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The 1999 recording from Light Of The World, 'Inner Voices' proved the band were ready for the dawn of the 21st century. Founder members of LOTW McKrieth, Wellington and Baptiste returned to compose some material, add their arrangements and produce a real follow up many years later to the 'Round Trip' album of many years earlier, and signed a recording agreement with Sanctuary Music. This being the first time that so many key members turned up for the recording of the songs. Only one invited member failed to show due to prior commitments.The production of the album was by Richard Bull and Kenny Wellington. This contractual agreement and reunion on record was brought about by Kenny Wellington after being approached by music business impressario Junior Hart during a tour of Japan along with David Baptiste whilst working with M Beat who had had recent success working on record with these guys and the mighty Jamiroquai as well other chart singles.

Light Of The World began in 1974 when Breeze McKrieth approached Kenny Wellington at the famous Crackers afternoon funk session in Wardour Street, London about joining him with some friends for a rehearsal with some other young musicians including Paul 'Tubbs' Williams and David Baptiste, at Ickburgh Road, Clapton. Kenny agreed to come along and this band became Light Of The World, inspired by the classic Kool And The Gang album Light Of Worlds.

At that time, a really great way to spend a Saturday afternoon was standing around in Contempo Record Shop in Hanway Street , West London where you could hear the guys in the shop spinning the latest imports from the USA, people like Geoff Brown who also wrote great articles for Blues & Soul magazine which was housed in the same block and was connected to the shop. Kool And The Gang and The Kay Gees were a big influence on the early sound and concept behind Light Of The World with recordings like 'Swingin' and 'Midnight Groovin' being written when the band were excited by the discovery of The Kay Gees and dreamed that Kool And The Gang might come to these shores and take LOTW under their tutelage in the same way.

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Light Of The World dreamed that their music would be played at Lacey Lady, Hunters, Crackers and Waterloo Birds Nest, the clubs many of them had frequented around these times. Often pretending they were eighteen years old to gain entry. Now they had a chance to record their own music.These songs were written by the core band members although Kenny Wellington does not appear on the credits on this album as a writer because of a previous contract with music publisher Carlin which had to be sorted out. Light Of The World original line up were: Breeze McKrieth Guitar
Kenny Wellington Trumpet
David Baptiste Saxophone
Paul Williams Bass
Norman Walker Percussion
Roger Thomas Saxophone
Junior King Drums
Earl Appleton Keyboards
Jean Paul Maunick Guitar
Everton McCalla Drums

After playing many shows in London and the home counties, arranged by then manager Brent Clarke who had spotted some potential in the band , some of the guys became dissillusioned and quit the band, with Earl Appleton leaving the UK to head for New York. Norman Walker concentrated on using his brilliant choreographic skills and went on to tour with many major artists. Junior King decided to concentrate on his martial arts, and Roger Thomas a very advanced saxophonist even at that early stage of raw development left for the world of computer technology where he has done very well. However, fortune was around the corner when Kenny Wellington was asked to attend a rehearsal in North West London by saxophonist Earl Okai and a band he was working with. Impressed by the keyboard player Peter Hinds and percussionist Chris Etienne, Kenny asked them to join Light Of The World.

With this line up in place the band were offered management by record shop owner and entrepreneur Joe Williams. This was accepted and the band began rehearsing in North London on top of Joe's record shop. A regular customer at the shop and also a friend of Joe was guitarist Jean Paul Maunick aka Bluey who was also invited to join the band. By this time Everton McCalla had also become the drummer for the band. The band decided it was time to record some music. >

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The first album did reasonably well yielding some dance floor hits like 'Swingin', 'Midnight Groovin' and 'Who Are You'. Although still quite raw these tracks began to get the band noticed. However, the band were then involved in a tragic accident returning from some shows in Scotland at the end of their first national tour. The vehicle some of the band members were travelling in was struck by an articulated lorry.The band resident comedian and percussionist Chris Etienne died as a result of this tragic accident. Other members suffered differing scales of injury and were pulled from the wreckage by McKrieth and Baptiste who miraculously had escaped injury.

After mourning the loss of their dear friend and brother, the much loved Chris Etienne, the band decided to carry on. A new percussionist Ganiyu Bello, joined the band along with Nat Augustin a local guitar player who it later turned out had played trombone in The Boys Brigade, which really excited Wellington and Baptiste who had been looking for such an addition for a while. The first album was also dedicated to their friend and brother Chris Etienne.

For the second album Augie Johnson of Side Effect was brought in as producer with Breeze, the original founding member of LOTW, credited as executive producer for his great contribution in the studio. The band also now had the opportunity to augment their music with some of the finest musicians in the world. People like Wayne Henderson, the great vibraphonist Victor Feldman and Bobby Lyle guested on the album with the fine vocals also of Micki Howard. Jorge Dalto also provided some brilliant string arrangements on the McKrieth penned 'I'm So Happy' a tribute song to the wisdom and words of Martin Luther King, I'ts melancholy melody creating an enchanting contrast with the positive lyrics. The arrangements of Kenny Wellington and David Baptiste were now greatly enhanced by the addition of some of the finest players in the business.

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