The Illuminations story, such as it is, starts way back in the 80s when three young men found themselves playing at a local band competition in a Walsall park on the back of a flat bed truck. It was a pretty ramshackle affair and as the sun dipped down behind the M6 flyover and darkness descended, the only ILLUMINATION available was from the headlights of the audiences’ cars. Peace was fronting a roots reggae band, and a pretty damn fine one at that, Bones was noodling away with a psychedelic...
The Illuminations story, such as it is, starts way back in the 80s when three young men found themselves playing at a local band competition in a Walsall park on the back of a flat bed truck. It was a pretty ramshackle affair and as the sun dipped down behind the M6 flyover and darkness descended, the only ILLUMINATION available was from the headlights of the audiences’ cars. Peace was fronting a roots reggae band, and a pretty damn fine one at that, Bones was noodling away with a psychedelic rock four piece and Toad held the drum stool for a band featuring Ozzy Osbourne’s brother no less, on guitar. A little mutual admiration society developed from that meeting, but it would be twenty five years, (yes a quarter of a century!) later before the three would hook up and start making music together after years of playing soul, reggae, acid jazz and blues in different bands, with varying degrees of success. Mr.Bones loves blues. This much is true. But, he found he didn’t feel comfortable singing about the concerns of sharecroppers and hard drinking hoochie coochie men with mojo hands, and wanted to write and play songs that reflected the world that he knew. He found that he shared a common outlook with Mr. Peace and Mr. Toad in the realisation that life was really about trying to rescue meaning from the clutches of an all pervading economic and cultural materialism that puts a price on everything but at the same time mercilessly strips it of value. Heavy stuff indeed. Don’t let this put you off- there’s no finger wagging or preaching going on here, just a plea to try to peel back the surface of life and shine a light into its murky catacombs-you might not like what you see or understand the chaos but you owe it to yourself at least to look. We have to face up to the monsters within and without to find out what we are. We are more than just consumers, buying our way through life- we are a living, breathing part of this incredible universe. What we have in common is much more than that which seeks to drive us apart. Not an easy message to put across in these cynical times- but we are all of one blood, one biology, one beginning. Thus endeth the sermon The illuminations describe their music as swamp rock- dark, hot and sticky- steeped in shimmering tremolo and underpinned by thundering bass and drums- tough yet sensitive , with more than a hint of blues and Americana but with a character and quality of its own, and what’s more it’s got soul brother!!!!
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