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// Viv Richards
© DR
Fire In Babylon
“Cricket lovely cricket, hit the ball before it reach the wicket….” Jah Thomas
It’s a Wednesday evening and screen 3 at the Curzon cinema in Soho is packed with men, sporty looking Caucasian blokes, who have settled into their cushioned seats to see Fire In Babylon, a celebratory documentary that traces the transformation of West Indian Cricket – “Calypso Cricket” – to the devastating, super fast bowling, invincible side that dominated world cricket between 1975 and 1984. Directed by Stevan Riley and produced by Charles Steel (Last King Of Scotland), Fire In Babylon is an orthodox but enlightening journey through archive footage, great interviews with players, groundsmen and a Rasta academic, with musical vignettes from a mento band and a splendidly attired calypsonian and, finally, the incisive, heartical and visionary comments of the Blackheart Man – Bunny Wailer.
In 1975, after being racially abused and then physically battered, bruised and humiliated by Australia’s fast bowlers, Thompson and Lillee, the young West Indian team, led by Clive Lloyd, decided enough was enough. This was a war and these players, drawn from diverse islands in the Caribbean, were totally united by black consciousness and recognized the need to rise up like the Maroons and defeat their former colonial rulers.
These were turbulent times. In 1976 political warfare broke out in Jamaica while the message of Rastafari went global. Notting Hill Carnival exploded into a battle between black youth and the police. The call had gone out in the Caribbean to find some fast bowlers and when the England captain, South African-born Tony Greig vowed to "make them grovel" vengeance was to be swift and painful. They destroyed England with a combination ferocious bowling from Michael Holding and Andy Roberts and the whirlwind batting of Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge. As Prince Far I once said on a Joe Gibbs 7” single – “England have tried their best but the West Indies have won the Test… Under Heavy Bowling!”
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Apart from the bitter taste left by the “Rebel Tour” of apartheid South Africa, which sadly attracted some West Indian players, this team went on to dominate world cricket for the next decade and that included both mentally and physically crushing their old enemies - Australia. Peppered with quality tunes selected by Steve Barrow of Blood And Fire, this film is a most energising slice of contemporary black history. Let’s hope it finds its find its way into schools and colleges and not just cinemas attended by the cricketing fraternity.
Fire In Babylon is in UK cinemas now and released on DVD 6 June 2011.
Paul Bradshaw / Straight No Chaser
(6 votes)
// ALSO
- 80s World Music Classics
- Edouard Glissant
- Sound System Scratch
- Art Melody's futuristic African hip hop
- Call for entrants: RFI Discoveries Award 2010
- Oliver Mtukudzi, Oliver Mtukudzi - African Soul Rebel
- Sweet Reggae Music, JA roundup
- Darbar Festival, Darbar | Arts Culture Heritage – Book
- World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures 10-31 December, Dakar
// ALL VIV RICHARDS'S REVIEWS
Fire In Babylon
01/06/2011
// LINKS
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