As part of their 'Three In One' UK Tour the 'Royal Family of Reggae' Morgan Heritage came to visit Reading on June the 8th and they were truly brilliant. The show started with Reading's Roots Rockers and Radio 1's Chris Goldfinger spinning a few tunes for the people arriving, then saw the UK roots band 'The Wisdom Band' kick off the stage show with an excellent performance, they're definitely a band to look out for.

Next up Reading's year to year sound Sweet Sensation spun a few tunes in a short break from the stage show until Chris introduced the main event.

When Morgan Heritage came on they blew the roof off with classics from their previous albums, tunes like 'Don't Haffi Dread' got the crowd in a frenzy and it was a high that lasted the whole show. This tour is all about their new album and we were treated to new tracks like 'The Truth', the herbalists new anthem 'Nice Up Medi', the chart topping 'She's Still Loving Me' and the excellent 'What's Going On'. Their performance was flawless and you can only imagine the excitement when then dropped the classic 'Down By The River' it really was something else.

When it comes to modern roots reggae 'Rockaz' this band is the cream of the crop, and when they're live on stage you'd be hard pushed to find anything that can match them. If this tour is coming to a town near you don't miss out!

Thanks to MMW Promotions we got chance to hang out with Una, Peter and Gramps before the show to find out more about the band.

RTA: Obviously you farther Denroy Morgan played a big part in your love for music, but what made the five of you decide to form the band?
Una: Well origanally it wasn't just the five of us, when we started there were eight members of Morgan Heritage but after the deal with MCA finished the other three decided to leave and now it's just us five.

RTA: Did you know at an early age that music was to be your destiny?
Una: Well I think our father knew before us, I think he could see the love of music in us before we did and it was he that inspired us to take it further.

RTA: You're just five of twenty nine brothers and sisters, what's it like to have such a big family?
Una: It's thirty now, but yes it's great we are truly blessed.

RTA: Obviously LMS are also involved in the music industry, do most of the family work in the industry?
Gramps: No we've got brothers and sisters that work in hospitals, as flight atendants, everything man.

RTA: Obviously you share the singing of your songs, but who writes your material?
Una: We all do, we just write when we feel inspired, sometimes Peter will go through a stage of writing or Gramps will, Gramps has always got a lot of melodies in his head though.

RTA: So where do you feel most at home, do you like working in the studio or is being on stage where its at for you?
Peter: Different parts of the music has its different benefits, we love to write songs, we love recording, but I think one of the greatest feelings is when you see the audience singing the songs you wrote and seeing the audience find love with your music that you've loved since you've created it you know. So the audience response to whatever you've come up with, presented to them, is our greatest feeling, to see how it comes over with the people.

RTA: Your first album was recorded with MCA, was it difficult working with a major record label, are you happier now you've moved away from that?
Una: It was a good experience working with MCA because a lot of the know how that we have now, especially with the intricacy within the music business, we've learned that through MCA so it was definitely a good experience. Yes, We do have a lot more freedom now, a lot more creative freedom that we're very thankful for overall but I mean it was a good experience with MCA, they made us feel like the stars that we were.

RTA: It's over ten years now that you've been in the business, is there any advice you'd give to any young bands?
Gramps: I would say stay humble and continue to feed your talent don't ever feel that you're 'there' or feel like 'yeah, I'm ready and I just can't get my break' you know, always just keep feeding yourself and keep chipping away at the block and eventually everything will make way and something will break for you.  Never feel that you're at your peak 'cause five years ago we listened to stuff that at that time we thought it was at our peak but now we're like wow that sucks, you know, so never feel that you're at your peak.  Keep driving, keep seeking to improve on your talent, try not to listen to you own stuff to much, don't get high on your own supply you know what I mean, some people go in the studio, they record their stuff and they listen to it over and over again. Listen to other stuff man so you feed yourself with different elements of music and never try to listen to just one kind of music, 'cause music is universal.

RTA: Something that we've read about that has interested us is you're involvement in the Warped Tour.
Gramps: Yes, The Vans Warped Tour, respect to all our punk family worldwide, Australia, the UK, Europe, Japan, punks worldwide and rasta is one because we're all about the revolution, not of violence and crime but of the mind, so punks and rasta are one. The Vans Warped Tour was great man, big up to Kevin Lyman, we made great friends, AFI, Good Charlotte, No FX, Rancid, New Found Glory, Less Than Jake, Alkline Trio, Flogging Molly all of those guys are our family, not just through music but even as friend to friend, brothers. 'Cause at night a lot of time when were just hanging out it wasn't musically, it was at a barbeque you know everyone's just having a beer and just chillin out and the vibes are just nice, positive, you know what I mean, and we think alike, rastas and punks think alike so big up to our punk family every time, Vans Warped Tour large worlwide.

RTA: So how does the punk audience react to you?
Gramps: They love it, that's how we came up with the song 'Jump Around' because we saw that these punks was out there, the same day they was jumping up to New Found Glory and Flogging Molly and Rancid they were jumping around to reggae so that's how we came with that song (sings) 'jump around if you really love reggae'.  So that's how the song Jump Around came round and we give thanks for even the whole experience on the Vans Warped Tour, respect to the whole organisation man, for having us and allowing reggae music to be presented on that stage and giving us a chance you know, I mean to just say hey let's see what these guys can do, and it worked.

RTA: With this tour, obviously you've only done a couple of dates so far over the last couple of nights, how have you found England so far?
Gramps: It was great, we've seen some of our punk family over here too, big up to the punk family over here, because we saw some kids up in Kendall you know, we now our family when we see them, we know our punks. Respect to all of the punks in the UK man because they came out. The first two shows have been lovely man, these are areas that we haven't played before so it's new territory for Morgan Heritage and we're happy. Respect to BJ Productions, Bagga John and his whole family for allowing us and giving us the opportunity from the first time we came here in the UK, opening up for Buju Banton and now we're able to perform by ourselves and people are used to our music, so we give thanks for everything man.

RTA: You've obviously done a lot of touring over the years, when you're playing night after night do you find it tiring, is it hard work?
Gramps: Yeah man it's tiring but what you gotta do after you get off stage, you gotta go straight to bed man, you just go lay down, no partying or hanging out. I mean last night we didn't have no window in our room and we woke up late for the bus call, a lot of things that you see happen on the tour means that sometimes you late, and that's the realness of it man, sometimes you gonna be late, and sometimes you are tired but when you get on that stage it's like your ready to rock.  It's not about huh tired, you're ready as soon as you hear Morgan Heritage you ready, all energy is like you aint even tired. Sometimes when you get off the stage you're like woh, but it's all good brother.

RTA: The new album 'Three in One', this is your 6th album, do you think this is your best yet?
Peter: The best is yet to come, put it that way, the best is yet to come. Every day is a new inspiration, is a new vibe you know what I mean. Things that we might love the audience might not love and things the audience might love we might not love, so again it's to who's listening or who thinks what they think. We feel there's a lot more to come from Morgan Heritage you know, we continue to grow and give thanks for the inspiration of the most high you know.

RTA: Do you each have a favourite track off the album?
Una: There's more than one favourite, a song like 'Falling Race' to me live it's a killer on the record yeah, but live it's one of my favourites. 'Man Is Still A Man', 'Man In Love', 'Jump Around', there's several tracks.

RTA: The 'Anti-War Song', was that written as a response to the recent conflict in Iraq?
Peter: No, Actually that was written like two weeks after the 9/11 bombing, because we were in New York at the time, you know we were stuck there for like four weeks after. So that whole song was written during that time, and came from that inspiration you know.

RTA: You've done a lot of work promoting the message of Rastafari, do you get disappointed when some rasta artists realease records with lyrics which some people think are slack?
Una: I mean, It's all good man, slackness is what you think it is.
Peter: People going out on the street and shooting one another for possession of jewellery or whatever, that's slackness. People call sex slackness and everyone's involved in it, you know when you go home with your wife and your girl and you're getting down, everyone is slack you know what I mean so who are we to judge. That's why we say judge not, whatever you're involved in feel free to talk about it, feel free to sing about it, in another way it's a reality in its self, love making or sex or a guy looking at a female or a female looking at a guy, it's reality.  It's just how you perceive it in your mind, or how you say rasta is supposed to be that way, that's judging, you think he's supposed to be that way or he shouldn't be saying that, hey man, man love woman or woman love man, it's reality man, without sex there would be no reproduction.

RTA: You've worked with nearly all major reggae artists to speak of, are there any artists you would still want to work with?
Peter: Sizzla Kalonji, hands down, I think amongst us all I think Sizzla is our most favourite artist in today's market of reggae music.

RTA: What about outside of reggae?
Peter: A whole lot of artists man, you know from Good Charlotte, to uh Eminessence a new rock band out of America, The Goo Goo Dolls, Foo Fighters, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Ginuwine, R Kelly for sure.
Una: We like the Dixie Chicks, yeah we like the Dixie Chicks a lot.

RTA: So there's a lot of different influences coming into Morgan Heritage?
Peter: Yeah man, definitely, it's about music you know, it's about music.

RTA: So what's in the future for Morgan Heritage?
Peter: Just more music and bringing roots to the mainstream, roots music has been around for ages, for decades you know and it's still yet to crack the mainstream market as it is, as roots as it is, as raw as it is.

RTA: Not a watered down version, you want the real thing?
Peter: If were gonna do something else, were gonna do something else, if were gonna do rock it will be rock, if were gonna do r'n'b it's gonna be r'n'b, if we're gonna do reggae it's gonna be reggae we don't want to confuse it, because every music is respected in its own right, so it's just bringing reggae music to another level.

Check out the Morgan Heritage website at www.morganheritagefamily.com for more information about the band.  Don't forget the excellent new album 'Three In One' is now available in all decent music stores.  Many thanks to Morgan Heritage for their time.

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