FBI

FBI (Funky Bands Inc) were a critically acclaimed 9 piece band formed by Herscel Holder, Lloyd Smith, Lennox Meade, Raffi Pereira and led by Herscel Holder, which were together from 1974 to 1978. They had a distinctive 'good time' sound with sharp horns and both male (Root Jackson and female (Bonnie Wilkinson) vocalists. Root had previously had a few minor hits in late 60s under the name Root and Jenny Jackson. They started on the college, club and pub circuit and graduated to supporting major US acts like Kool and the Gang and The Temptations, touring with rock bands like Alvin Lee Band, also appearing at Ronnie Scotts club. This their only album was recorded in 1976 at Alvin Lee's Hook End Manor studio near Reading and was engineered by Chris Kimsey, who went to produce reggae legends Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh and several Rolling Stones albums. Due to a delay in releasing it and lack of promotion the album did not fulfil its full potential when released on the Good Earth label through RCA in the UK in 1977. The album is mixture of hard driving funk 'FBI' and 'Bad Deal', Soul 'Let me love you' and a cover of JR Bailey's 'Love Love Love' with a Caribbean influence 'The time is right'. But the stand out track is the wonderful 'Talking About Love' (music by Herscel Holder, lyrics by Bonnie Wilkerson), surely one of the best soulful records ever made outside of USA. It is this track which has made the album an underground in-demand £80 rated album for the past fifteen years. FBI have become in demand again thanks to footage of one of their appearances on the TV show 'Magpie' being featured in an episode of the BBC2 series 'I Love the 70's'. In the meantime we are proud to re-present the original FBI album remastered from the original tapes and reunited with its original sleeve design, enjoy the good vibes ! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.