Jimmy Cliff

Many fields to cross

According to AllMusic.com, Jimmy Cliff was born in 1948. Which makes him fairly old, but you wouldn’t think so if you saw him live. God knows how he does it, but the guy looks eternally youthful and has the energy of someone decades younger. And he delivered a spectacular performance in the sweltering heat to the Saturday afternoon crowd at Glasto’s Pyramid stage.

The star of 1973’s gritty cult classic The Harder They Come, which delves into some of the more unpleasant aspects of seventies Jamaica, this is perhaps how many people know him, but he’s got a few other hits up his sleeve, too. And with a stellar backing band, the sunshine-filled anthems just kept on coming. And boy, can Jimmy sing! Vietnam, Wonderful World, Beautiful People, an awesome Many Rivers To Cross and, of course, You Can Get It If You Really Want and The Harder They Come, sprinkled with some surprisingly good more recent material.

He certainly put the sunshine in our hearts, and he told us that we made him feel “Irie”, and that’s not a bad thing, is it? And with the recent excellent ‘Best Of’ release on the magnificent Trojan record label, it’s never been easier to delve into the legendary music of Jimmy Cliff.

Emma Badger

Another opinion...

Following the lead of the Skatalites and Mr Tamino on the One World stage last night, another of Jamaica’s finest ska and reggae artists, performed to a captive audience this afternoon. Throughout his appearance, Jimmy acted exactly as he would have done 40 years ago. The same charisma, strong voice and energetic dancing are ever-present, to the effect that he hardly seemed to have aged since his film appearance in “The Harder They Come”.

Alongside the old favourites, “You Can Get It If you Really Want” and “Wildwood” came new songs such as “September 11th”, and a revised version of “Vietnam” which culminated in the crowd singing along with Jimmy and his backing band. To conclude the set, the full band abandoned their instruments, picked up djembes and sung an acoustic version of “By The Rivers of Babylon”.

Andrew Davidson

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