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A History of Leeds Funk Music (edit 2)
Author: Tony Green
For the next in our series of articles, where we highlight the importance of musicians, singers and authentic, passionate promoters that have changed Leeds’ musical landscape, we’ve had a deep dive into the roots of funk music in Leeds, its influence in the city, and where it stands now.
I enlisted help from seasoned DJ and promoter in and around this field of music, Lubi Jovanovic to sense check the article and add commentary.
Many musicans in Leeds have crafted a living from starting out in funk and moving across genres as session players, teachers and solo artists. These are (I think) the most influential 30 musicians to lay those funk foundations, in no particular order. I'm open to extending this list.
- Roman Pryce (Clique)
- Tom White
- Joseph Mills (Clique)
- Owen (Rokotto)
- Pete Shand
- Tom Quick
- Chris Dawkins
- Isaac Heywood
- Hamlet Luton
- Eddie Roberts
- Joe Tatton
- Dan Woodward
- Simon Allen
- Cleve Freckleton
- Dan Wood
- Jason Rae
- Michael Strachen
- Wayne Pollock
- Atholl Ransome
- Kenny Higgins
- Ben Barker
- Errol Rollins
- Dan Goldman
- Andy Marshall
- Rob Mitchell
- Sam Bell
- Luke Flowers
- Niel Innes
- Pete Williams
- Sam Hobbs
- Cousin J
- Leon Stevens
Vocalists
Cleve Freckleton
John McCallum (in Leeds circa 1997-2007 - Corinne Bailey Rae & Haggis Horns member)
Testament
Terri Shaltiel
Corinne Bailey Rae
Miss “Rachel” Modest
Amrit Rahi Deogun
Peter Huckerby
Lara Rose
Kelly Dickson
Cara Robinson
Sara Garvey
Pete Simpson
Harriet Soulstress
Aiwan Obi (Lady AI)
Riccky (Funk 2 Finish)
I've put together a few playlists to play with the article.
Spotify
Youtube
Leeds Mid 70s-Mid 80s
Leeds dancers, DJs and venues were well known during this era, but that's a different piece.
Only three bands of note have been mentioned and that's Rokotto, Clique and Stax from Chapeltown.
Additional Words from Andy Wood (definitely fills in some well needed blanks here Andy - thankyou)
"Cleve and Owen were the founding members of Rokotto. They knew Clique well, think there was a bit of old skool rivalry there. But not the Owen you mention. They were originally in The Bedrocks (also from Leeds). They were from Chapeltown (but were also based in Dundee for a while, as some of the other musicians were from there). Their 70s tunes being rediscovered and featured on HBO TV stuff now (Orange is the New Black, Jessica Jones etc). Tom Quick…. He wrote that track with me and its deffo funk he also works with soul and hip hop and jazz and I'm sure he played in Rude President with Shandy. Tony White was a phenomenal funk (and jazz and soul and reggae) guitarist doing the rounds in Leeds circa 1980. Prob best guitarist we ever heard or worked with. Played a lot with Hamlet and Isaac and Royal Blood (the Chapeltown reggae band with Hamlet and The Daughters etc) back in the day. Ricky was the singer in Funk to Finish.
Clique (1979)
They released one 7” single, which is quite a big deal for its day (worth £50 now on Discogs), and they won the Battle of the Bands in London beating Light of the World. I found this all out from my neighbour Owen Coleman. Owen listed band members (but I didn't check the spellings) included Roman Pryce (guitar), Joseph Mills (lead bass), Grantly Stout, Max Farer, Pierre Bouvet, Wilmer (vocals) and of course Owen Coleman There’s a full story there. This was the Jazz Funk Soul sound, rather than the funk breaks James Brown/Meters style of funk breaks.
Stax (1976)
Leeds covers band from Chapeltown in 1976, featuring Phil Harding on keys. No recordings uncovered yet.
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The DIG Family launch at the Gallery 89-94
Dig Family Members, Gip, Lubi Jovanovic, Chico, Eric (Ez) Speak
Pre 1988 The Dig Family were mainly promoting jazz and especially the jazz dance/club jazz vibe of the era. After 1989, the scene changed into acid jazz (a melting pot of pure funk, soul, hip hop and jazz funk).
This was the foundation of where we are today in Leeds and where key musicians were learning their craft. These early bands were:
Sidewinder
Cousin J's band, more acid jazz than pure funk.
Rude President
Pete Shand (The New Mastersounds) and his brother’s band.
Funk 2 Finish
Bass player Hamlet, drummer Isaac Heywood and Chris Dawkins had a funk band Funk to Finish in the late 80s (with Ricky lead singer). Again they name check Dig Family gigs and warming up for Roy Ayres as their highlights. This trio was pivotal in realising George Evelyns’ Nightmares on. Wax vision. Their contribution was featured in the EVOLUTION OF LEEDS TRIP HOP post. Isaac Heywood has these early cassettes, hopefully we shall hear them one day.
The Eddie Roberts Organisation
New Mastersounds guitarist Eddie Roberts had his acid jazz/funky jazz band in this era too.
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1994-1999
The DIG Family move to The Underground
This is where I can really bring this article to life as I moved to Leeds in 1992 and visits to The Underground were a regular joy! The musicians came of age, the venue was perfect, everything came together. In the 90s the Dig Family were one of many highlights in Leeds music. As DJs their collections went so deep with jazz, funk and soul that they played the breaks often without even knowing they had been sampled, they just had dope records wall to wall. For a young hip hop fan they were the foundation of everything you loved and often never even knew had been sampled. With them creating the platform, booking the stars, the local acts stepped up, the experience from my perspective was magical and shall remain some of my happiest memories of being in a club. Hence my enthusiasm for this piece. From the late 80s, Leeds moved forward with these bands. Any scene’s success is partly down to authentic knowledgeable and charismatic promoters at the centre of it.
The music players at this time were:
Capri (formed 1995)
Dan Woodward's beast of a band. 70s funk breaks at its very very best, think Starsky and Hutch / Bullit / The Professionals. They’ve made quite a few recordings, which I've started collecting. Let's say for argument's sake they were the first rising stars of the Leeds funky scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_YVyomFat4
Wayne Pollock and Joe Tatton (Mastersounds on this one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_YVyomFat4
The New Mastersounds
Joe Tatton, Pete Shand, Eddie Roberts, Simon Allen
Up step the big guns! Really started to hit it big around 2000 and now play to thousands of people
Cleve Freckleton's Chunky Butt Funky
Cleve is probably Leeds’ most talented and charismatic entertainer. Still golden!
Taxi
Dan Goldman on bass in that band. Dan Wood on keys, Jason Rae alto sax, Malcolm Strachan trumpet and Russell Holdsworth on flute. Andy Marshall drums. Chris Lima percussion. Amrit Rahi Deogun on vocals. They recorded two live LPs but were never released.
Brothers on the Slide
Wayne Pollock on Keys Peter Huckerby on Vocals
Cue Kenny Higgins, - BASS PLAYER who has blessed so many bands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS65FCw1lQ8
Side Note: The Cooker was a record label also at this time. Check this one.
"Higher Life" by Sound Alibi feat Merdaler.....digital funk meets live funk (Chris Dawkins on guitar) Cooker Records. Co written by Tom Quick.
1999 - 2010
1999, The Cooker and Yardbird Suite leaves the Underground (a sad day for many lovers of this magical club). The result is venues start to open and start to work for this established business of funk followers and all the bands.
The Wardrobe opens 1999
Atrium opens in Grand Arcade 1999
The Hi Fi Opens 2000
Sela Bar Opens 2004
Smokestack Opens 2007
The Cooker moves to The Atrium on Fridays in the basement. Resident DJ Ez (Eric Speak) plus guests from Fat City/Grand Central and people like IG Culture, Bob Jones, Faze Action, Soul Jazz Records, Mr Bongo Records, Gilles Peterson etc. Same night, Fridays, on the top floor at Atrium, DIG DJs played funk/soul sets around a weekly residency by The New Mastersounds. Each week, the 4 piece played and had special guests weekly like The Haggis Horns brass or Cleve Freckleton on vocals. The New Mastersounds allegedly played every week for 12 months which is what made them the tightest funk band in the UK 2000 onwards.
Yardbird Suite re-launches at the Wardrobe: Sharon Jones, The Blackbyrds, Lee Fields, The New Mastersounds, The Haggis Horns, The Sugarman 3 etc.
Meanwhile upstairs in the Wardrobe bar, the venue started doing live funk/soul bands in 1999. That's a large 2 floored platform for bands to play.
Sunday Joint moves to the Hi Fi from the now closed Underground, and grows in stature booking at least 2 acts every Sunday and
Harlem Bush Club launches every Thursday with Mike Walwyn again booking bands (jazz funk world and beyond).
The DIG family split 2001
Chico and Ez stayed at The Wardrobe, Lubi and Gip left.
Gip started a new Saturday night at Atrium - Filling The Gap. Basement was a deep soulful house session. Top floor, weekly funk/soul DJs and also weekly funk live bands. Again, another great spot for our local band/scene. Chico continued at The Wardrobe from Jan 2001 until autumn 2002. However, he kept booking funk bands in his time there. Simon Beddoe, trumpeter from Submotion Orchestra, took over as booker and continued booking funk/soul bands at the venue, both floors, until the owner shut the basement in 2008 (now reopened of course since 2009)
So now we can look at the platform for Leeds performers as pretty extensive. I still maintain that without the platform the scene does not flourish. Which again brings me back to why the DIG Family was so important as the foundation for the authentic passionate musical landscape of Leeds.
By 2010 the scene had petered out, Smokestack returned from live to a DJ format and the other venues moved into other genres.
Some of the highlights of 1999-2010
Haggis Horns
Mark Ronson's funk brass section when touring the UK.
Honed their craft at the Atrium with a residency, then name checked by Mark Ronson as the finest UK Horn section. Tragedy struck when Jason Rae (who was then married to Corrine Bailey Rae) died at just 32 years old. They reformed, still continuing to be big news musically. Their first LP Hot Damn on the First Word label is a classic.
Current line-up:
Malcolm Strachan (trumpet, valve trombone) (Eddie Roberts Quinten)
Atholl Ransome (tenor saxophone, flute)
Rob Mitchell (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone) (Abstract Orchestra)
Ben Barker (guitar) (Homecut Directive)
Kenny Higgins (bass)
Erroll Rollins (drums)
George Cooper (keyboards)
John McCallum (vocals/guitar)
JD73
Dan Goldman - who had received notoriety with Moorcheeba, played with Taxi and The New Mastersounds started his new project which was signed to Joey Negro’s (now Dave Lee) Label. Most recent JD73 ElecTrio release “Pyramid” came out in 2021 on much revered UK electronic soul label Atjazz Records.
Homecut Directive (later Homecut)
Testament's early incarnation, he later recorded with Corin Bailey Rae and featured heavily in Leeds 2000’s scene. He now writes and performs plays for the BBC and theatre.
Corrine Bailey Rae
She was at this time a singer, who would jam with the bands and she worked at the Wardrobe. We know she is pop soul but her early work with the funk bands has to get a mention. One of her first recordings pre-superstar era was with The New Mastersounds ona single called “Your Love Is Mine” https://youtu.be/r1arFJCzdgc
Terri Shaltiel
Terri was and still is a player in the local funk/soul scene. Angelic voice but can also really belt out the heavy funk and soul with some deep blues vibes too and always works with quality musicians.
Afro Physics
A Funk Rock Hip Hop outfit led by Lady A.I - ended up with quite a following, supporting Maceo Parker amonst others. Aiwan is now a Bafta winning sound recordist, watch out for her new music .
Lara Rose
Nigerian singer, Lara Rose was around about 2000 onwards and recorded with the New Mastersounds.
Mama Feelgood feat Kelly Dickson
Plenty of shows in the early 2000s around Leeds, then they reformed as a “retro funk band” in 2019. Kelly still performs with them. In between this, in 2005, Kelly joined The Players (featuring members of the Style Council) where she toured the world. Married a Norwegian musician in the 2000s and moved to Sandefjiord in Norway where she still lives today.
Cara Robinson
Lubi dropped Cara’s name in, she must have had a band back in the day, I never saw her perform. She has gone onto big things with David Holmes, Corinne Bailey Rae and generally working in the music business. Moved to Australia at some point 20 years ago and teamed up with hubby Hat Fitz to form Hat Fitz & Cara, a big vintage music/roots music duo in the country and worldwide.
Bugalu Foundation
A 9 piece Latin funk/Latin soul band led by Haggis Horns/New Mastersounds sideman and conga player Sam Bell. Really good alternative to the straight up funk bands as played Latin funk covers by people like Joe Battan and Ray Barretto. Still going from these early days in the second part of the 2000s and releases an original music EP and 7” single around 2011/12. https://bugalufoundation.bandcamp.com/music
https://youtu.be/F42pP5lQn7E - short documentary
The Bluefoot Project
Funk Soul Trip Hop fronted by Rachel Modest with Jim Bluefoot adding DJ musicality, Oova on the mic and Matt Bradley putting the music together - they were onto big things. They have now reformed, big break ups make for big make ups.
Loose Wires
A funk band I used to book at the Elbow Room around 2008 featuring battle rapper Matter. Always like them, then they broke up and disappeared.
Sound of the Baskervilles
The celebrated Hip Hop artist ExP’s early training as an artist came with this band, again did some great shows at The Elbow Room then they all moved on to other projects.
In Lubi’s words
“You can see how intertwined the funk scene was back then in Leeds as Dan would go on to play with the New Mastersounds and the Haggis Horns (along with Nightmares On Wax of course) before forming his own JD73 jazz-funk band. Also the Haggis Horns co-founders Jason and Malcolm were in this band before joining the New Mastersounds as their brass section and then forming their own band. I think Taxi's drummer Andy Marshall may have been the first Haggis Horns drummer”.
2012 to Present Day
Lubi remained a promoter true to his 80s and 90s self. He launched Soul Rebels in October 2012 at The Wardrobe, where you can see the shift away from “funk” music with his line ups.
Bands featured were Ariya Astrobeat Arkestra, Nubiyan Twist, Paper Tiger, Noya Rao, The Abstract Orchestra, Renegade Brass Band, Jungle Fire (afro-latin funk), The Mouse Outfit, Ikestra, Thabo & The Real Deal. There are and were still some noteworthy ways to get your present day fix of funk (and note Haggis and Mastersounds are still going strong)
“The only funk band I booked was The Haggis Horns who remained relevant and played heavy funk plus jazz-funk, soul and afrobeat. Most of that new generation of players post 2010 thought of funk as a bit commercial or even cheesy. What function and wedding bands played. By 2015 when I started the jazz/neo-soul/hip-hop jam RE:SOUL at Hirst's Yard, we played no old school funk or soul. Then came the UK jazz explosion 2016 onwards and the kids just flipped to jazz. Not even sure young musicians today 18-25 know how to play proper old school funk!!!” Lubi
Abstract Orchestra
Rob Mitchell at the helm here. They specialise now in covering classic hip hop, but those early roots when they first played live were funk breaks with MC’s.
ATA Records
Neil Innes with ATA has the UK's leading analogue label and recording studio. It's Leeds' very own Daptone Records. Check the whole catalogue but here are some of today's highlights
Magnificent Tape Band
This is Neil Innes (ATA) and Pete Williams.
Rachel Modest - Never Did I Stop Loving You (huge Alice Clark 70s funky soul anthem cover)
(Rachel Modest)
Yorkshire Film & Television Orchestra feat Rachel Modest and Martin Connor (Bugalu Foundation) - huge cover of the classic early 70s Georgie fame funky big band jazz classic
https://atarecords.bandcamp.com/album/somebody-stole-my-thunder-i-who-have-nothing
The Lewis Express
https://thelewisexpress.bandcamp.com/album/the-lewis-express
Sick tune this one! Brother Move On. The Lewis Express is Neil Innes’ homage to soul/jazz/funk US pianist Ramsey Lewis and his Ramsey Lewis Trio and the offshoot bands like Young Holt Unlimited
Fold
Cross the line between funk and trip hop!
Necktr
More nujazz than funk. Found a couple for the playlist
Lubi’s final thoughts
“Funk and soul are well represented across the city's bars and clubs these days but it's a rarity to find funk bands playing shows the way they did in the mid-late90s/2000s!.
“In those days, bands played rare and deep funk/soul covers which they often heard at DIG Family nights or played by DJs at the Hifi Club because those musicians were part of the scene and hung out at these spots. Once they learnt their craft doing the covers, they started writing their own funk/soul tunes, some of which have become anthems/classic in themselves. These days when you hear a funk/soul live band, it will be covers and often just the standard Stevie Wonder or James Brown or Chaka Kahn or Curtis/Marvin anthems and biggest hits. It's all gone a bit weddings/functions funk/soul party hits nowadays. No real in-the-pocket dirty funk grooves the way the New Mastersounds used to drop back in the late 90s/early 00s. Different times, different sounds and music. So the Golden Era Of Leeds Funk really is a thing from history. Once Leeds city was the funk capital of the north but we are now “Jazz Centre North” in England but that's a whole different blog post ”
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