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No sitting in limbo: Jimmy Cliff hopes to reprise his character for a sequel to The Harder They Come

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David Smyth talks to reggae veteran Jimmy Cliff about reigniting his film career and check's out what's new on the net.

JIMMY CLIFF STILL HAS MORE RIVERS TO CROSS

When a musician finds out that a musical featuring their songs is in the works, the sensible thing is to follow Take That and David Bowie and disown it as quickly as possible.

Veteran reggae star Jimmy Cliff has other ideas. His tunes from the classic 1972 film The Harder They Come, in which he starred, are now being reprised in song-and-dance form at the Playhouse Theatre. I get the impression that the 60-year-old wishes he was still playing singer and gun-toting wanted man Ivanhoe Martin himself.

"Hearing someone else singing my songs was not so strange because a lot of people have," he says, remarkably alert and upbeat considering he has only dashed to London from New York for 24 hours to sing Many Rivers to Cross on Jools Holland's show.

His music has been covered by the likes of Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Joe Strummer and New Order. "But seeing someone else in my part was weird. He does it so well, though."

Rolan Bell, who has played the starring role since the musical became the longestrunning show ever at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2006, has big shoes to fill.

The Harder They Come was the first full-length Jamaican feature film and remains the nation's bestknown piece of cinema.

The character of Ivan, whose struggles to make it in the crooked Kingston music business culminate in him shooting his way to a hit record, was an amalgamation of the real 1940s gangster Ivanhoe "Rhyging" Martin and Cliff himself, who arrived in Kingston a naive country boy, desperate to succeed in the city.

Although he didn't have to kill anybody to land his first Jamaican number one (Hurricane Hattie, at the age of 14), Cliff did witness the darker side of reggae before Bob Marley overtook him to become Jamaica's first global superstar.

"I saw the violence first hand. The shady characters in the film were real," he says. "If it hadn't been for the music, I very easily could have gone that way. Some of my associates did and they're not here any more."

Cliff had no professional acting experience before writer and director Perry Henzell cast him.

Henzell (who died in late 2006, having helped to make the musical a reality) was struck by a photo of the singer on an album sleeve. Even now, surprisingly, Cliff seems more enamoured with acting than music, despite having barely appeared in any films since.

"I loved being in front of the camera," he reminisces. "I have a few movie projects on the table now. I'm not sure which one will come true first but I do think one of them is likely this year.

The union of my acting with my music is my strong point. I could make another record but I'd rather come back in the way that will make the biggest impact."

Inevitably, one idea is for a sequel to The Harder They Come. "I feel a strong identification with that character. I like his rebellious streak. I think with the magic of the movies we can bring him back."

Fresh-faced as the singer is, with snazzy yellow glasses, tufty beard and a bright red hat, this might be a river too many to cross - though perhaps Harrison Ford's pensionable turn as Indiana Jones has inspired him.

While the film's vérité style can make it a hard watch, its flawless soundtrack has stood the test of time.

It featured Cliff hits including Sitting in Limbo, You Can Get it if You Really Want and the fabulous title track, as well as classic cuts from Desmond Dekker, The Maytals and The Melodians.

Its success in Europe and the US arguably opened the door for Bob Marley to go truly global a few years later.

These sunny sounds are what enables it to work as a feelgood musical despite the darkness of the plot. "There's a lot more singing and dancing, so it still has the grit but it's more fun," says Cliff.

"Everyone was on their feet by the end in Stratford," says the musical's producer, Jan Ryan. "It was great to get the kind of audiences who don't normally go to musicals, who don't have any preconceptions of how they're supposed to behave."

The warm reaction could be thanks to the glow of nostalgia in those who grew up with the movie. Even if you already know about the violent ending, you can sit back and enjoy the songs.

For Cliff, however, a refusal to accept that he is now a heritage act means he sees the musical not as nostalgia but an opportunity to open a new chapter in his ongoing career.

"With respect to what we did then, I don't live there, I can't live there. I have to be here today with one foot in tomorrow. Those were great songs, I have to say, but not my greatest. My greatest is yet to come," he insists.

In appropriately theatrical language, he concludes: "All that's gone was my first act. Now act two is coming. This musical is the prelude."

He sounds a lot like that naive 14-year-old country boy landing in Kingston to make himself a star. He couldn't be deterred then - so who can stop him at 60?

• The Harder They Come previews from tonight at the Playhouse Theatre, WC2 (0870 060 6631; www.theambassadors.com/playhouse).

NEW ON THE NET

• While the radio stations we know and love have long been broadcasting online, the web is also proving to be a useful testing zone for newer stations. Fashion label Diesel is currently trying its hand at broadcasting indie coolness at http://dum.diesel.com, with the help of some New Cross schoolkids as apprentices, and MySpace is also about to launch a weekly internet show at http://uk.myspace.com/myspacemarsplanetsradio, where it is currently auditioning for potential co-presenters.

• One of the more impressive female singer-songwriters to emerge is LA's Sarabeth Tucek, who shows her livelier side on hummable new single, Nobody Cares, released in download stores on Monday.

• Bleep.com, the one-stop shop for your electronica needs, has a wealth of exclusive material from enigmatic duo Autechre this week, 13 new tracks being released digitally over a fortnight.

 

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