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SHOW TIME: Orlando Gittens

LOVER’S ROCK music is experiencing the biggest period of revival since its heyday over 30 years ago. The romantic reggae genre epitomised by artists such as Janet Kay, Carroll Thompson and Gregory Isaacs has been steadily gaining popularity in recent years. And with the release of Menelik Shabazz’s 2011 documentary The Story of Lover’s Rock, the music is once again gracing the stages of venues around the country as the unique black British sound that defined a generation.

The next major concert to celebrate the genre will be the Giants of Lovers’ Rock at the Indigo O2. With a line-up of over 20 performers, it is set to be one of the UK’s biggest revival concerts. Created by concert promoter Orlando Gittens, the Giants of Lovers’ Rock is now in its fourth year and has already been scheduled for another installment next year. A labour of love for Gittens, he admitted that his strong personal attachment to the music inspired him to start the event.

Why have you brought the Giants of Lovers’ Rock to the Indigo O2?
This concert is something I believe in, as someone who grew up in the seventies and eighties I have a strong emotional attachment to lovers’ rock. It’s almost like a reunion, people can get together once a year and share happy memories. There wasn’t much of a platform to perform lovers’ rock live before and we like the fact that it’s a nice venue; it’s not being staged in a little club in the back streets.

When did you start putting on lover’s rock concerts?
I looked after a few lovers’ rock performers Janet Kay, Carroll Thompson and Jean Adebambo. Sadly Jean passed away in 2009 and I put on a benefit show for her with a host of lovers’ rock artists at Hackney Empire. It was the fastest selling show in Hackney Empire history, it sold out in a day. So there was certainly an audience out there waiting for these types of shows.

Has the support from the community allowed you to progress to bigger and better venues?
When you look at it realistically, I wouldn’t say it’s a community push, not when you can narrow it down to a few people.
There are probably three promoters on the black music scene who are big, so it was not really a community push that got behind lovers’ rock.

Do you think there should be more promoters from within the community putting on shows?
I think as long as promoters put on enough shows to satisfy the public then that’s enough. It would be great to have more shows, not necessarily more promoters.

How did you start your career as a promoter?
Back in the day when dinosaurs ruled the earth I had a record company called Soul Time Records and I suppose the most famous record that came from the label was Wayne Marshall’s G-spot. I used to manage the artists as well so I used to look after the artists, put the records out and getting the artists booked into venues with promoters.
The first show I ever put on was with the Cool Notes at the Shady Grove in Tottenham and I didn’t know what I was doing because I did everything myself. I also did a show once with The Emotions, Intro, Glen Jones, Wayne Marshall and I lost about £50,000 on that show, which was the biggest wake-up call I’ve had in my life!

What is your biggest career highlight to date?
Probably what has given me the greatest satisfaction is the Wayne Marshall project.
At the time I was on my own and Wayne was the artist, but we managed to sell over 100,000 albums and put a record in the top 30 national charts with no help.

What would you describe as the lowest point of your career?
There’s no feeling worse than losing money. When you walk out of an event, it hasn’t worked and you’ve lost a fortune. That money is your money, it pays your bills there is no feeling worse.
But you pick yourself up because you lost money and you have to make it back again.

What advice would you give to someone looking to walk your career path?
Be prepared to make it a long haul, you don’t become successful at anything until you have done at least 10,000 hours and even though it sounds like a long time, it’s true.

Giants of Lovers Rock will be performed at the Indigo O2, Peninsula Square, SE10, on October 27. For More information visit www.theo2.co.uk