TRANSGLOBAL UNDERGROUND – STUDIO THEATRE, BRIGHTON DOME 27.11.24
Well this is all very exciting! Trans-Global Underground (also written as Transglobal Underground) this evening appeared live at the newly renovated and highly impressive Brighton Dome Studio Theatre – which is supported by The Pebble Trust a charity based in Brighton and Hove which provides support for local causes – and was in the past known as the Pavilion Theatre. Back in the day it hosted many well known music artists including Level 42, The Fall, The Libertines, Stereolab, The Divine Comedy, The Mission, Curve, Lush, The Wedding Present, The Housemartins, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Test Dept, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and The Exploited. As far as I can recall The Exploited concert was my last trip here and that was 14,530 days ago, which equates to almost 40 years!
Built in 1935 on the site of Maria Fitzherbert’s stables, Brighton Dome Studio Theatre was first used as a supper room and became a theatre soon afterwards. Its unique architectural features have been carefully cleaned and repaired to its former glory with the same high-end interior specifications as the larger Corn Exchange. It now affords new retractable seating with a capacity of circa 250, however this evening’s event is thankfully a standing affair, which affords the punters the freedom to dance to the Trans-Global Underground sounds.
Tonight’s event had a wonderful feel of peace and love in the air with punters of varying ages and styles from all walks of life in attendance. This being the polar opposite of The Exploited gig, which became an actual riot, with the band and support acts UK Subs and Joe Public being unable to finish their sets, due to the throwing and breaking of chairs and so on. That night the police arrived in force, but there’s certainly no need for them this evening!
Trans-Global Underground are here courtesy of African Night Fever & Easy Skankin’ and before TGU there was the new wave post punk outfit called Furniture, who are famed for their ‘Brilliant Mind’ hit single. The band was formed in 1979 in the Ealing area of London by Tim Whelan, Hamilton Lee and Jim Irvin. The trio remained in the band until they folded in 1991. While with Furniture, Whelan and Lee had demonstrated an interest in world music by bringing in more culturally-diverse instrumentation to what was originally a fairly conventional rock band line up.
Trans-Global Underground was first formed when Whelan and Lee teamed up with a third musician, Nick Page. All three took on pseudonyms for the project, which they have determinedly maintained (albeit with variations) up until the present day. The band are pioneers in the mixing of club culture with world music, their first single ‘Temple Head’ went Top 30 and was later used in a Coca-Cola advertising campaign for the 1996 Olympic Games. Their debut album, ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ laid down the foundation of their music template and their seventh album ‘Moonshout’ picked up a BBC World Music award.
Trans-Global Underground grew out of a mutual love for dance, avant-garde, Arabic, and world music and draws on each member’s listening tastes and cultural backgrounds. Many albums followed 1993’s ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ with ‘International Times’ in 1994, ‘Interplanetary Meltdown’ in 1995, and ‘Psychic Karaoke’ (1996). ‘Rejoice, Rejoice’ followed two years later and ‘Yes Boss Food Corner’ appeared in spring 2001. Since then at least another eight albums have dropped ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ (2004), ‘Moonshout’ (2007), ‘A Gathering Of Strangers’ (2010), ‘The Stone Turntable’ (2011), ‘Kabatronics’ (2013), ‘Walls Have Ears’ (2020), ‘A Gathering Of Strangers 2021’ (2021), and ‘Sketches Of North Kensington’ (2024).
The current lineup is based around original members Hamid Mantu (aka Hamilton Lee) on drums who tonight is seated to our rear left of the stage; and the rather dapper Tim Whelan (aka Alex Kasiek) on Roland A-800 Pro Midi keyboard controller keyboard, programming, samples and backing vocals, who is standing rear right of the stage. TGU also features the UK’s best known sitarist Sheema Mukherjee (also of Cornershop, Imagined Village), and she plays long-necked bass guitar too. Sheema sits barefoot on top of a table while playing her sitar, which is located to our front right, and then stands when playing her long-necked bass guitar. Lead vocals are the duty of Guyanan born Godfrey Duncan aka TUUP (The Unorthodox Unprecedented Preacher) who is a major figure on the UK storytelling scene, he also uses claves which is a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of short wooden sticks, and he also has a drum, and as you would expect is centre-front of stage. Completing the lineup on our front left is Rav Neiyyar (Bollywood Band), who takes care of tabla drums, and dhol drum.
Tonight’s performance on the circa 3ft high stage lasts for 91 minutes from 8:30pm until 10:01pm and during that time we are rewarded with 17 career spanning songs, commencing after a brief warmup with an instrumental tune called ‘Vanilka’ which is from their 2004 ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album. The interesting thing in watching TGU is that their instruments originate from right across the world including India and Cuba and sums up the crux of everything that is TGU, namely the fusion of Arabic, Asian, African and Western dance music. For instance, Rav uses a double-sided barrel drum known as a Dhol drum which is worn over the shoulder and is played using two wooden sticks. The stick used to play the bass side of the instrument is known as the Dagga which is the thicker of the two and is bent in an arc shape and the other stick is known as the Teeli and is much thinner and flexible and used to play the higher note end of the instrument. Rav also uses a pair of hand drums called Tabla which are somewhat similar in shape to the bongos. It is also fascinating watching Sheema play the sitar as her hands whizz up and down the instrument with ease with its 20 movable metal bar frets and 14 side pegs. Even Hamid’s drums have an unusual feature of two retro mics positioned above either side of the drumkit, which looks really cool.
TUUP then arrives on stage and the quintet perform ‘Nile Delta Disco’ from their 1998 ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ & ‘Backpacking On The Graves Of Our Ancestors (1991 – 1998)’ albums. For this, Sheema puts her sitar down, carefully gets down from the table and picks up her long-necked bass guitar and tickles the top deep bass note. After this, we get the reggae-vibed ‘Eyeway Souljah’ which is found on 1996’s ‘Psychic Karaoke’ album. For the shuffling beats of tune four, ‘Mind The Gap’ from 2020’s ‘Walls Have Ears’ album, vocal duties are shared by Sheema and TUUP, who also uses claves (those 2 sticks). ‘Way Down The Kanawha River’ from this year’s ‘Walls Have Ears Remixes’ album comes next and this very much reminds me of Moby’s famed ‘Play’ album. It’s a three-way vocal this time around with Tim joining in. The slower beats of ‘Bloodshot Eyes’ from their 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album is their next offering.
Tim then dedicates the next track to the people of the Ukraine. This being ‘Radio Unfree Europe’ which is located on their ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album from 2004. It’s “Don’t let them fool you, bombs are never a weapon of peace!” repeated vocals are sadly still pertinent today. The track has a Big Audio Dynamite feel going down. It’s all change for the slower and most melodic tune of their set next, this being ‘Ruma Jhuma’ from 2020’s ‘Walls Have Ears’ album, which sees Sheema on lead vocals as TUUP plays his drum. Things change again for their next composition, ‘Ali Mullah’ from 1998’s ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album, which sees Rav take centre stage for this tribal sounding track. His dhol drum gets a good old seeing to and he virtually becomes a one-man Adam & The Ants ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’ era band, although is actually assisted by Hamid on drums, and they almost have a drumming duel, which was akin to a marching band meets Cozy Powell. Interestingly, I will flag this track up as their set highlight for me, although as I was driving home I was actually singing the chorus of the next tune, which was their classic hit single ‘Temple Head’ from 1993’s ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ & 1994’s ‘International Times’ albums, which the punters merrily bopped away to.
Staying in the same era, TGU next performed their funky disco number ‘Slowfinger’ which is also from their ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ album and sees the long-necked bass guitar back in action! Not sticking to the same style, TGU next went all ska with ‘We Come To Tear Your Wall Down’, which is found on their 2011 ‘The Stone Turntable’ record. This bops along very nicely thank you and the crowd’s feet showed their appreciation. Shifting styles yet again, the band moved into 1960’s spy movie theme territory with the arrival of ‘Polo Neck’ from 2020’s ‘Walls Have Ears’ album, which was another enjoyable tune. The skippy beat of ‘Holy Roman Empire’ from 1994 ‘International Times’ album came next and TUUP’s vocal delivery reminded me of Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. TGU were next sounding not unlike Dreadzone on ‘Son Of Thingdrum’ which is from their ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album from 1998. TUUP then asked if we wanted to dance and they performed the fast dancey crowd favourite tune that is ‘Dancehall Operator’ (from 2007 ‘Moonshout’ album), which pleased the punters. That was their last song and they left the stage at 7 minutes before curfew, but I guessed they noticed that and returned back to the stage in order to leave us with one more track, this being the sitar vs ska beated ‘Elena’ which is from the same album.
TGU had delivered this evening and I can’t imagine a single soul leaving the building without a smile on their face. Job done!
Forthcoming events at the Studio Theatre can be found HERE.
Transglobal Underground:
Tim Whelan – keyboards, programming, samples, backing vocals
Hamid Mantu (aka Hamilton Lee) – drums
TUUP (The Unorthodox Unprecedented Preacher aka Godfrey Duncan) – vocals, claves, drum
Sheema Mukherjee – sitar, bass, vocals
Rav Neiyyar – tabla drums, dhol drum
Transglobal Underground setlist:
‘Vanilka’ (from 2004 ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album)
‘Nile Delta Disco’ (from 1998 ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ & ‘Backpacking On The Graves Of Our Ancestors (1991 – 1998)’ albums)
‘Eyeway Souljah’ (from 1996 ‘Psychic Karaoke’ album)
‘Mind The Gap’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Way Down The Kanawha River’ (from 2024 ‘Walls Have Ears Remixes’ album)
‘Bloodshot Eyes’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Radio Unfree Europe’ (from 2004 ‘Impossible Broadcasting’ album)
‘Ruma Jhuma’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Ali Mullah’ (from 1998 ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album)
‘Temple Head’ (from 1993 ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ & 1994 ‘International Times’ albums)
‘Slowfinger’ (from 1993 ‘Dream Of 100 Nations’ album)
‘We Come To Tear Your Wall Down’ (from 2011 ‘The Stone Turntable’ album)
‘Polo Neck’ (from 2020 ‘Walls Have Ears’ album)
‘Holy Roman Empire’ (from 1994 ‘International Times’ album)
‘Son Of Thingdrum’ (from 1998 ‘Rejoice Rejoice’ album)
‘Dancehall Operator’ (from 2007 ‘Moonshout’ album)
(encore)
‘Elena’ (from 2007 ‘Moonshout’ album)
