Chalice works new material into live set

Band eyes US tour to fresh audience

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Wayne Armond, guitarist, sometimes vocalist and chief showman of the band Chalice, was pleasantly surprised when he was sent a link to New York, USA-based disc jockey Clinton Lindsay's album charts a few weeks ago.

Chalice's latest album, Let it Play, released last November by TADS Records, was at number 17. Since then, Armond has watched the album inch up to its latest position, 10, after six weeks on the charts. And this has been without the support of performances, as Armond said "we have not been to New York in a number of years. Hopefully, we will correct that this year by going back on the road, all being well".

The band is eyeing the US though, as Armond said, "there is a bigger diaspora to start with", although he points out that Chalice has gone over well with non-Jamaican audiences. Areas where reggae is well-loved, including Florida, New York and especially California are on the band's radar.

And Armond knows these are virtually new markets for Chalice, although the band has been there before. "I feel that although Chalice did the circuit back in the 1980s, there is a brand-new market that has never heard us," he said. Although facing a new audience can be a double-edged sword, Armond said "it is a good thing. The more new ears you can garner, it translates into sales and concert attendance."

high point

Two Jamaican performances in just over a fortnight seem geared to take Chalice back to ears familiar with the band as well as the generation which has come up after their high point in the 1980s and early 1990s. Then they made a statement with their albums Blasted, Standard Procedure and Stand Up, with popular tracks I'm Trying, Good to be There and Dangerous Disturbances - as well as their humorous take on dancehall artistes such as Tiger - striking a chord with the music-loving public. The first recent performance was on CPTC's CTV Rocks series, the mid-week concerts recorded before a live studio audience at their Arnold Road offices. The other will be on Friday at Redbones Blues Café, New Kingston.

Armond said Chalice was slated to do an hour at CPTC but ended up performing for 90 minutes ("They just said let it roll."). They are required to do two one-hour sets on Friday night and, naturally, tracks from Let it Play will be performed. First, though, the band learns a song as it is on the record, then Armond says "we will work it into performance. It takes a lot of time in the rehearsal room and ideas going back and forth. We put in some dub here, we talk there".

Ironically, Jamaican radio has not embraced Let it Play and Armond notes that it is generally the older material that gets rotation.

Chalice not only has new ears to reach, but also the company of relatively new bands. Armond has close connections with at least two, having produced Rootz Underground's debut album, Movement, and he is currently working with Blu Grass in the Sky. He points to some of the other Jamaican bands making a name for themselves, among them Raging Fyah, Dubtonic Kru and C-Sharp. "I am hopeful that in months, not years, they will be doing the circuit," Armond said, pointing out that Global Battle of the Bands winners Dubtonic is already doing that.

He acknowledges that moving a band of Chalice's size - seven members and two technicians - for a tour takes more out of a promoter. However, Armond is positive that the demand is there.

"I find that the concert-going people, especially in Europe and North America, they like bands," he said. "I suppose it is because of what was done in the past by units like Third World, Chalice, Aswad and UB40."