FIRST-GENERATION Britons of West Indian heritage, David Hinds and Angus “Drummie Zeb” Gaye had a lot in common. As young black men during the early 1970s they experienced rampant racism in the United Kingdom but also found solace in the rebel tones of reggae music.

Both became co-founders of influential bands — Hinds with Steel Pulse and Drummie Zeb in Aswad. Hinds told the Jamaica Observer that the latter’s death “is a sad loss to our reggae industry”.

Drummer/lead vocalist for Aswad, Drummie Zeb died September 2 in London at age 62. Aswad and Steel Pulse are contemporaries, having formed in the mid-1970s when British reggae was taking shape.

“Aswad as a band was almost a mirror image to what we wanted to achieve, and that was to spread that unique style of British reggae across the globe. Drummie Zeb played an intricate part of that development. We recognised him not only as an innovative drummer, but also an aspiring vocalist and an excellent producer,” said Hinds.

Drummie Zeb was born in London to Grenadian parents while Hinds’ parents are Jamaicans from St Ann who settled in the Midlands borough of Handsworth. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Aswad and Steel Pulse helped fashion the British reggae sound with impressive albums like New Chapter, Live And Direct, Handsworth Revolution and True Democracy.

They both performed at Reggae Sunsplash in the early 1980s. At that time some saw them as rivals but Hinds said that was never the case.

“Our first encounter was when they performed at the Rainbow nightclub in Birmingham’s city centre [1976]. They were short of amplifiers to perform that evening. We rushed back to our cellar/basement and offered what they needed,” he recalled. “Our second encounter was when we saw them at Island Records during the playing of one of our demos to the label. Over the years our paths never crossed that often, apart from the odd show here and there in Europe or the Caribbean. But I do recall us being in Tahiti in the early 2000s. We had a chance to become more social, being as the concert that we both came to do got cancelled due to a monsoon that was coming our way.”

Originally, Aswad released hard-hitting, horn-hooked, drum and bass songs like African Children and Oh Jah. Their sound evolved into pop singles like Don’t Turn Around and Give A Little Love by the late 1980s, by which time Drummie Zeb was the official lead singer and became more involved in producing the band’s material.

Hinds and Steel Pulse won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album with Babylon The Bandit in 1987, one year before Aswad hit global charts with Don’t Turn Around. His respect grew for Drummie Zeb over the years.

“Unfortunately, I never had a chance to experience Drummie’s production work in its fullest capacity but I do recall him coming to ‘Brum’ [Birmingham] to work with Pato Banton. I briefly sat in on one of these sessions. But, make no mistake, Drummie Zeb can be credited for taking the grooves of British reggae to another level. I remember there were times when Steel Pulse, just like we did with Bob Marley and The Wailers, was always anxious for another Aswad album to come out,” said Hinds. “Although Drummie sang many hits with the band, Smokey Blues was my favourite. It was a blow to the industry when we learned of Aswad splitting-up. It may have been a case where as a unit the band had ran its course, thus each one’s individual talent outgrew each other. Drummie Zeb, a child of the Rainbow, RIP.”