Music: Jimmy Cliff

One of the all-time Jamaican greats hasn’t played in Brighton for ten years…

You’ll most probable know the songs ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want It’, ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ and ‘The Harder They Come’, a trio of songs from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s that helped to popularise reggae and ska music here in the UK.
The only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences, Jimmy Cliff started writing songs at an early age. “One night I was walking past a record store and restaurant as they were closing, pushed myself in and convinced one of them, Leslie Kong, to go into the recording business, starting with me,” he has said. His career took off when ‘Hurricane Hattie’ became a hit, while he was aged just 14, in the early ‘60s. Island Records, via their founder Chris Blackwell, started to take an interest and in 1967 Cliff released his debut album with them. An early single, Vietnam, was called by Bod Dylan ‘the best protest song he had ever heard’, but it wasn’t until the 1969 self-title album that Cliff had a big hit, with the song Wonderful World, Beautiful People.

However, it was his starring role in the Jamaican film The Harder They Come (where Cliff plays a character pursuing a career in music, before he falls in to a life of crime), and the accompanying soundtrack helped to bring reggae and Jamaican culture to an international audience.
After a brief conversion to Islam (where he took the name El Hadj Naïm Bachir) Cliff returned to music in the ‘80s, remaining largely in the public eye, including touring with Kool & The Gang, release the Grammy Award winning album Cliff Hanger, singing on the Rolling Stones’ Dirty Work album, singing with Elvis Costello, and enjoying a big hit with his version of ‘I Can See Clearly Now’. As well as uprising a career in film, more recently he performed at the closing ceremony at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the opening ceremony of the 2007 World Cup, and saw (perhaps rather unfortunately) his song You Can Get It If You Really Want adopted by the Conservative Party for their annual conference. His 2011 album Rebirth continues to showcase his beautiful and soulful tenor voice, and his love of all things ska, reggae and rocksteady.
There might not be another opportunity to see this living legend in Brighton…
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Tuesday 21 July, 7pm, £25.50/23.50