Reggae legends' double date with Tyneside
Reggae legends' double date with Tyneside
They starred alongside Bob Marley, recorded with Jimmy Cliff and even hooked up with Paul McCartney. This week fabled reggae band The Cimarons perform live at Newcastle’s Hoochie Coochie.
When Tyneside-based film producer and director James Baxter first came across the story of trailblazing reggae group The Cimarons he was immediately hooked.
“I have a huge love of music and I’ve wanted to produce a music documentary for the best part of five years,” explains the founder of the North East’s first boutique post-production house, The Church.
“I was developing something around Billy Eilish but I couldn’t get that off the ground and then Mark Warmington approached me about The Cimarons. I like reggae music and yet I didn’t know The Cimarons’ story at all — when Mark, who’s an exceptionally talented director of photography, showed me some clips and started to fill in the blanks I knew it was a story I wanted to tell and a story that needed to be told.
“I was blown away by the cinematography but Mark needed a director. I offered to help.”
Fast forward to October 2024 and the critically acclaimed Harder Than The Rock: The Cimarons Story is set for a one-off screening at Newcastle’s Tyneside Cinema on the day it premieres across the UK. The October 3 event includes a live Q&A featuring the band, Warmington and host Don Letts.
But those keen to feel the full Cimarons experience are in for a very special treat.
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The previous night sees founding members Locksley Gichie and Franklyn Dunn — alongside current vocalist Michael Arkk — play a live set at Newcastle’s world famous Hoochie Coochie.
Film director, DJ and musician Letts, who co-founded Big Audio Dynamite alongside Mick Jones of The Clash, will follow The Cimarons’ show with an exclusive DJ set. And he’s predicting sparks will fly inside one of the North East’s most storied music venues.
“The Cimarons believed in music as a tool for social change and understood its power to communicate the hopes, dreams and aspirations of its listeners,” said Grammy Award winner Letts.
“The Hoochie Coochie crowd can expect a bass-heavy reminder of a band that helped sow the seeds for the UK’s love affair with Jamaican music.
“I just love chatting to the guys and hearing their stories — although they’ve been residents of the UK for half a century they remain Jamaican at heart!”
The Cimarons — Jamaican natives who became the UK’s first bona fide reggae stars — formed following a chance meeting at a London bus stop in the late 60s.
Credited with putting a new generation of Black British youth in touch with their roots, they rapidly became the go-to backing band for a slew of famous artists throughout the 70s.
In 1972 Bob Marley arrived in the UK minus his Wailers. The Cimarons stepped in and played three live shows before Gichie politely declined Marley’s offer to become a full-time Wailer.
Trojan Records released the band’s debut album, In Time, in 1974 and, as General Levy explains in Harder Than The Rock, ‘they were the spark that started the fire’. The Cimarons performed on Top of the Pops with Ken Boothe and played with everyone from Jimmy Cliff to Toots and the Maytals.
By 1982 Gichie and co. had been invited by Paul McCartney to record an album of reggae-fuelled covers for his publishing company MPL. But Reggaebility failed to take off despite McCartney directing a big budget video for lead single Big Girls Don’t Cry.
Michael Lavery, musician and owner of Hoochie Coochie, said: “We are proud to build on the legacy of Hoochie Coochie as a cultural institution and a champion of music of black origin in the city, across the UK and beyond.
“We’re delighted to welcome both The Cimarons and Don Letts to our venue. Hoochie Coochie is renowned as a hotbed of live music but it’s also a home for everyone who shares our values and our commitment to celebrating diversity in music, the arts and in society.
“It’s particularly important, at the start of Black History Month, that we shine a light on the incredible contribution of bands like The Cimarons to the UK’s rich and vibrant musical landscape.
“Where bands like The Cimarons led, so many more had the confidence to follow.”
Tickets for The Cimarons and Don Letts at Hoochie Coochie on October 2 are on sale at £10 each, via skiddle.
For information on the screening of Harder Than The Rock visit tynesidecinema.co.uk