One of the most important and longest-lived reggae bands, Steel Pulse, will return to Chile after an absence of several years to show up next 2 May at the Coliseo Theater.
The British group led by David Hinds -vocalist and guitarist- Y Selwyn Brown -keyboardist and backing vocalist- will arrive in the country as part of his postponed tour due to the pandemic to celebrate the anniversary of their 45 year career. strictly speaking, we say postponed, as are only two years away from completing half a century of existence.
Born in suburban Birmingham in 1975, specifically in the Handsworth neighborhood, with Hinds and Brown as part of the group's founders, Steel Pulse has positioned itself as one of the most important non-Jamaican reggae bands in the world..
In fact, Their influence is such that they were the first non-Jamaican group to win the Grammy for Best Reggae Album -in 1986, with Babylon the Bandit– and kept the “record” of being the only non-Jamaican group to take the gramophone until in 2021 Soldiers of Jah Army (U.S) took the distinction with Beauty in the Silence.
further, Steel Pulse, what do you have in David Hinds to an incombustible and first class vocalist, had five other award nominations, the last in 2019 with his album Mass Manipulation.
Discs and songs with marked social criticism have been his hallmark since his early years, considering the context that they must have lived in the 70 in England with the problems generated by racism and violence against immigrants and the Afro-descendant population.
For the same, were part of the cultural movement Rock Against Racism, born in 1976 in England as a reaction to the increase in racist attacks in the streets of the United Kingdom and the rise that the extreme right was having at the polls (history is cyclical).
The album Handsworth Revolution marked a path in that line of militant reggae with his eponymous song, What gives the album its title?, or also “Revolution” O “Ku Klux Klan“, which they performed live at the BBC in 1978 disguised as members of that white supremacist movement to denounce the far-right party The National.
discs like Tribute to the Martyrs (1979), True Democracy (1982), Earth Crisis (1986) O State of Emergency (1988) they maintained that combative and revolutionary essence, aunaue also opened up to softer lyrics influenced by the pop of the time.
However, they have always kept that aspect of militant reggae even in their latest albums such as African Holocaust (2004), which has themes like “No More Weapons“, “Door of no Return” O “Global Warning” and the already mentioned Mass Manipulation (2019) with issues such “Black and White Oppressors”, “Cry Cry Blood” O “Rize“.
In total they are 12 studio albums in his prolific career, plus two live albums and as many compilations with the characteristic sound of Steel Pulse.
Presentations in Chile
His first presentation in Chile was the 11 November 2005 in a spectacular show at the Victor Jara Stadium within the framework of the Santiago Reggae Festival, in which they also participated The Kaffirs and Gondwana.
It was a great sample of the musical power of this legendary band that later returned to Chile in March of 2011 in the first edition of Lollapalooza in the country, and later returned to 2012 and in 2016, so this 2023 It will be a great reunion with his Chilean public.
Check the images of the band's presentation at 2016
One of the main reggae voices in Chile will also be invited to this true party, such as Quique Neira, With more than three decades of career in which he has stepped on the most important stages, and also the DJ set will be in charge of Rootz HiFi.
The appointment is scheduled for next 2 May at the Coliseo Theater (Nataniel Cox 59, Santiago) and the tickets will be on sale from 2 March in Puntoticket.