It’s late autumn 1977, and the Stranglers are headlining a show in the Midlands. The support comes from the roots reggae band Steel Pulse. They know what to expect from a punk crowd: gobbing, cans being thrown. Steel Pulse are barely into their first number when a huge wad of phlegm shoots from the audience and lands on the hand of bassist Ron “Stepper” McQueen. The band’s nickname for McQueen was “Psycho” and they fully expected him to live up to his name. “We all stared at Ronnie and we stopped playing,” remembers Steel Pulse’s singer, Mykaell Riley. “So there’s this silence onstage, then eventually 4,000 punks went silent.” McQueen didn’t react, however. Instead, Stranglers bassist, Jean-Jacques Burnel, stepped out of the wings, waded into the crowd, identified the culprit, and knocked him out cold. Then he turned to face the crowd.

“He just went, ‘You fucking wankers. You love reggae,’” laughs Riley.

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Birmingham Reggae legends Steel Pulse have been confirmed for the line-up of the previously announced Island Life concert festival at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, which celebrates 50 years of Island Records. Steel Pulse will play on Wednesday 27th May with The Fratellis and Bombay Bicycle Club.

Formed in ’75 Steel Pulse signed to Island at the height of the punk wars in late ’77. The first Steel Pulse single for Island, ‘Ku Klux Klan’ (a call for resistance against forces of racism) was released in February 1978. Five months later, their debut album ‘Handsworth Revolution’ was released to huge critical acclaim.

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Birmingham Reggae legends Steel Pulse have been confirmed for the line-up of the previously announced Island Life concert festival at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, which celebrates 50 years of Island Records. Steel Pulse will play on Wednesday 27th May with The Fratellis and Bombay Bicycle Club.

Formed in ’75 Steel Pulse signed to Island at the height of the punk wars in late ‘77. The first Steel Pulse single for Island, ‘Ku Klux Klan’ (a call for resistance against forces of racism) was released in February 1978. Five months later, their debut album ‘Handsworth Revolution’ was released to huge critical acclaim. They went on to support Bob Marley & The Wailers on a European tour in June and July ‘78 and were a crucial part of the punky reggae party Bob Marley sang about as they aligned themselves with the punk movement and played several Rock Against Racism shows with artists such as the Stranglers and XTC and memorably at The Clash RAR show in Victoria Park with Xray Spex and the Tom Robinson Band. They released two more groundbreaking albums for Island – ‘Tribute To The Martyrs’ in ‘79 and ‘Reggae Fever (Caught You)’ in ’80.

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Published in The Guardain – May 30th 2009

Published May 27th

Published in the Independent – June 5th 2009