Charles Bradley is one of life’s survivors
and a musical character, with a backstory of endlessly overcoming whatever
obstacles have been put in his way. This makes him an irrepressible soul artist. To say
Mr.Bradley is an emotional soul is an understatement of huge proportion. The
man appears to be permanently on the verge of tears, his face a well of
emotion, expressing an overflow of heartbreak and pain, love and respect. A truly authentic soul artist must have undergone a degree of suffering, as well
as experiencing the highs that come on the other side. When you look into
Charles’s face, you can’t help but be drawn in.
On March 30th, I saw him perform
at The Forum in Kentish Town with his Extraordinaires - the tightest funk band
imaginable - straight out of the Daptone Records stable and on stage The Screaming Eagle of Soul is released.
Performing seems to almost be an outer body experience for him and he knows how
to work the crowd. From the first moment, dressed in a white suit with blue
trim, he connects with his audience and the love pours forth, in both directions.
After hitting the ground running, he leaves the stage after three songs,
leaving his band to indulge in an instrumental funk frenzy, before re-emerging in
a full costume change, bare chested beneath a brown waist coat, to reconnect
with the audience and let the love pour forth once again.
To the unordained, this may sound slightly cheesy
but for those of us who support Charles and love his music, we know that none of this is a put on. This is genuine and coming from the heart. He may be a touch
eccentric but aren’t we all? After the life Charles Bradley has led, he has
learnt to express himself in the most positive way he knows how. His journey
has followed the path of hard times and suffering before reaching the
destination of soul survival and musical redemption in his later years. The
documentary Charles Bradley: Soul Of America which I saw on BBC 4 a few years
ago, portrays his journey from the projects of New York, to homelessness, a
deviation to Caliornia, a return to the projects and the unfortunate shooting of his
brother. He has always used his voice to survive, scratching together a living
by impersonating James Brown at functions and clubs but he never gave up on his
dream of making it on his own terms.
When he was handed the opportunity to
record by the people at Daptone Records, several singles followed from 2002 and
his first album No Time For Dreaming
was released in 2011 at the age of 62. His current album Changes came out on April 1st 2016, the day after The Forum gig, (see today's HSD Tune.) All the hardship and tough times could have
made Charles a bitter man but quite the opposite has occurred. Whatever life
threw at him, the more determined he was to succeed and the more open he
became.
During his final encore, he walked on with a bunch of thornless red roses and began throwing them into the audience. Again, this sounds highly cheesy but it is Charles Bradley. It is fine. He can do whatever comes out of his emotional soul. Naturally one of the roses flew straight over the heads of the three girls standing in front of me and landed straight in my hands. Of course, I handed the flower to one of the girls, who seemed delighted to have received a rose from the Screaming Eagle, even if it was via a third party. His message is simply love, peace and togetherness and he lets his
voice and the music do the talking. How
amazing, after striving to succeed, to be on stage at a major London venue, embarking on a UK and European tour. I picked up a copy of Changes before I left (see HSD image) and as I walked out into the fresh night air, a guy, with a group of mates, was proudly clutching one of the thornless red roses. Charles you are an inspiration to us all
and a lesson in never giving up. A true story of soul survival...
