Gig review: Toots and The Maytals feat. Leba Hibbert at Leeds Beckett University
Six years after the passing of her father, the singer presides over this refashioned interpretation of his legendary band in a celebratory affair built on prime-rocksteady fervour.
“Tonight is a very special night, you know,” Leba Hibbert announces, arms flung wide in an embrace to the crowd scattered amongst the student union halls of Leeds Beckett University. “You know why?” she continues. “It’s because we’re here, and you’re here, to celebrate over fifty years of Toots and The Maytals, fifty years of Reggae Got Soul!”
Six years have gone since the man born Frederick Hibbert passed away, leaving a multi-decade musical legacy in his wake that helped both pioneer and coin “reggae”, and counted a proverbial laundry-A-list of artists, collaborators and fans in thrall to his music, ranging from Eric Clapton to Willie Nelson, and Amy Winehouse to – intriguingly – Donald Trump.
Yet, akin to the manner with which Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s reputation remains burnished live by his son Omar, so comes this re-fashioned interpretation where his daughter holds the mantle of his rich recording heritage.
This celebratory affair is less geared towards the specific anniversary of the seminal classic that lends its name to this latest touring jaunt, and more to the wider breadth of the Maytals and their catalogue – though there is no room for their surprise mid-Eighties mover Beautiful Woman, a sly number-one hit in New Zealand.
Instead, Hibbert rolls out the big hitters with steady aplomb and prime-rocksteady fervour: It’s You prompts an early outbreak of dancehall shapes from the back, Pressure Drop skiffles its way through a lusty singalong, and Sweet and Dandy stacks up with a transportive ska shuffle that leaves its musicians grinning with delight.
Throughout, Hibbert is an engaging performer, concerned not so much with an aural mimicry as she is with the approximation of vintage tone and mood.
A genteel version on the Carole King staple You’ve Got a Friend proves softly moving, while the straight-shooter romp she delivers on the John Denver favourite Take Me Home, Country Roads is a gleeful barnstormer.
“When you feel it, we feel it!” she cries before closer Monkey Man. It appears Leeds indeed still feels it too.