in the process. Their 1978 debut, Handsworth Revolution, is still regarded by many critics as a landmark and a high point of British reggae. As the ’80s wore on, slick synthesizers and elements of dance and urban R&B gradually crept into their sound, even as their subject matter stayed on the militant side. By the late ’80s, Steel Pulse had won a Grammy and was working in full-fledged crossover territory, but never reached the degree of commercial acceptance. They subsequently returned to a tough-minded, rootsy sound that nonetheless made concessions to contemporary trends with touches of dancehall and hip-hop.