On this day, 7 July 1980, Jamaican reggae group Black Uhuru played Cardiff Top Rank. The band had just released their first album Sinsemilla since signing to Island Records.
Formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru (Swahili for 'freedom'). The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Derrick "Duckie" Simpson as the mainstay. They had their most successful period in the 1980s, with their album Anthem winning the first ever Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 1985.
Trouser Press wrote that the album "delivers a level of consistency only Bob Marley himself had achieved." The Miami New Times wrote that "by 1980's Sinsemilla, Black Uhuru was a paragon of politics, close harmonies, pumping grooves, and a social awareness as astute and incisive as Marley's." Spin deemed Sinsemilla a "classic reggae" album, writing that Sly and Robbie's "trademark synth-drum grooves drove the group's harmonies like a diddling steam turbine."
