Pioneering British band The Cimarons celebrating renewed interest, new documentary
The Cimarons Story — Harder Than The Rock, a documentary on the United Kingdom’s first reggae band, is scheduled to open this month, celebrated in that country as Black History Month.
Directed by Mark Warmington, it premiered on June 15 at the Sheffield Docs Fest. The project reflects on the career of a band that backed reggae’s biggest acts when they performed in the UK, including Jimmy Cliff, Toots Hibbert, Slim Smith, and Ken Boothe.
Guitarist Locksley Gichie and bassist Franklyn Dunn are the only original members in the current version of The Cimarons. They formed as a quintet in 1967 in Harlesden, a working-class borough in London where West Indians settled after moving to the UK in the 1950s.
Montego Bay-born Gichie told the Jamaica Observer that The Cimarons are enjoying a renaissance. They have a new single, Paul Bogle, out and are currently working on their third album.
A documentary is just the icing on the cake.
“I’ve seen the preview an’ it’s really, really good,” he said.
Gichie moved to the UK in 1962, shortly before Jamaica gained independence from that country. Although it had a growing West Indian presence, his new home took some getting used to.
“It was foggy, no sun, it was different and I thought, ‘Wow!, what am I doing here? I want to go home’,” he recalled. “But as time went by, we got used to it, and here we are still making the best of it.”
The original Cimarons also included keyboardist Carl Levy, singer Carl Lewis and drummer Maurice Ellis, who died two years ago. Ellis wrote Paul Bogle, as a salute to the Jamaican national hero.
In the 1970s, The Cimarons made groundbreaking tours to Japan, Thailand, Ghana, and Nigeria. Reggaebility, their 1982 reggae/rock and roll album, was produced by Paul McCartney.
By the mid-1980s, Gichie admits their traditional reggae sound had lost favour with British youth into new wave roots bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse. He said they decided to take an extended break from the music scene.
Since 2018, The Cimarons have experienced renewed demand from show promoters in the UK and Europe. This year, they performed at leading festivals such as Reggae Geel in Belgium and Ostroda in Poland.
