Light of the World (1979) and the origins of 'Brit Funk'(1)

From the opening guitar riff it's hard not to get caught up in the enthusiasm that permeates Swingin', and the rest of the album. The incessant rhythm guitar is inescapable, scratchy and rough, it draws in distorted bass, clavinet riffs and brass with fun 'Dragnet' style flourishes, it's bounding energy covers flaws in less than professional playing. But these were just kids, playing the music they heard and loved. The punk ethic of having the balls to do it yourself had saturated the England of the late Seventies, and gave the burgeoning first generation Black community the courage to make Soul music of it's very own. A near forgotten era where the roots of the current British Soul music scene were created.

By the mid-seventies the club scene as we know it had come into being. DJ's like Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent and Greg Edwards influenced the musical taste of a whole generation from the more influential clubs around the outskirts of London. Places like the Goldmine and Lacy lady in Essex, and Flicks in Dartford rocked not to the sound of the banal end of the disco spectrum - as they did in America - but a more eclectic mix of disco, funk, jazz and jazz funk. Where Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder might be heard after the O'Jays I Love Music. The effect on those that heard it could be electric. Jean-Paul Maunick recounts, "One day I was in this small record shop just off Piccadilly Circus with my cousin and we were looking through the rock section when these two guys walked in with real slick suits, in the Jazz vein, like a Coltrane. They really looked hip. They went downstairs and me and my cousin followed them and they started busting things like Herbie Hancock, Headhunters and other stuff. Within a week I was there looking for Bob James, Grover Washington and the Jazzers of all time. I was completely absorbed by everything. From then on it was like, 'Look man, I've gotta play this music!' I took up the Funk guitar. It wasn't until I was eighteen and got into the band New Life - a church band with David Grant on vocals - that things started moving. From that I met David's cousin, Joe, and we opened up a record shop in Tottenham Court Road and we used upstairs as a rehearsal room. We met musicians coming through the shop and met up with Breeze, Baps and Tubbs and formed Light Of The World. We got a deal through Joe knowing Chris Hill and by then it was in our blood."

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