by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA – Steel Pulse, the British reggae band known for anthems like Chant A Psalm and Stepping Out, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025. The Grammy winners are scheduled to tour New Zealand, Australia and Europe early in the year to mark the milestone.
The current lineup has two original members — David Hinds (guitar, vocals) and Selwyn Brown (keyboards). Hinds has been Steel Pulse’s chief songwriter since it formed in the community of Handsworth, Birmingham in 1975.
Other members of the band include Amlak Tafari (bass), David Elecciri, Jr. (lead guitar), Wayne “C-Sharp” Clarke (drums), Kimberly Dawson (backing vocals), John Avery (saxophone), Wess Perry (saxophone), and rapper Baruch Hinds.
The substantive part of the Golden Anniversary trek takes place in Europe. The opening dates will be in the United Kingdom. The first show is in Norwich on March 9. Two days later, there will be a gig in London.
On March 14, Steel Pulse returns to Birmingham, where it all started, at the O2 Institute which has a seating capacity of 1,500. Steel Pulse will also perform in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, France and Spain.
Hinds, whose parents are Jamaican, is considered one of reggae’s great songwriters. He wrote some of Steel Pulse’s most famous songs. One of these is “Handsworth Revolution.” This song talks about racial intolerance in his hometown and in the UK.
In a July, 2023 interview with the Jamaica Observer, Hinds spoke about race relations in the UK.
“Racism is still there in the UK, but it does not compare, not even close to the magnitude of how it’s displayed in countries like France and the United States. And I do believe the catalyst to that cosmopolitan energy derives from children in British schools being taught about the religion of others,” he said.
Handsworth Revolution is also the title of Steel Pulse’s debut album, released by Island Records in 1978. True Democracy, the band’s 1982 album, made them world-famous through songs like Chant A Psalm, Raid Blues Dance, Worth His Weight in Gold (Rally Round) and Your House.
Their 1986 album, Babylon The Bandit, won the GRAMMY Award for Best Reggae Album in 1987. This made them the first non-Jamaicans to win in that category.
