Light Of The World || official site

Gee Bello - vocals, percussion - Nat Augustin - vocals, trombone, guitar - Mel Gaynor - drums
Stephane Deriau-Reine - keyboards - Carlton White - Background Vocals, Bass - Frank Felix - bass
Colin Graham - trumpet - Simon Finch - trumpet

Thirty years after they first came together, Light of the World are still leading the way for British Soul/Funk & Jazz. Hence as a centrepiece “Addicted To Funk” among the hits the side projects and the obscure 12” singles are two brand new tracks. “Feel The Real” & “Walk Don’t Run” the latter being a collaboration with Soul legend Alexander O’Neal. They showcase how Gee, Nat & Mel are moving the band forward into the 21st Century, by recruiting Jazz Funk talent like Frank Felix (Bass), Stephane Deriau-Reine (Keyboards), a brand new horn section of Colin Graham, Simon Finch & Patrick Clahar. It’s a line up that proves today’s Light of the World, live and on record, are as exciting as surprising and as fresh and funky as they were at Gullivers back in 1979.

When, in1979, Ensign Records announced their latest signing, London jazz/funk group Light Of The World, it was greeted with an audible shrug. British soul or funk was notoriously little more than a pale copy of US music, and here was a group who had even nicked their name from the Kool & The Gang album Light Of Worlds.

But those in the know – the South East’s growing funk club scene – we well aware there something much more going on. The label’s Director of A&R was Chris Hill, that soul circuit’s founding father and most in-demand deejay, and Light Of The World themselves had been gigging for years, wowing local crowds while they honed their brass-heavy jazz/funk into something unique. And uniquely British.

Although their grooves began life as they grew up listening to Curtis Mayfield, Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters, The Crusaders, Jimmy McGriff, Earth Wind & Fire and older brothers’ Miles and John Coltrane, they made a point of weaving in the sounds of their immediate environment. LOTW funk had echoes of Africa, strains of Top Of The Pops, sound system sensibilities and sharp North London wit. Their first album <Light Of The World> and the singles from it Swingin’ and Midnight Groovin’ (Top 50 and Top 75 respectively) didn’t simply fit in at at funk clubs like Columbo’s or Upstairs At Ronnie’s or Crackers, they <were> Columbo’s or Upstairs At Ronnie’s or …
“Not being afraid to show our British selves was something we made a point of doing,” explains percussionist and front man Gee Bello. “As musicians we wanted to express ourselves as honestly as possible, and all that stuff was part of what had got us to that point. Then of course it made us far more special to our audience because we reflected them more accurately. That’s why they took to us like they did.”

By the end of the 1970s, Britfunk, as it was known, was huge, filling vast suburban venues for Soul All-Dayer and Weekenders, with Light Off The World the scene’s house band. It opened the way for a slew of acts, and very soon bands like Central Line, Linx, Freeze, Hi-Tension, Level 42, Shakatak, Atmosphear started breaking through into the pop charts.

Meanwhile, the leaders were going from strength to strength, with their second album, 1980’s <Round Trip>, being produced partly in Los Angeles by funk veteran Augie Johnson ( Side Effect, Wayne Henderson, Brothers Johnson). At the time this cause great concern among the group’s growing fanbase that a slick West Coast production job would smooth out so much of the spikey London edge. Nobody was disappointed though. Breezy, danceable singles like London Town, I’m So Happy and I Shot The Sheriff (all Top 40) sat next to deeper album cuts like Boys In Blue (an anti-Sus Law song), Time and Pete’s Crusade (a tribute to the US jazz band The Crusaders, favourite of keyboardist Peter Hinds), and it was all held together by LOTW’s strength of character and unique understanding of what was funky in the UK in 1980.

With such success, remarkably, by the end of that year Light Of The World had split up. According to Gee, their learning curve had been so steep the individual members had outgrown the group almost instantly. “We were kids when we started Light Of The World, and over that two year period when we had fantastic success, we grew into men – both as musicians and as people. After we’d recorded and worked the second album, <Round Trip>, we knew the band format that had been decided on when some of the guys were as young as fifteen just wasn’t for us any more. We wanted to do other things, that wouldn’t have been possible if we’d all stayed together in the band.”

Bluey Maunick (guitar), Peter Hinds (keyboards) and Tubbs Williams (bass) formed Incognito; Baps Baptise (trumpet), Kenny Wellington (trumpet) and Breeze McKreith (guitarist) became Beggar & Co who immediately had the hit Chant No 1 with Spandau Ballet; Gee and Nat Augustin (xxxx) carried on as Light Of The World for one more album, 1982’s <Famous Faces>

Lloyd Bradley
Music Biographer