With days to go before 2015 ends, the Jamaica Observer reaches out in this tri-weekly slot to entertainment personalities for their views on what the year meant to them.

THE Uprising Roots Band maintained its reputation as an exciting live unit in 2015, taking their act to Europe for the first time.

The seven-piece outfit did some of the continent’s biggest festivals: Reggae Jam in Bersenbrück, Germany, Belgium’s Reggae Geel, Reggae Sun Ska in France and Rototom Sunsplash in Benicassim, Spain.

Bass guitarist Ruel Ashburn said the run was a good one for Uprising which has been around for over a decade.

“For us it was all about breaking the ice and it was positive vibes. Is not like wi went there an’ have a lotta hit songs like Chronixx, but the people were calling out for us,” he said.

Apart from drummer/lead vocalist Kush McAnuff, the core members of Uprising had never performed in Europe. They have played the United States East Coast and major gigs such as the Sierra Nevada Music Festival in northern California.

Keyboardist/dub poet, Lloyd ‘Akin’ Palmer, percussionist Junior Sutherland, veteran guitarists Winston ‘Bo Pee’ Bowen and Lebert ‘Gibby’ Morrison, keyboardist Kimmi Gold and singer Sulan Smith, were also members of Uprising Roots’s maiden European trip.

They are scheduled to appear on next month’s Rebel Salute in St Ann and expected to release their second album, Black To I Roots, in 2016.