Little Roy, Scala - review - Music - Arts

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As his 60th year approaches, he's based in London and, for reasons unclear, he's started working overtime. 2011 has seen two albums: Heat, re-recordings of classic material and Battle For Seattle, a collection of Nirvana covers and a timely illustration that one of reggae's many delights is its ability to colonise and cannibalise any genre.

Roy proved to be a smiley, bearded and dreadlocked old gent whose nom-de-reggae was not born of irony. Scandalously (unless I missed someone), the bass was taped; Roy and his jolly sextet took just an hour of our time; they refused to play an encore, but still they triumphed.

The ominous rumble of Tribal War and the slinky but righteous Prophesy, both almost 40 years old, made you wonder just how the Seventies boat sailed without him but the real meat was the smorgasbord of Nirvana.

As John Kennedy might have said had he enjoyed a grunge-reggae crossover, the question was not what those songs could do for Roy but what Roy could do for those songs.

Sidestepping the bleakness of Kurt Cobain's vision, Roy instead embraced its often forgotten joy and innocence. There was no Smells Like Teen Spirit but Come As You Are was stripped down and speeded up; Heart-Shaped Box benefited more than you might imagine from a trombone solo and Lithium was more an anthem of defiance than a broken man's lament. Cobain was no reggae buff but he always had an impish disregard for the expected: he'd have adored Little Roy.

Little Roy
The Scala
Pentonville Road, King's Cross, N1 9NL