Dub War - Corporation, Sheffield, Wednesday 1st March 2023
Now this is one of those shows that I have beer buzzing to be at since Corporation announced it a few months ago. I missed them when they played at the Bank Street location of the club about 25 years ago so I certainly made sure to be at this one.
It was also not a re-run of old material either since the Newport band had a brand new album out entitled 'Westgate Under Fire' that Benji told me later they started writing during the Covid Lockdown period of 2019 and features many friends and special guests like the late Ranking Roger (Frontman of The Beat/General Public and even Mike Bordin (Drummer of Faith No More!) amongst many others on drums) and partly-Produced by the late Grammy-Nominated, Rick Will.
We got to hear a good number of those new cuts tonight like 'Blackkk Man', '', Fun Done' & 'Vibes In The Place' and a cover of 'War Inna Babylon' by Ragga Punk Legends, Max Romeo And The Upsetters which stood up next to classic Dub War I remember back in the day such as the reggeaeness of 'Strike It', the hip-hop of 'Nar Say A Ting' and the mind-blowing 'Gorrit' with its FNM feel that grabbed me years ago and of course 'Spiritual Warfare'.
The small room was pretty packed and had a real fired-up friendly presence with Benji starting it off with a hand-driven war siren that lead into 'Psycho System' and plenty of live samples that he created right before many of the songs had started up - either via chords on his keyboard, singing a chant or tapping out a rhythm with drumsticks.
The fans in here were treated to the comedic experience of Mr. Webbe sending up the county we are part of that is 'Yorkshire' with plenty of shouts of the word, with the lyric-master himself creating a rap from it too much to many people's surprise.
Original members, Richie Glover (Bass) and Jeff Rose (Guitar) sounded as tight as ever, who like the charismatic frontman can effortlessly play a massive array of styles that are often encompassed into one song alone much of the time. They have a live drummer for the tour too who I currently am unaware the name of at present, so let me know on that one.
To say we were emotionally moved and enlightened by the Dub War experience would be very much an understatement and I think many of us took something away from this show - even a few t-shirts and CD's 'n' stickers too. We got a surprise too at the end of the solid hour plus set with their own take Status Quo's 'Caroline' that went down fabulous, with the band coming straight off the stage to chat with fans, have photos with them and sign autographs too.
Someone has to pull something rather special and unique to match this spectacular concert that had excellent sound and killer lighting to match as well. The musicianship and vocals were utterly superb. I will leave this with the words of Chris Merrick who said this was "The Gig Of The Year" and we are only in March!
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By Glenn Milligan