4Series Live at a Musical Tribute to Dread Lester

The focus of this blog this year has firmly been on Dread Lester and the legacy that he has left behind as we all still mourn his passing and celebrate his life.  This post is no exception.

On 22nd May 2010, 4Series Band had the honour of performing at a night called ‘A Musical Tribute to Dread Lester’, held at Springvale Social Club, Wolverhampton.  The night was an evening of live music in tribute to the Dread and had been put together by Ray Lewis and Archie over the months and weeks up to May.

Their hard work and dedication to putting together a live musical tribute formed of local artists to Lester paid off, and from the moment we stepped in the venue the vibes were right.  A wicked warm up drumming session with Calvert outside helped build the energy.

The date of the show had been timed to coincide with Lester’s birthday and Ray and Archie had tried hard to get Macka B to play at the show on this date, however, he had to fly out to Jamaica.    On the night though it didn’t matter, there was a whole lot of energy in the place and all the bands that played were on top form.  The night closed with all the artists on stage who had performed on the night (along with Owen Gray I think), performing a rendition of One Love.  It was 111% wicked.

We missed our drummer Ben on the night due to a prior commitment – we had tried to make it work, but it really couldn’t.  Instead Progression drummer Early B joined us on stage.  I had met Earl a year earlier when Lester had recommended me to stand in the place of Progression’s bassist for a gig in the summer of 2009.   Appropriate then that our stand in on the night should be a person I had met as a direct result of Lester’s intervention.

We played four songs on the night:

Revolution
Sacred Call
Fade Away
Warrior

Warrior is not included on the official video of the night (probably down to space on the dvd) and I am trying to track down the audio for this song which will be included here when I find it. It was our most upbeat and tough number that night so it will be worth seeking out.

Whilst the tunes we play are rough and ready, I think they have a depth to them.  It was certainly a very emotional affair for all involved and in some ways felt like the beginning of something new.

A fitting tribute to Lester.

T