British jazz-funk trailblazers Light of The World play in Portsmouth in support of first album in 20 years

Forming in the late 1970s, they scored hits in the early ’80s with the likes of London Town, No.1 Girl, Time, and their distinctive cover of I Shot The Sheriff.

With the original band operating like a collective, there were numerous offshoots, and former members went on to have long careers in the music industry.

But co-founders Gee Bello, Nat Augustin and Mel Gaynor have kept the flame alive, and in 2020 they released Jazz Funk Power – their first album since 1999’s Inner Voices.

The sound the band helped create has filtered through pop music over the decades.

As Gee says: ‘Obviously we've got a core following of people who've been there from the beginning with us, but we're still getting new followers who are completely surprised at how influential the band was, and high profile that music was.

‘But there's hardly ever anything media-wise about our contribution to British music.’

After the band’s first flush of fame faded, they began playing with other, often high profile, artists.

‘I became background singer for George Michael on the Wham! stuff, guitarist Nat worked with Rick Astley, Swing Out Sister, and others, Mel was the drummer with Simple Minds – he's on all their big hits, he did Tina Turner's Simply The Best.

‘We went into promoting our style of music through other people.

‘I've got a list of people as long as your arm of people we've worked with – Alexander O'Neal, I became the musical director for Kathy Sledge, it's just loads and loads of people we've worked with over the years, so it's nice to come back to our own music now with everything we've learned, and still be excited about music, and look forward to working with audiences and giving them a great time.’

Gee says the band never broke up, mostly playing live and contributing a new song ‘here and there’ to compilations of their older material.

But the seeds of the new album were sown pre-pandemic.

‘The Jazz Funk Power album came about after realising that many of our favourite bands like Earth Wind and Fire, Incognito, Jamiroquai, Tower of Power, Brand New Heavies, Kool and The Gang and Chic were still enjoying success many decades later.

‘With our records still being played across national and worldwide radio with digital streaming platforms too, we realised our music also has a timeless quality, therefore Jazz Funk really does have Power and Energy, so it felt right to name the album Jazz Funk Power.’

They started work on it in early 2020, with acclaimed producer and musician Nigel Martinez.

‘Just before the lockdown we'd had the idea of doing a new album, and during that time it really seemed to focus everyone's minds, so we were able to do a lot of things.

‘Obviously no one was working, we couldn't work live, so it gave us the time to work on the record.’

Working from their respective home studios they would send Martinez the digital files to put the album together.

But we thought there was no point in just releasing it digitally, we know our age group remember when records were made, and people wanted that – we kept on getting calls for vinyl.

‘We were just in at the point before Adele was releasing her album and tied up all the remaining pressing plants, we were so lucky to get them pressed!

‘It all came together, but we couldn't really tour it, and it went to number one on the Amazon R&B chart, and was the UK soul number one album and single, so it did really well for us.

‘And now we can actually start touring and put the music out to our fans live who've bought the album, and introduce it to a new group of people.’

Aside from a couple of socially distanced launch shows at The Jazz Cafe in London, the band haven’t been able properly to get out and do what they do best.

‘It's all about fun, it's all about enjoyment. You don't have to study 400 years of theory to get what we're about, it's head and foot stuff, y'know?’

Light of The World are at The Gaiety, Southsea, on Sunday, January 30, doors 7pm.

Support comes from renowned Portsmouth DJ Jeff Powell.

Regular tickets £20, VIP tickets £45.

Go to book.events.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can subscribe here for unlimited access to our online coverage, including Pompey, with 70 per cent fewer adverts for less than 20p a day.