Cymande in the mid-’70s: a remarkable afterlife
IT’S 1973 and ablack British band have just gone to the States where, with little promotional budget, they score aTop 50 single and ahit album. They play arenas and stadiums while supporting the likes of Al Green, Mandrill and Ramsey Lewis; they also became the first UK outfit to appear on Soul Train and headline the Harlem Apollo. You’d expect them to come home to ahero’s welcome –the all-conquering black Beatles, aband who’ve added a peculiarly south London twist to the vocabulary of R&B. Yet they return to utter indifference. There is little radio play and no invitations to appear on TV. In the five years that they’re active, Cymande never headline any UK venue larger than Ronnie Scott’s.