Terry Hall Presents Home Sessions
The Pop Group & Dennis Bovell World Premiere of Y In Dub
Coventry Cathedral Ruins
31st July 2021
As part of Coventry being city of culture 2021 lead singer of the Specials Terry Hall put together a series of events, the one that caught Fighting Boredom’s attention was the premiere of Y in Dub by The Pop Group and Dennis Bovell. This was our first gig since the first lockdown and anticipation was high. Then Adrian, our chief scribbler had a call from Test and Trace and all of a sudden it turned into a snapper and second scribbler gig. Martin Ward and Graham Tilley bring you what they saw below.
A late venue change meant that the performance was shifted from a late night indoor show to an early evening show in the surroundings of the bombed out cathedral ruins, it seemed to work. With Mark Stewart now in his 60s but still stalking the stage and displaying the anger and energy of his younger self.
Occasionally Stewart belied his curmudgeonly appearance with his between song banter, informing us that they now have to kneel down to Dennis Bovell since he became an MBE
The effect of having Dennis Bovell behind the desk resulted in a softening of the Pop Groups spiky edges, but giving the sound an improved tightness and drawing on the groove that The Pop Group are capable of but sometimes hold back, but by the time they finished with ‘She Is Beyond good and evil’ they had the small but dedicated crowd dancing in the ruins.
–
The Pop Group’s website is thepopgroup.net, they are on Facebook, Tweet as @ThePopGoup and have a Bandcamp page.
Dennis Bovell has a Facebook page, Tweets as @DubMaestro1 and has a Bandcamp page
All pictures by Martin Ward, all words by Graham Tilley.
