Keith LeBlanc

[per anporth]

I missed the passing of Keith LeBlanc in early April - & a quick search suggests it hasn't been mentioned here.

He was the drummer in Sugarhill Gang, & with fellow Gangsters Doug Wimbish & Skip MacDonald, relocated to London, becoming Maffia, house band at Adrian Sherwood's On-U Sound, & backing band for (also recently passed) Mark Stewart...before incarnating as Tack>>head.

Tack>>head released a series of brilliant, incendiary, industrial dub funk 12" singles, & the majestic lp Tack>>head Tape Time & its brilliant follow up, Friendly As A Hand Grenade. In addition, LeBlanc released a series of "solo" albums, essentially Tack>>head under another name (most notably, Major Malfunction & Stranger Than Fiction).

The band morphed into a number of other guises - the dance-oriented Fats Comet, Strange Parcels, psychedelic heavy blues machine Little Axe, & most engagingly, The Barmy Army - in which heavy dub funk rhythms had British football chants & radio commentaries dubbed on top of them (their lp The English Disease contained paens to Hammers stalwarts Billy Bonds & Alan Devonshire, which will have appealed to Sunlight Caller!).

I first came upon LeBlanc by way of the extraordinary early sample single No Sell Out... & was lucky enough to see LeBlanc & Maffia & Tack>>head on a number of occasions in the late 80s & early 90s, & they were, without question, the most exhilarating, incendiary, live act I've ever witnessed.

[XavGel]

I've listened to all this stuff and it's magnificient - thanks for pointing it out ! Found this little thing that gave me a smile :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UYmQ7Vd3A8

[markwoll]

I have a 12" No Sell Out from the old days. May have to dig it out.

[Proglodite]

I picked up Stranger Than Fiction while in college because the Einstein song looked intriguing. Wound up loving the whole album...but maybe ten years ago I tried one of his other solo albums and it didn't do anything for me. --Peter