[JIM JAMES] I have this concept that I call Saviour music.

When pop music that is so huge you can't escape it is also good.

And in high school, my Saviour music was the Fugees.

"The Score" came out and was such a huge record, but it was also one of the greatest records of all time.

♪ You rockin' loud but you ain't sayin' nothin' ♪ ♪ It's time I settle the score ♪ ♪ I play my enemies like a game of chess ♪ You'd be at a party or something, there'd be tons of shitty music playing.

But there was that Fugees CD in the pile of terrible CDs that would always save my life.

And the song "The Score", I'l never forget hearing that song.

And I was like, "Wow!"

♪ It's time I settle the score ♪ And I think for a long time, I didn't even know it was a sample.

And then ten years later or something, we were on a rooftop in Manhattan, just partying one night after we played the show, and somebody played the Fugees.

"The Score" was on and we were listening to it.

And somebody was like, "Have you ever heard the song that's the sample from that?

And I was like, "What are you talking about?"

And they're like, "Yeah, it's this band Cymande.

It's called 'Dove'."

[PLAYS INTRO TO "DOVE"] And we sat there on this roof in Manhattan and he played "Dove", and I was just forever changed.

[♪ MUSIC - "Dove" ♪♪] That song to me was so profoundly important that it almost eclipses everything.

It's like a magic spell.

It's like you literally put a spell on me.

[MARK RONSON] It really does seem otherworldly.

Just feels like it came down on a spaceship or something.

[TOMMY GUERRERO It's coming from another place, and you can feel it.

You're affected by it.

There's something going on.

[JAMES] There's some music that's just bigger than music.

And you think to yourself, "Why isn't this band huge?"

[GUERRERO] How did these people come together to create something incredible, and most people have never heard of them?

[CUT CHEMIST] It sounds like something that popular culture would have embraced.

And then you find out that that's not the case.

[GUERRERO] These guys need to be known for their contribution to music.

["DOVE" CONTINUES PLAYING] [DJ HOLLYWOOD] Back in the days, people came out to party.

Once you put that on, boom!

Lights out.

You don't want nothin' else You ain't needin' nothin' else.

Just put that joint on.

[NICKY SIANO] I had discovered this new kind of music and I wanted to turn my friends on to it.

The sound unified everybody.

Transcend from generation to generation.

[DJ MASEO] Once it touches your soul, you're going to take some piece of it with you.

And it's like, I got to do something with that.

[LOUIE VEGA] They set the tone for so many of us today.

[NORMAN JAY] Their music has been endorsed by every subsequent music movement to date.

I knew all the songs.

I just didn't know that it was them.

But then I realised, these guys are everywhere.

Hidden in plain sight.

That added this even weirder aspect to the whole mystery.

How have I not heard of this band before?

[DJ MASEO] You try to understand why it's been suppressed.

Why has it not had that freedom that it was intended to have?

[COLLEEN 'COSMO' MURPHY] There are still so many unanswered questions.

[PRINCE PAUL] Who were thos guys?

Where are these guys from?

Where'd they go?

What happened to them?

What was the demise?

[SONG ENDS] [SUSTAINED CYMBAL CLASHES] [BIRDS CHIRPING] [JAMES] Music is pure magic.

It's one of the most beautiful ways we can share love.

The only way that you can ever succeed is to make what's in your heart, to bring what's in your heart into this world and love it yourself.

This is my general walk.

The lungs producing too much carbon dioxide.

So I come out and see if I can get some oxygen from the trees.

I come here as often as I can.

Some days you're not really up to it.

Some days you are.

Sometimes I sit here and enjoy the sun.

Take in the vitamin D, which is good for me.

I thought we could have sold millions.

[♪ MUSIC - "Getting It Back" ♪♪] [PATRICK PATTERSON] When I speak about Cymande, it's not just about what music we played, but what we represented.

[NEWSREADER] Since the war, the people of this land have seen it change almost out of recognition.

One of the biggest changes has been the massive inflow of hundreds of thousands of coloured immigrants.

[PATRICK] We were all Caribbean, not from the same country, but the same region.

[NEWSREADER] With them, they have brought new and widely incompatible cultures, social customs and habits.

England was not simply the mother country but the place to go to maximise our potential.

♪ I don't wanna feel down ♪ ♪ Cos my name is gettin' around... ♪ [SAM KELLY] When I actually arrived in England, I was six going on seven.

Coming to this place was quite traumatic.

♪ Cos I don't know where I'm bound... ♪ I remember feeling this chill, and it was summer over here, but coming from where we came from, it was cold.

[STEVE SCIPIO] I had this image in the back of my mind.

You're going to this fantastic place and it's going to be paved in gold.

And the reality is dark, dismal, miserable.

[DERRICK GIBBS] Everywhere looked the same.

You'd get lost, fog, yo couldn't see where you're going.

You couldn't see your hands.

But you get used to it because you've got to survive.

No matter what, you've got to survive.

♪ Once I used to be high... ♪ [PATRICK] Our parents were professional people, well-educated.

They assumed this place would provide an education and professional advance.

♪ I got teardrops in my eyes... ♪ But once we arrived here, what we found was a society that was not accepting of black people.

It's a tragedy for Britain, tragedy for the British people.

[MAN] We do not have sufficient houses, jobs and schools for our own people, let alone immigrants, be they black, brown, yellow or green.

We should at least have the dignity of being allowed to live with our own kind.

We're full up with nois foreigners and we don't like it.

[SAM] My parents' hopes and dreams for themselves and for us were shattered very, very quickly.

My father, when he was in Jamaica, he was a baker.

And when he came here, he went to one of the breadmaking companies, I can't remember which one, and they said, "We can't employ you as a baker."

Why?

Because basically you're not allowed.

Being black, you're not allowed to put your hand in the dough.

I watched my father become very old very quickly after things like that.

[DERRICK] Though things might be difficult because people are not used to you, they give you bad looks or say things, you would get together with your friends and draw strength from each other.

You know?

[♪ MUSIC - LORD NELSON "Dove And Pigeon" ♪] [STEVE] This was our meeting point, the community meeting point for everyone in this group.

- This was the place.

- This is where everything happened.

[PATRICK] I lived at number 15, and Steve was living at number 23.

And we have lived in close proximity from that day to this.

♪ Dove and Pigeon were two good companions... ♪ [PATRICK] Remember?

I got a piano.

[STEVE LAUGHS] That's right.

[PATRICK] We couldn't get it through the door.

- So Mr Brains here said... - I disassembled it.

..."We have to disassemble it."

- And reassemble it... - In the back garden.

But you press the keys.

There was absolutely nothing.

So that was the end of that piano.

[PATRICK] Steve thought the name up.

It comes from the chorus of a famous Calypso.

♪ Dove start to sing coo coo coo-coo bansimande ♪ ♪ Netty yetty bansimande, wayo wayo bansimande... ♪ [STEVE] We wanted something unusual where the name itself projected something about where we came from.

["DOVE AND PIGEON" CONTINUES PLAYING] Cymande started with six.

The first core member that we made contact with was Mike.

[MIKE ROSE] One of the early gigs I got playing flute was with Ginger Johnson.

That's where I first met Patrick Patterson and Steve Scipio.

They invited me to come to play with their band in Brixton.

People called me Bammi, which was a name that I got from school days in Jamaica, which never left me.

I don't know why.

[SAM] I started hitting drums rather than playing drums more as therapy.

Like a lot of us, at that time, I had this anger about me.

I wasn't very good at communicating those days, so with drumming I could express myself.

Patrick and Steve and Bammi had a jazz band.

And they had a gig an their drummer couldn't make it.

Somebody heard that there was a guy down the road who'd been bashing things, so I ended up playing with this band.

[STEVE We're all self-taught musicians.

We had that originality about the way we played.

A lot of bass player were just support bass players.

I always wanted the bass to be an instrument that speaks.

[ROOT JACKSON] Patrick has a different style of guitar playing.

He's not flash, but he just puts in the right ingredients.

If there's a space there, he won't just play rhythm, he will put little touches.

He can go up and play two notes in a solo and that says it all.

You'll get another guy, he'll come up and play a million notes and say nothing.

I was living in the next street to where they were rehearsing.

They were just a bunch of young guys.

They were more like brothers.

Derek and Sam were cousins, so it was more like a family thing, really.

[DERRICK] I used to play with a piano player.

One night Patrick was in the audience and he came up to me and said, well, he's forming a band, would I be interested?

I said, "If you think I'm good enough.

You're sitting there, you can hear."

That's how we started.

[PATRICK] We all appreciated what it is that we wanted to achieve in terms of blending musical styles.

[BAMMI] That was when I brought Pablo Gonsales from Catford into the rehearsal room in Brixton.

[PABLO] I went down to the rehearsal with Bammi and I started to play.

Patrick said, "Oh, yeah, that's the sound."

That's the element that was missing.

- This is "Zion I"?

- Yeah.

[HUMMING] [PABLO] I didn't go to school to learn the drums.

It's all coming from within.

It's like a gift was handed down to me by my ancestors, you know what I mean?

I was born with it.

And it's spiritual, the music and the whole, it's a spiritual thing.

[PATRICK] In our day, reggae music hadn't even started.

But part of the community here that we mixed with were Rastafarian.

And we wanted to incorporate th Rasta drums and the Rasta chants and the Rasta anthems.

[PATRICK] And the chants would go over that.

♪ Rasta man ♪ [SINGS PATOIS] ♪ Zion I ♪ [BAMMI] The Rasta drums, the funk, the jazz influences, it sort of emerged as Cymande.

[♪ MUSIC - "Zion I" ♪] [PROTESTERS CHANTING] [POLITICIAN] Our purpose is t destroy the multiracial society and to render Britain a monoracial society again because our party seeks to preserve the ethnic integrity of the British nation.

We answered the call in the early '50s to come here to help and build the mother country.

[POLITICIAN First of all, an immediate halt to coloured immigration and thereafter the phased repatriation of all coloured immigrants, their descendants and dependents, from Britain to their lands of ethnic origin.

- And if they don't go?

- They're going to go.

[PATRICK] It was a high-tension political time.

We wanted to be a band that stood for something.

["ZION I" CONTINUES PLAYING] [STEVE] It was important for us as a band that we had a message and it was communicated through our music.

[PATRICK] Peace and love is an important thing, and it is lost sight of, unfortunately.

[TV PRESENTER] Britain's uncivilised?

Indeed, in terms of human relationships.

When I talk about civilisation, I'm not talking about the technologies of your motor cars.

I'm talking about mankind respecting the interests of mankind.

["ZION I" CONTINUES PLAYING] [JACKSON] Cymande came o the scene with something fresh, they came with something original, and they came with something from the Windrush generation, if you like.

No apologies.

[MAN] Yes, I am a racist, and why?

Who's made me a racist?

Every standing, stinking councillor who sticks up for the nigger.

I'll stand by my words cos I don't like these people, never will do.

[CRAIG CHARLES] It's my childhood.

It' my childhood as a black Briton.

People say, "Nigger, nigger, pull the trigger, bang, bang, bang" at me in the street.

And Cymande addressed all of that.

[KEVIN LE GENDRE] Politically and culturally, I feel a sense of pride because they were ready to stand up and be counted and say, "Well, this is who we are."

In the same way that the Englishman has believed that he had the right to go out and civilise Africa, I believe that we are here to teach you again how to be human.

♪ [PATRICK] In those days, the gigs were places like Ronnie Scott's Upstairs, 100 Club, various other little venues.

[STEVE] We even did some working men's clubs up in the north, which was quite an experience.

[CHUCKLES] But then after a couple of years, the next level was then to start pursuing a recording deal.

[PATRICK] Getting throug as a band in the music business was enormously difficult.

You were coming up at all times against a wall.

There was a barrier against black music.

They'd point to some commercial artists or whatever, and say, "Well, what about doing something more like this?"

You and I would have heard them refer to black music as jungle music.

This is not what our record company sells.

[CHARLES] We were importing black American groups all the time, but we didn't embrace black British talent.

You don't really think about the golden era of black British music because we weren't allowed one, to be honest.

[♪ MUSIC - "The Message" ♪] - This is it.

- This is it.

- De Lane Lea, here.

- Uh-huh.

Want to go in there and say, "Hey, we used to record here"?

[LAUGHS] They'll call the police on you.

"Get out of here!"

[PATRICK] Had we not met John Schroeder, the music itself would not have had the exposure that it did.

Just by chance, I was going down to listen to another band.

The band I was going to see weren't there, but there was all this noise going on.

I pushed down the door and it was packed with all these people who were bopping around to this music.

And I couldn't see where the music was coming from.

All I knew is that the rhythm, the rhythms that I was hearing were incredibly infectious!

And I thought, "I like what I hear.

I'm going to try something in the studio with them."

♪ Together ♪ ♪ Fore we go ♪ [STEVE] John wante to capture the music as it was.

What he heard the first time he listened to the band, he wanted it exactly like that reproduced on vinyl.

[SAM] If you listen closely, it's not clinical.

It's live.

We were having fun.

[PABLO] It was like a dream.

I just did it.

I can't recollect the memory.

I didn't realise that I would have to put this again in focus by telling you about it.

So, actually, I don't remember anything about it.

[LAUGHTER] [PATRICK] There were a lot of people involved in the making of our music.

[STEVE] When we were on the road, Ray King was our main vocalist.

He couldn't continue recording, so we brought Joey Dee in.

[PATRICK] Joey was an exceptionally good singer.

He performed on most of the tracks.

Then after he went his own way, Jimmy Lindsay sang.

I was very close to a guy called Marvin Schlachter who had a label called Janus in the States.

Marvin said, "What are you doing, John?"

I said, "Well, I've got this band called Cymande."

I said, "I've got this cassette."

And he said, "Leave it with me."

I said, "Okay."

And that was the start of it all.

He went absolutely bananas about it.

The music was released in America.

And whoosh!

[SCHROEDER] "The Message" got an incredible reaction from this college movement.

And then it broke into the national charts.

I said, "You've got an American manager now I've fixed up for you."

"What?"

I said, "You're going to the States."

"What?"

They got really scared about going to America.

Got in trouble with the wives.

"You're not going to America."

[♪ MUSIC - "Anthracite" ♪] [DERRICK] Take us out of Brixton to John F Kennedy.

Limousine, whoa!

Say no more, hey?

["ANTHRACITE" CONTINUES PLAYING] ♪ You can rock and I can rock ♪ ♪ We can rock together, together... ♪ [BAMMI] First gig we did, they got us supporting Al Green in Al Green concerts.

[PATRICK] At that time, Al was at the height of his power.

♪ You can sail and I can sail ♪ ♪ We can sail forever, ever, yeah... ♪ [STEVE] We were playing stadiums with 40,000 people.

That was an eye-opening experience.

The place looked loud and brash, and everybody is uninhibited.

People just express themselves in a way that you didn't find in the UK.

[SCHROEDER] You know how rhythmic Cymande is, with all the percussion.

Half the bloody audience are up on the table getting spoons and forks and cups, banging the bloody table with them!

There's all this rhythm in the whole place!

It was absolutely amazing, just incredible.

[SAM] People reacting to what we were doing, and giving us half a chance.

[PATRICK] We hadn't seen anything like that before.

[DERRICK] I'll never forget doing a week in the Apollo with Jerry Butler.

An idol when you were young, and now you're on stage with him at the Apollo.

When we finished, he was there waiting to shake our hands.

He appreciated what we were doing.

Yeah, man, that was good.

[PATRICK That was a fantastic experience because of the significance of the Apollo in terms of the history of American black music.

♪ Anthracite... ♪ [SCHROEDER] And then they made another album, which was recorded in Chicago.

[INTERVIEWER] So they just wrote the material while they were basically on tour?

They were very prolific in those days.

[SAM] It was the stuff you heard about that happens to other people but now it was happening to you.

We're living it.

We were living it.

It was amazing.

- [SONG ENDS] - [CHEERING] [CHEERING FADES] [♪ MUSIC - "Changes" ♪] [STEVE] Having reached that leve and played to that kind of crowd and have your music appreciated in that way, and then return to the UK, a kind of reality striking home.

[SAM] We were supporting Al Green!

Al Green was massive!

And you come back over here and you try and get a gig and nobody still wanted to know.

[PATRICK] Exposure was not just about gigs, exposure was also about radio play and TV appearances.

[SAM You needed to be on television, but we never got that.

People at the time who control those things didn't want West Indians out of Brixton.

[PATRICK] The producers, maybe they have no incentive or no sanction or no penalty for not doing what they're paid to do with my licence money.

Why don't I see more of me on the TV?

[SAM] It's prejudice.

We would have represented a huge part of the population, and not being allowed to move on through that ceiling hurts.

[CHARLES] It feels as though no one was really listening.

To me, they were the British black supergroup that never, ever happened.

[STEVE] We were on the road for four years, and by that time we'd done three albums.

[SAM] We were just beaten down by the system.

It got to this point and it just stopped.

♪ Lord, it gets harder ♪ ♪ These times, these times are changing ♪ ♪ Faster than before ♪ ♪ No love has been displayed out there... ♪ [DERRICK] We put a lot of work in, and at the end of it there was no rewards in terms of finances.

And you couldn't keep going like that forever.

♪ Boy, I think it's strange ♪ ♪ These times, these times are changing... ♪ It was... I wouldn't say 'difficult' to deal with.

It was more not acceptable.

[STEVE] We took the decision at that time that maybe a break might be a good idea, and we could come back to it and pursue it later.

♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh... ♪ So we split.

♪ [DERRICK] And that was it.

But you've got to be strong.

If I dwell on that, I need my energy to go elsewhere.

So there was no point, is it?

That's it.

Done.

Gone.

Move on.

I had to do something.

So I started a company up, electrical work.

And the saxophone, I just put it down.

[♪ MUSIC - "Bra" ♪] ♪ Time has been lost for trying ♪ ♪ We have been left outside ♪ ♪ Looking at passions dying... ♪ The Bronx was rough.

You had poverty at an all-time high.

So, people were desperate.

♪ But it's all right ♪ ♪ We can still go on... ♪ We were poor.

We wasn't even poor.

We was 'PO'.

We couldn't even afford the other 'OR'.

But, to me, it was all fun to me.

It was the backdrop of my youth.

It was some of the best times in my life.

♪ But it's all right ♪ ♪ We can still go on... ♪ In the early stages of hip hop, it wasn't even called hip hop.

We were just jamming.

Before it became all the rhymes and the intricate lyrics that you see today, it was just the deejay and the music.

Before I got into hip hop, I was intrigued looking at my elders when they was having the dance and disco affairs in Manhattan.

They was always playing a wide amount of different music, various sounds.

And one of the main ones was "Bra".

[SIANO] There was a new type of music coming out.

Danceable funk, danceable R&B we used to call it.

It moved my feet, yeah, sure.

It moved my soul.

In '72, going towards '73, I'm basically playing in after-hour places all across Harlem, and this record comes out that was just fabulously phat.

The first thing that happens to you with "Bra" is, you could be standing there and this is like... [SCATTING] ♪ Doo-ga, doo-ga, doo-ga-doo ♪ ♪ Boom!

Boo ♪ [SCATS BASSLINE RYTHM] [CONTINUES SCATTING] Once that hits you, you're stuck.

I don't care if you ain't dancing, if you're not partying at all.

When that drop hits you you are automatically involved.

If you was angry, you ain't angry no more.

If you was happy, you are happier.

If you got a cowbell, you're gonna beat the shit out of it.

And everybody heard that breakdown and the bassline.

It was like, "Whoa, what is this?"

It's so funky, you want to get up and dance.

Everybody's playing their tambourines on the dance floor and hitting whatever they can.

Then the drum comes in.

Boom, boom, boom.

That causes your body to just... "Oh, what?

Oh!"

I would turn it up so much that people would be just buzzing.

[YELLS] [DJ HOLLYWOOD] I'm seeing them dancing regular.

When the break hits, I see them lose their minds.

Which made you have to be able to bring it back.

["BRA" CONTINUES PLAYING] [DJ JAZZY JAY] Okay, you know what?

We want to play this song not from the beginning, but mix it in the middle.

Hey, then why not get two copies and I can extend it?

[RED ALERT] You can go from one turntable to another.

You keep that sound going.

[DJ JAZZY JAY] They were so good that you just had to say, "Let me bring that right on back one more time and let you all hear it again.

I don't think y'all feeling this yet."

"Oh, yeah, we're feeling it now."

This was a five-minute song that used to actually play for at least the better part of 10 to 15 minutes by itself.

["BRA" CONTINUES PLAYING] That's the way you gotta do that shit.

You gotta bring it back to the beginning.

Play that one part on this side, mix it on that side.

Mix it back and forth.

Now we got something.

And that was like the beginning stages of what we know right now as hip hop.

♪ [SIANO] The break became the whole record for us.

The 11 deejays who started disco, we all played that.

[DJ JAZZY JAY] No matter how you slice it and dice it, this will definitely go down on the hip hop archive as one of the sacred crates.

If it wasn't for songs like these, there would have been no hip hop.

[SIANO] It was one of the sacred crates of disco.

[LAUGHS] [DJ HOLLYWOOD] That record is still champion.

When it jumps on the track, people who never heard it before, they're moving.

People who heard it before, it's like, "Oh!

That's my shit!

Oh!"

Jazzy Jay and Cymande, together!

[SONG ENDS] [♪ MUSIC - "Listen" ♪] [PROTESTERS CHANTING] ♪ Listen, brothers ♪ ♪ This has got a lot to do with you ♪ ♪ And my sisters ♪ ♪ It also does concern you too... ♪ [NEWSREADER The marchers were demonstrating against the shooting death by police last Saturday.

Police were stretched across the marchers' path, determined to stop them.

[RED ALERT] I'm playing their records.

And as I'm listening to the lyrics, it resonates for the struggle of what was going on here in the States in the '70s.

[NEWSREADER] Violence flared, some of the crowd running for safety.

♪ Laughing at you like a clown... ♪ [RED ALERT] We listened to Marvin and other different sounds speaking on their experience, and they fit right along with it.

[NEWSREADER] Protest leaders sa they will schedule other marches because they are tired of being sick and tired of injustices against blacks.

Everybody can identify the same situation they're dealing with.

♪ You gotta act now, act now ♪ ♪ Come around, one day you'll see ♪ ♪ People will treat it as their destiny... ♪ [PATRICK] Cymande was about civil rights and human rights and fighting against the struggles that you face.

The system was working against black people, prejudice in school, prejudice in work, and in particular prejudice in the way that we were dealt with by the police.

[STEVE] As a young person in the '60s and '70s, I had the police standing in my face and standing on my toes, almost daring you to do something so that they would have an excuse to arrest you.

I was driving early at the age of 17, 18.

I was driving, so I was always being stopped.

[PATRICK] A lot of young black people being criminalised, easily.

Suitable representation needed to be provided.

In my mind I always planned to be a lawyer.

♪ Get your minds together ♪ ♪ Doing what you know is right... ♪ It was a no brainer in a way to go into law.

♪ You must make a stand one day... ♪ [STEVE] After the band came off the road, we both started our families.

So your responsibility went beyond yourself now.

All the energies were directe towards achieving for ourselves, and, in that way, being in a position to provide the privileges that we were deprived of to some extent.

We didn't come off the road to go on the dole.

We just found a different way of contributing to our community.

[NEWSREADER The Notting Hill Carnival became the scene of violent clashes between police and black youths.

It's believe that the trouble was the result of an excessive police presenc and aggravated racial tension.

[NEWSREADER 2] In Brixton, a police car's on fire after an attempt to arrest a black youth in what they call the 'frontline' area.

♪ Listen, brothers... ♪ [MAN] There are overturned cars in the streets, there are Molotov cocktails.

If something is not done at the present time, it's going to be a highly explosive situation.

[NEWSREADER] The spat of rioting has been going on now every night for over a week.

These current riots were caused originally by specific grievances among blacks.

[NORMAN JAY] I remember the riots in Brixton here in 1981.

And I was a young foot soldier here then.

The Notting Hill riots in the '70s, I was part of that.

I saw it first hand, what it's like when you oppress a people.

At that time I was very politically motivated.

I was an angry young man and I was able to say the things I wanted to say and get my point across by the music I played.

[♪ MUSIC - "Fug" ♪] While the hip hop culture was emerging through the early to mid '80s in the States, we had our own music culture renaissance going on here which I loosely dubbed 'rare groove'.

That scene grew out of my radio show.

I never had the dexterity skills of my American cousins and brothers, but what I did do was have the knowledge.

[JAZZIE B] I would be cracking Cymande from the '70s.

I come from quite a big family.

All my brothers were deejays or soundmen, so... some of us knew.

[LAUGHS] I'd be the second generation born and raised here.

I was looking for my identity as a crate digger, and a love of the music, Cymande turned up.

I don't know, they must have fallen from the sky for me.

♪ People need, yeah ♪ ♪ More time... ♪ Their thing was gritty, it was raw.

To me, it's a real sound.

It's real, and in its creativity it just has depth.

♪ To stop before it slides by... ♪ [JAY] They were the first band that came along that tapped all my cultural buttons.

Their music isn't frivolous, it's not throwaway.

It's thought about, provokes reaction, it's challenging, it confronts you.

And it makes you dance.

♪ Stop our love from slowly dying... ♪ [JAZZIE B] People like myself and Norman were the instigator of literally breaking the music.

That's what it was about because you had that sort of platform.

So sometimes you could almost dictate what's gonna be the cracker.

♪ Look around the world, see people are dying... ♪ [JAY] The BBC weren't playing Cymande records.

Cymande were never going to be on Top of the Pops in this country.

But there was a few of us who loved it and dared to take it onto the nation's dance floors and try something with it.

And we got a positive response to it.

It was like a frenzy.

You were just feeding the people these kind of tunes.

Giving birth, rebirth, to this next generation.

[SONG ENDS] [KEYS JANGLE] This is an original of a Cymande session of "Zion I".

I think this is the only one left out of the recording, the original recording session.

And I got it through a mutual friend of John Schroeder, and he wondered if I'd heard about a band called Cyanide.

I said, "You sure it's Cyanide?"

He said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

I said, "What's the spelling?"

He spelled it for me.

I said, "No, that's pronounced this way."

He said, "How do you know?"

I said, "I used to play with them.

I'm on that album."

To be honest, I didn't have a plan.

I knew I wanted to play music, and I was lucky enough to move with people that were willing to give me a chance to develop.

[BAMMI] It never entered my mind not to do anything else but music.

After the band broke up, Steve Scipio and I started playing with a South African band called Jabula.

During that time was when Mandela was in prison and we did a lot of anti-apartheid concerts.

We were proud to know that we contributed something towards the South African cause.

[PLAYS MELODY] After Jabula folded and Steve went to study law, I got into Aswad.

Sometime around 1986-87, I got this call to do Paul Simon and the Graceland tour.

Then I got together with Courtney Pine, and we formed the Jazz Warriors.

I've been playing with Jools Holland now since 1999.

I got to play with many different famous people.

I used to pick the brains of many of those big names.

Most of them just said, "Practise.

You want to learn to play, practise and listen to records, and practise."

So I'm still practising.

[SAM] I've played with Tom Jones, Robert Plant and Gary Moore.

Once I was in a band with Ben E. King.

Music makes me bubble.

And I don't mind whether it's down the Dog and Duck and playing in front of five people who are enjoying what I'm doing, or playing in front of 50,000 people.

Give me a gig.

I'll be 70 this year and I'm still working, and I've still got a zest to work, and the day I can't do it, physically anyway, I think I'm going to suddenly become a very old man.

That's what scares me.

More than anything else.

[FINAL MUSICAL FLOURISH] ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ah, ah, ah ♪ [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] [BAMMI] One thing is certain, I had a good anchorage because my wife was always working.

She was the main breadwinner.

One woman said to my wife, "You're mad to have this guy talking about he's practising and you're going to work."

I don't know, I must be lucky or blessed.

I'm still learning to play music.

Every day I learn something else.

Still trying to play the perfect note.

Who knows?

Maybe one day I might do that.

[DE LA SOUL] ♪ On the mix one time, I'll break it down ♪ [♪ MUSIC - "Bra" ♪♪] ♪ I'll break it down, Bruce ♪ Cymande sits right there, as the soundtrack to my life.

It started with my mom.

Saturday morning cleaning up, making breakfast, and that's what's popping in the background.

Dancing in the living room... ♪ Doom, doom, doo-doo... ♪ Starting doing the robot and all types of shit.

[LOUIE VEGA They were part of my childhood.

I'm from the Bronx, and I remember going down to the projects and seeing Jazzy Jay, Afrika Bambaataa, Red Alert playing "Bra".

[MASTA ACE] Deejays were bringing the systems out and "Bra" was one of those joints they would throw on.

And as soon as that break part came in, everybody would just go crazy.

[SCATTING] Oh, man, the way it hit the speakers.

I can picture it in my head already, the way the woofers would kick.

Doo, doo, doo, doo.

[VEGA] We never knew that the band was from the UK.

We always thought it was part of New York City.

It's like they were born in New York City because that's the music that we love.

♪ Let's groove on, cos it's time to move on... ♪ [RAP CONTINUES] [PRINCE PAUL] Those are the records we played.

Those are the songs that we rocked.

So there's nothing like bringing what you grew up on onto records that you like nowadays and reconfiguring the song.

♪ Movin' on ♪ ♪ Movin' on ♪ ♪ Once again, it's time to buy more soul, more soul ♪ ♪ A flavour you will savour in your soul, your soul ♪ ♪ Wax is distributed and then sold, then sold ♪ ♪ Watch it turn and bring you next of kin soul, kin soul... ♪ [PRINCE PAUL] The thing for us doing the De La record sampling was to try to find a way to make everything that we liked mesh together.

People may not believe it, but if you look through these old records, you can find things like... Drumbeat, Savannah.

This concept of being able to take bits and pieces of other records, we did that and took it to the next level.

We just did it our way.

It's not actually stealing.

It's like bringing back the old, old songs, making old songs new again.

Making people like it even more.

♪ If you crave sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, rock 'n' roll ♪ ♪ Sent by the Quest, Jungle and De La Soul, De La Soul ♪ [DJ MASEO] There's so much going on in those records.

You're kind of in a friendly competition with the people you're in this genre with.

So you go back and you're listening to the same records and you go, "They missed that."

[LAUGHS] And we've been caught out in the same way.

♪ Aw, yeah ♪ ♪ Uh, uh ♪ ♪ Uh-huh ♪ ♪ Uh, uh... ♪ My mom was advising records to sample.

I missed my window with "The Message".

"Me and the Biz" was a hit record.

And she's like, "I told you, I told you, I told you."

My mother does this clap, "I told you."

You know, sure enough, I was like, "Yeah, you got that one."

♪ On and on and on is how the beat goes ♪ ♪ So sell the British Walkers and cut the afros... ♪ [MASTA ACE] The sample for "Me and the Biz" was something that I heard Marley Marl play around the tim I was working on my first album, and he played this loop and immediately I was like, "What's that?

What's that?"

♪ Now this here ja is like a special kind of song ♪ ♪ It's not too short but then again it's not too long... ♪ Something about their music spoke to me and it fit what my thinking was and what I was trying to do musically.

It sounded like incense and psychedelic lights and dashikis and afros.

It was a vibe.

I don't know how they found that vibe all the way in the UK, but they found it and it translated over here for sure.

♪ And it wasn't a dream ♪ ♪ This was a nightmare ♪ ♪ Mum's looking tired, Dad's feeling old ♪ ♪ They've been here for 30 years ♪ ♪ But still ain't seen no streets of gold ♪ ♪ Mum packed her cases at the age of 19 ♪ ♪ She was gonna go to England ♪ ♪ She would live like the queen ♪ It was you that turned me on to Cymande.

I'd never heard of them before.

I picked up an album of theirs.

I felt that vibe from it, that cultural, soulful... - It was like... - Connection.

Yeah, this is me.

This is me.

♪ She worked her fingers to th bone to make her life better ♪ ♪ Tried to be a citizen, they wouldn't let her... ♪ I must have been thinking, "I need to write a song today," listening to that particular track.

The title was calling to me, "The Message".

"What message, Andy?

What message?"

This is what happens with these tracks.

Something about the music makes you go, "You've gotta do something serious."

♪ This was a nightmare ♪ Something about that track just inspired me to write that lyric about that generation.

And it just came out.

♪ When Dad was a lad, he was bad ♪ ♪ But check him out now, he's kinda sad... ♪ We were recording the Killer Album, which was the first Rap Assassins album, and this particular day, Carson came to me and said, "Anderson's got a track about our parents.

Come and listen to it."

And instantly it was like, "We've got to record this."

I remember when I heard it, I was like, "Shit, Andy!"

I was like, "Damn."

It's so honest and personal.

And it wasn't angry, it just laid out the facts.

It's beautiful.

It's beautiful.

♪ Young, gifted and black, they were a perfect team ♪ ♪ But now they can't go back, they lost it all for a dream ♪ ♪ And it wasn't a dream ♪ ♪ This was a nightmare ♪ You can still groove to that now, it's still a groove.

Funk don't go out of style, man.

Funk don't go out of style, man.

[WILSON] Cymande popped up a couple of times to me over the years, in the early '80s, which is where I met Kermit.

We did a track and it was the first track you ever rapped on, and it was on an album called UK Electro.

On that album as well, there was a track called "Real Time", which also references Cymande.

[♪ MUSIC - ZER-O "Real Time" ♪] [KERMIT] "Real time."

- It's "Bra", isn't it?

- [WILSON] Well, yeah.

- It is.

- There you go.

[SCATTING] [CARSON] What year is that album?

- '84, man.

- '84.

[CARSON] 1984.

Wow.

["REAL TIME" CONTINUES PLAYING] [VEGA] So many of us hav sampled Cymande over the years.

They've been very influential to house music as well.

♪ House music goes like this ♪ ♪ House music... ♪ It definitely introduced Cymande to a new generation.

There was a connection with the audience.

People may not have known them, but they knew those records.

They've come in from New York to join us because they're at number 20.

This is "Jack the Groove", Raze.

♪ Jack the groove, jack the groove ♪ ♪ Jack, jack, jack, jack the groove ♪ ♪ Jack the groove, jack the groove ♪ ♪ Jack, jack, jack, jack the groove... ♪ [VEGA] When you play their music, you always get a warm feeling, their percussion, the basslines.

They're truly perfect for the dance floors.

They've inspired so many different musicians and producers from different genres.

[♪ MUSIC - ZER-O "Real Time" ♪] [JAY] Hip hop culture, rap culture, house music, dance music, jungle, drum and bass.

If you want to look back at the DNA of all of these genres, look no further.

Cymande's music is there.

[♪ MUSIC - KINOBE "Skyscraper" ♪♪] But it's like great artists.

Sometimes their work isn't appreciated until long after they're gone.

["SKYSCRAPER" CONTINUES PLAYING] [SONG ENDS] [PABLO] I haven't slept yet, you know.

I haven't slept.

- [INTERVIEWER] Really?

- No.

I've been up all night and I was playing my keyboard.

I spend a lot of time on the keyboard.

[PLAYING KEYBOARD] The only thing that was bad with Cymande is when the band broke up.

I was very, very sorry about it.

To experience the warmth of the crowd and the people and how they relate to the music.

Especially when we went to America.

Wow.

The way they welcome us there, man.

[CONTINUES PLAYING KEYBOARD] Any musician would be frustrated.

You played good music and yo haven't fulfilled your destiny.

But the creator has put everybody on the earth for a reason, and I ain't finished what I'm supposed to be doing.

[STOPS PLAYING] [CHUCKLES] I learn it.

Self-taught learning.

Yeah.

♪♪ Sittin', smokin' ♪ [♪ MUSIC - "The Recluse" ♪] ♪ Killing time... ♪ My connection with Cymande is probably through hip hop, to be honest.

De La Soul sampled "Bra".

Whenever you find something new, especially within hip hop, you just start digging.

You try to figure out, "What's that sample?

Where is this from?"

And then you go to find the original.

[PRINCE PAUL] Guys would actually go through all your songs and research what has been used, and then they'll go even back further down the rabbit hole and realise that there's more great music to discover.

[RONSON] Hip hop, for me, it was pretty much responsible for how I discovered most of my favourite music.

All the great soul and funk that I love, and jazz I listen to now, I know because they were sampled by Tribe or DJ Premier and Gang Starr, and then I would either go through the bargain bins at the record shop or go to some of the high-end record conventions and find them.

[PEANUT BUTTER WOLF] When I first was learning about sampling and how hip hop took from older music, I wrote them all down.

I wrote all the songs that I needed to find, and I would carry that list with me.

♪ Close your eyes... ♪ [CUT CHEMIST] I was such a fiend for East Coast hip hop.

Those were the origins and I wanted to learn about it.

So when I would take trips back east with my family, I would go record shopping.

And that's when I discovered "Bra".

I don't remember Cymande, I just remember "Bra".

And I just remember it started with a 'C' and a 'Y' after it.

At that time I always called them 'Symonade'.

I didn't know.

You know, like 'lemonade'.

I didn't know that it was Cymande.

My musical influences were The New Birth, a lot of old R&B stuff 'Symonade', Dyke & The Blazers.

[♪ MUSIC - "Pon De Jungle" ♪] [GUERRERO] The hunt is really fun.

I always enjoyed going to the flea markets for hours, going through the boxes o dirty records and finding a gem.

That is striking, striking artwork that you would just pick up if you're a serious record collector.

[DJ DEB GRANT] That feeling of destiny when you're looking for something and then you find it's staring back at you in a record shop.

That is the moment that you live for.

♪ This day ♪ ♪ Man got his foundation... ♪ Once I started listening to their albums, it was like, "Wow, what is this?

Whatever it is, it's incredible."

I felt like I had discovered this cool new thing.

♪ Secrets of life, I man bring ♪ ♪ Blessings of love, I man give ♪ ♪ Bringing you truth, while man live ♪ ♪ Before your life goes... ♪ [MURPHY] You can hear a rock influence.

You can hear a Latin influence.

You can hear funk in there.

There's so many different sounds.

You can hear also those kind of expansive sonic soundscapes.

[♪ MUSIC - "Bird"] It doesn't really fit perfectly into one category, which is why I like it.

♪ Like a bird ♪ ♪♪ Floating in the sky, I wish I were... ♪ [GUERRERO] You start to realise all these different ideas and dynamics come togethe and they make something unique.

[MARK SPEER] One side of you is like, "Oh, man, so cool."

The other party is like, "Man, I feel dumb.

How long have I been asleep?"

"Now you're waking up to the magic that is Cymande."

["BIRD" CONTINUES PLAYING] [LAURA LEE] It's very non-polarising, very pleasing, very inclusive, very 'for everybody' music.

Since playing bass, I tend to gravitate towards basslines anyway.

Most of the time you feel it more than you hear it.

But I actually think i Cymande's music, it does speak.

The reason I focus so much on bassline melodies is because of Cymande and Steve.

This is making me feel something, emotionally.

And that's why I was so adamant about sharing this band with Wil-Dog from Ozomatli.

It's weird to think that us in the early '90s thought we were cool cos we were listening to music from the '70s.

Like, we're cool cos we know about some new shit.

Like, it's like 20 years later, there was like a fraternity, "Oh, okay, I can hang with you."

- It's the secret password.

- It really is.

[CUT CHEMIST] When I would play Cymande, I would see who in the room would pay attention.

That little test to see if people are on the level.

[GRANT] Nothing beats that feeling of coming back from a night out or having a few people round and it gets a bit late, and you're just like, "Hang on till I blow your minds."

When you find something like that, the first thing you want to do is share it or tell someone, "Look at this awesome thing that I discovered."

["BIRD" CONTINUES PLAYING] When my buddy played me "Dove" for the first time.

I can still see it in my mind cos it was that powerful of a moment.

So when you hear a life-changing song, it's like a holy thing, it's magic.

What a gift.

["BIRD" CONTINUES PLAYING] Wanting to turn people on to Cymande kept their legacy going.

And it was building and building and building and getting stronger.

[CUT CHEMIST] These records were discovered, but then they became more than that and joined a large kind of spiritual musical world that was embraced by so many different people, from skaters to jazz people to soul people, to folk people, African, Jamaican, English, doesn't matter.

You could talk to like a punk guy, he'd be like, "Oh, yeah, that Cymande record's the Bible.

I'd be like, "Damn right, you know, and I'm a hip hop kid."

Not many music goes through those passages, it doesn't have that depth, it doesn't have that fat.

I found them.

It was me, on my own, at a young age, discovered the music that even my parents didn't know about.

It was just the internet, the explosion of the internet.

I heard Fugees, and then I heard Cymande.

Then finding them on "3 Feet High and Rising", and you click on those and find your way through more of the samples until you are on the same album that the sample came from, but it was stuff that hadn't been listened to yet.

To me, that's the newer music in my head.

Cymande is the more current stuff to me.

That's the stuff I've got a younger relationship with.

And I felt like it was a responsibility to pass it on and elevate their voice and then hopefully be an inspiration to younger artists than me, to see that you can speak your truth and it can still be universal.

[GRANT] We're so saturated with access to music now.

You can basically listen to anything from any era, any time you want.

Their music continues to float to the top.

[SPEER] I'll still get messages from folks who are like, "Have you heard this?"

I'm like, "No, I've never heard it before!"

"That's so wonderful!

Thanks for saying that to me!"

[RONSON] There's that expression, "The arc of history bends to the just."

All the really great shit is actually going to be discovered somehow, even if it wasn't discovered at the time of its inception or when they first released it.

[KEVIN LE GENDRE] The recognition from all of these people who came to the party late, after the event, that has given the band a new lease of life.

The music was strong enough not to die.

[SONG ENDS] [♪ MUSIC - "Brothers On The Slide"] ♪ Brothers on the slide ♪ ♪ Working on the wrong side ♪ [WHISTLES RIFF] ♪ What you gonna do?

♪ ♪ You can't win, so you know you must lose ♪ ♪ We know ♪ ♪ Which way we're going ♪ ♪ We know... ♪ [SAM] My eldest son is a deejay, and he would ring me up, "Dad!

Dad!

I just heard 'Bra' or 'The Message' in a club.

Often I would just be doing a gig and they'd be playing Cymande tracks, while I'm loading my gear in my car.

I'd be, "Yeah!"

Chest is out, like, "Yeah, I'm proud of that."

It's something that wouldn't just lie down.

Every once in a while you'd hear something.

♪ We know ♪ ♪ Which way you're goin'... ♪ [STEVE] We started becoming aware that something was happening with our music.

A new interest.

♪ Which way we're going... ♪ [PATRICK] We knew of the use of Cymande's material with sampling.

♪ We're doin' all that we can, slowly sliding... ♪ And it was nice to have your sound and music appreciated in that way.

It brought in some money also, you know, which is never a bad thing.

♪ Gonna put you away ♪ But the recognition of the ban in terms of audience or fanbase, that was a bit of a surprise.

["BROTHERS ON THE SLIDE" CONTINUES PLAYING] We found out that there's so much fans out there who want to hear this music.

[STEVE] I was not actively involved in any way with music from about the mid-'80s.

For that period, law took total precedence over everything.

But what was happening with the music and the interest in the music pushed us towards doing something that we'd always wanted to do.

[PATRICK] One of the most important things is that we honour what Cymande has done.

When we stopped working in the '70s, it felt unfinished.

We all had the same ideas.

Well, we were still alive first of all.

That be, we were not suffering from arthritis.

[LAUGHTER] [PABLO] I always had it in my mind that the band was going to come back together.

So when it happened, I wasn't surprised, because that was my intention.

But I didn't know it would have taken so long.

[CHUCKLES] [SONG ENDS] - [MAN] Yeah!

- [CHEERING] [SONG ENDS] [MAN OVER MICROPHONE] See here.

See here.

Bataclan.

[INSTRUMENTS TUNING UP] [INDISTINCT CHATTER] [DERRICK] I met Pablo after 17 years at a church.

And I saw this guy coming in.

I said, "What's up, then, Dread?"

"Well..." And he's gone.

Didn't recognise me.

Someone told him that Derek is inside there.

He said, "Is he?"

And then he came up to me an said, "Have you heard the news?

The guys are going to get the band back together again."

I still wasn't interested.

I didn't play the saxophone for 40 years.

[PABLO] I said, "What do you mean, you're not playing any more?

That's what you're supposed to do, man, whether you ain't doing anything else, because that's you."

He said he didn't have an instrument.

I said, "Buy an instrument, man, and start again."

He keeps on and on, and I'm retiring anyhow.

So it's something to do.

It wasn't easy.

They say once you learn to ride a bicycle, you never forget.

But obviously the physical side of it had to be worked on.

One day we had a long rehearsal and the next morning I woke up and I looked in the mirror and I was, "Oh!

Bloody hell, man."

You know, face was swollen.

But I put the time in to get it... to get it together.

[♪ MUSIC - "One More" ♪] [INDISTINCT CHATTER] Someone said to me, "Pretend you're in the basement in Brixton.

Don't let it overpower you.

Just get on with it."

[STEVE] The very first sho we did was not what I expected.

Okay, let's go.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] When we walked on, I remember looking out there and seeing all these kids.

["ONE MORE" CONTINUES PLAYING] [PATRICK] Young people who knew our music and knew it well and how excited they were at seeing the band in action.

[CHEERING] Certainly something I'm proud of.

[STEVE] It was a mind-blowing experience.

I thought we'd have some of the grannies and the grandads in there.

[DERRICK] When you se the people dancing in the aisle, you're thinking, "Well, you're getting something back here."

[CHUCKLES] So you just keep going.

Please welcome to the stage, the amazing, historical, seminal group, Cymande.

[CHEERING] I thought never in my life would I see them.

And when you saw them play and just the joy and realisation for them that, "Hey, your music wasn't forgotten, hey, your music is important, and people are here to show you that they care about you and they love you."

I didn't even think that I would see you there or hit you up at the Cymande.

When I saw you, I was like, "Oh, of course."

Yeah, that's exactly how I felt, yeah.

It's like, it makes perfect sense.

And I never go out any more.

I don't go see anybody.

- Me neither.

- I don't go see anybody.

Wil-Dog introduced me to his friend as "the guy that turned me on to Cymande."

And I was like, you know, that was my job in the early '90s here in LA to do that.

I hadn't seen Wil in a while and to just kind of remember like, "Oh, yeah, man," we got this Cymande thing going on, like that secret password thing.

Cool, he remembers.

He didn't let go of that.

And that meant a lot, you know.

And everybody I saw, it's like, nobody lets go of Cymande.

- That shit is forever.

- Yeah.

Once you're introduced to it, that relationship's with you for life.

[JAMES] Those first times you hear the things that mean the most to you, you remember the people that you shared it with.

And I think we all have these memories of our favourite times when that happened.

["ONE MORE" CONTINUES PLAYING] [CUT CHEMIST] This musi has forged important friendships and relationships in my life.

There was a connection that we all shared with this music, and you can now speak this language of Cymande.

[SONG ENDS] [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] [PATRICK] Thank you!

[CHEERING CONTINUES] [RHYTHMIC CLAPPING AND FOOT STOMPING] Bataclan!

Our hearts go out to you.

Wonderful!

[♪ MUSIC - "The Message" ♪] [CHEERING] You know, this is "The Message".

[STEVE] Some time ago, "The Message was covered by a French artist.

MC Solaar in the house!

[MC SOLAAR] When the deejays chose Cymande, it was like a revolution for the people.

♪ Bouge de là... ♪ French people were totally surprised by your music because it was totally different.

♪ Bouge de là ♪ ♪ Bouge de là... ♪ First time we hear this "Bouge De Làà", all the French, black, white, Arabs, everybody went to buy hip hop.

[PATRICK] Cymande's music has been sampled a lot.

We like the fact that people have found our music inspirational in that way.

They rocked the place since the beginning.

[PATRICK] MC and the other guys, they've enabled us to be introduced to a wider youthful audience.

It's fantastic.

I want to say thank you to you, because I represent... we represent French rap.

You're blessing, blessing, blessing.

Because French rap today exists from MC Solaar and from this song, "Bouge De Làà".

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

- A lot, thank you.

- Thank you too.

Hey, man.

Cool, cool, cool.

- Thank you, man.

- Thank you, brother.

["BOUGE DE LA" CONTINUES PLAYING] [STEVE] Having created something 40 years ago that today is appreciated by an entirely new generation, it's a fantastic feeling.

It gives value and worth to what you have done.

This is the Craig Charles Funk and Soul show on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Hold my calls.

I can't speak to anyone.

I have got the legends who are Cymande in the studio.

How you doing, guys?

Yeah, great!

Great to be here.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

When everyone else was listenin to Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, I was listening to these guys.

You, sir, in the beanie hat.

Who are you and what do you play?

- Derrick Gibbs.

- Derrick Gibbs.

You're a sax player, aren't you?

Sax alto.

For me, it's better than having Earth, Wind and Fire walk into the studio and start tuning up.

Now, Bammi, I know you from the Jazz Warriors' Courtney Pine, Jools Holland.

What's it like getting back together and being on the road again?

[BAMMI] Well, my wife thinks that I'm having a wonderful time.

[LAUGHTER] Oh, man, my mother is gonna love this.

[LAUGHTER] You don't understand, you're always in my mother's collection.

My mother's collection.

To meet Cymande, I was like a kid in a candy store.

You guys are here!

[LAUGHS] [PRINCE PAUL] To have them disappear and all of a sudden regroup again, and we are somewhat the catalyst for it, that's beautiful.

- Oh!

- So?

Doh!

♪ Doh!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

♪ Touch that.

You touch that.

You touch that.

Please touch that.

It's unbelievable that I got y'all in my dungeon right now, you know.

Something really, really cool happened to me earlier today.

I got the opportunity to meet the first group that I sampled.

The name of the group is Cymande.

Heard of them before?

[CHEERING] If I played any part in bringing light back to the group, if my records in any way opened the door for them to get back into the game, I'm happy to be a part of that history and I'm glad that I was able to play a role in Cymande bringing it back and doing it again, and hitting the scene, 70 years old or not, put their thing down, put their groove down.

- [SONG ENDS] - [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] Good night!

God bless you!

Thank you!

Thank you!

All right!

Thank you!

Thank you!

All right!

Good night!

God bless you!

You're wonderful.

Thanks for coming in.

You are heroes of mine.

And the audience on my show, anyway, we all absolutely love you, and good luck.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for the invite.

[♪ MUSIC - LUCY RANDELL "Monkey Man" ♪] - [SONG ENDS] - [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] [INDISTINCT ANNOUNCER] I'm not a hundred today.

I'm about 75.

I was an asthmatic child from birth.

If I cough, they collapse, and if I sneeze, they collapse, so fragile are my lungs.

You know, so... It's a terrible thing, breathing, you know.

But you know you have to go through that barrier.

Mind over matter.

[SAM] We did one gig where Pablo actually got out of his hospital bed to come and play with the band.

That's his hospital tag that he's still got on.

[LAUGHS] And I think when we got back from there, he went back into hospital.

Yeah.

No, it's not gonna stop me.

It's trying to... But I'm fighting.

I'm fighting since I was born.

You know?

It's a lot of years.

Lot of years.

[PATRICK] When we put the band back together after a long period of time, there was a security in doing it with the core.

But we needed other musicians to assist us.

You want me to sign on this?

Well, yeah, because the value is going to increase by a substantial amount with your signature on it.

This is one of the first records I bought.

So, big influence in my life at the time, and it encouraged me to go on making music.

And then years later, I got the call to be part of the crew.

What do you reckon?

Double bubble?

[PATRICK] We've been lucky in getting people who have had their own careers and built their own reputations as musicians.

♪ Said I've already got you back ♪ ♪ I don't even know your name ♪ [RAY SIMPSON] I was born in Brixton, and Crawshay Road, that was the place that Cymande rehearsed.

And my memories are running home from school, you could hear the music from outside anyway, and I'd be down there in the basement, just sitting... uninvited!

But just sat on that step and be marvelled.

Cos it was something else.

[CHEERING] [PATRICK] This is kind of a 45th anniversary reunion.

We're not from America.

A lot of people thought we were.

But we're from Balham and Brixton.

[CHEERING] Bless!

This is Cymande.

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] [♪ MUSIC - "Bra" ♪♪] [PRINCE PAUL] It's a shame that they haven't been recognised as much as other great bands.

But I think that the fact that we're talking about them today speaks volumes.

Just think of all the billions of bands that are not being talked about.

♪ While emotions grow strong all the time ♪ ♪ But it's all right... ♪ [CUT CHEMIST People like Cymande give me hope that maybe one day I can reach more people an become relevant to a generation that wasn't there when I was making the music.

It's hard to fathom that that could be a possibility, and I probably never would have thought it was a possibility before them.

♪ But it's all right, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ We can still go on... ♪ [JAMES] I always joke, maybe a thousand years from now, some kid will find some MP3 with one of my songs on it.

So I could feel like I failed, but maybe a thousand years from now, I'll be a huge success.

That's how limitless music is.

[PATRICK] The energy signals the appreciation of the music.

And that appreciation doesn't matter what era it comes in.

It's wonderful to have it.

More importantly, it says it doesn't matter what the music industry does.

Give the people the chance and they'll tell you what they want.

[CHEERING] [TV PRESENTER] One of the ways to recognise that we're now a multiracial society is to understand each other through our arts.

In the past, Britain has absorbed many other cultures.

Now we're trying to absorb the gifts that minorities, like the West Indians, have to offer today.

To reject them now only impoverishes ourselves, frustrates those who want to give, those who perhaps feel the barriers against giving.

All it asks, like the people who make it, is the chance to be heard, understood and enjoyed.

["BRA" CONTINUES PLAYING] [PATRICK] Our story is of success.

You achieved your successes despite that disadvantage.

I mean, that really is what the success is about.

The way it's happened to them is the best way.

[SAM] We've shown that we can do these things, and we can stick to something.

We don't have to change to become like everybody else.

That's what I think we represent.

♪ But it's all right ♪ ♪ We can still go on ♪ [DJ MASEO] I'm glad they stuck to their guns, man.

Delivered the music trul from their spirit, their souls.

And it's going to keep transcending generations.

Because, yes, it is timeless.

[WIL-DOG] The world needs to know this band.

They changed music for me, and if you hear them, they'll change it for you as well, I guarantee.

[DERRICK] It's not sinking in.

I suppose I'm like that as a person anyhow.

But probably years later, now, I'll probably start thinking, "Oh, I did all that.

Wow."

[STEVE] It's been a long journey, but it's not a journey that we want to see end right now.

[JAZZIE B] When you see Cymande, the reincarnation of what that is, it's another breath.

And that's how much life the music has.

It can't dead.

It won't stop.

[PABLO] Cymande is on a different dimension now, but it still has that sound.

I think the band's going places.

[BAMMI] Who knows It's quite possible that another hit might come out of it.

We don't rule out anything.

To be continued, yeah.

♪ But it's all right ♪ Good night!

God bless!

Thank you, all!

Thank you, London!

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] Ta, brother.

- Excellent, sir.

- God bless you.

Absolutely excellent.

[INDISTINCT] The people, the people.

It's all about the people.

Power to the people, my brother.

The people tell you what it's all about.

Don't worry about me.

Talk to the fans.

They know what's going down.

They dictate.

They know what they want to know, what they want to hear.

Thank you, my brother.

Thank you, my brother.

- Well done, Pablo.

- Yes, sir.

- Thank you, man.

- Well done, Pablo.

- Good stuff.

- Power to the people, man.

- [PATRICK] And right on!

- Yeah.

They know what they want to hear.

They dictate.

Not me.

Not you.

The people.

[PATRICK] Power to the people and right on.

[♪ MUSIC - "Rastafarian Folk Song" ♪]