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Errol Dunkley: Live In London
Errol Dunkley: Live In London
Errol Dunkley, supported by Anthony Johnson and Jimmy London at Brixton Hootananny on Thursday November 18th 2010.
Sampler
"Rest in peace Sugar… Live on Gregory," was Errol Dunkley's tribute to his fallen friends during his hit packed performance at the Hootananny on Thursday night. After the gun braps and cheers for the latter (with whom he had co-founded the famous African Museum label) and the former (who he recorded with right up to his illness) Errol couldn't resist a cheeky reminder that his own career had taken off first. The crowd took it in good humour, and rightly so, for in a year when so many veterans have left us, there was still one legend with an exquisite timbre and extraordinary back catalogue in our midst.
Often producing his own music and licensing it to the big labels of the day, the diminutive Dunkley never carved out a niche for any one producer and is perhaps not as well known as his contemporaries as a result. But on the upside, unlike many, he has stayed both consistent and in control of his royalties for the big tunes that, one after another, drove the three-quarter-full Brixton pub wild.
Backed by the solid Borderline Band, and dressed in a sleeveless shirt, straw hat and bandana, the former dancer offered up some slinky moves as he took us on "a trip down memory lane". 
Highlights included his second teen hit for Joe Gibbs, Please Stop Your Lying; Movie Star, his cover of fellow teenage sensation Delroy Wilson; and Black Cinderella, based on a poem written by the one-legged West Kingston producer Jimmy Radway. Even stronger were the awe-inspiring Created By The Father and individual’s anthem Little Way Different (sung in response to the public getting confused between him and Dennis Brown) - rendered as the later cut (voiced for the UK’s Dennis Bovell) by the band.
Support came from the riotously popular Jimmy London who sang his own raw yet heartfelt Gregory tribute a capella, and Anthony “Gunshot” Johnson, who showed there is much more to him than his huge dancehall smash.
An encore of the Philly-soul cover Betcha By Golly Wow closed what had been a select gathering with many important UK figures in attendance. Many of the key players in Errol's career, from Gregory to pioneering female producer Sonia Pottinger may have moved on but there was no sadness, only joy, as we followed him down the lane one more time.
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