The Cimarons, made up of Locksley Gichie, Franklyn Dunn, Maurice Ellis, Carl Levy and Carl Lewis, regularly met at the Tavistock Youth and Community Centre in Harlesden back in 1967 shortly after immigrating to England from Jamaica. They went on to work as a backing band with reggae and pop music greats - but earned neither wider recognition nor much money. With a Camden gig approaching, they may finally get their moment in the limelight after interest was boosted by a film telling their story.
The Cimarons' story began when Gichie met Dunn in a bus shelter with a guitar in his hand and invited him to the youth hostel the following week to play. Following their first concert in 1968, the band were at the forefront of the explosion of reggae music in the 1970s. But despite their contributions, the band were largely underrecognised.
Today the band are still without ownership or royalties for a huge amount of their work. The film captures their history and follows their final chapter, when, despite losing their beloved drummer Maurice Ellis to cancer, they dream of performing to live audiences one last time. The film's director Mark Warmington said: "It’s been an absolute honour to have Cimarons entrust me to tell their story, which started in 1967 and continues to the present day.
"If ever a band had an excuse to be bitter and resentful of the music industry, I think Cimarons would be top of the list. "The way those guys have been exploited is obscene, but they’ve persevere.
