UWE BANTON
photo by Bettina Ganter
Uwe "Banton" Schäfer is originally from Lage / Lippe near Bielefeld, Germany.
While many regard him as a veteran singer in the german Reggae scene he is
definately respected as one of the most authentic performers.
In 1981 he travelled to Jamaica for the first time. He was 15 then and he obtained
first hand experience through contact with the local people and the music scene
which dominated life on the island and still does. But he had already been introduced
to reggae music by a school friend who made him listen to a record of Bob Marley.
And it was the „reggae king’s” rhythm that decisively influenced Uwe’s orientation as
an artist later on.
But he started off with Dancehall and that’s where he took his first steps towards live
performance. In the well known “Neons”-club at Steinhagen near Bielefeld he held a
microphone in his hand for the first time in 1984. On this occasion he sang his lyrics
in Jamaican Patois to up-to-date riddims such as “Sleng-Teng” and “Get Flat” and
was accompanied by friends of Jamaican origin who came to Germany with the
British army. During that time his friends gave him the name “Banton” which is the
Jamaican name for a DJ who’s full of lyrics.
Over time he became more and more interested in playing instruments and writing
songs and he digged up his old guitar which as a student he’d used to pack away
right after lessons and had never given a second thought. In addition he felt more
and more intrigued by Rastafari and came to understand that inspite of the mixture of
various styles in the music there was a big difference between the Rasta and Roots
culture on the one hand and the Dancehall culture with it’s growing glorification of
violence and sex on the other hand.
But it was not until 1992 that the Jamaican keyborder and singer Junior Mandingo,
former student of the famous Augustus Pablo, asked him to join his newly set up
reggae combo “One Vibe”. This was followed by a summer of numerous
performances and important experiences on stage. That band however did not last
very long. The next summer some musicians got together in a different formation and
the band MOVEMENTS was founded which made it’s first apearance on stage in
1994. Though this band also has had constantly changing members from Germany,
Jamaica, the United States and Africa it still is a warrant for real Roots Reggae
otherwise only known from Jamaican acts. In 1996 the band released it’s first album
„One Earth“ which was followed by an EP named “Rastaman” in 1998.
In 2000 Uwe Banton met soul singer Xavier Naidoo from Mannheim. As a result of
this encounter Uwe Banton and MOVEMENTS singer Jah Meek took part in the
oncoming “Zion”-tour of the Söhne Mannheims which introduced them to a broad
public.
In 2003 the MOVEMENTS released their album “His Majesty’s Works” which
impressively stresses the band’s position as authentic roots act within the German
scene.
2005 eventually came the time for his first solo-release on 7”. The Berlin-based label
MKZWO issued the “Too Long”-Riddim, produced by Ganjaman and Uwe’s track
“Jah Roots” was one of the big hits. This caused his name also to become wellknown
within the soundsystem scene. In January 2006 followed “Kommt, Seht, Hört”,
a combination with Ganjaman. His solo-album was released in November 2006
(MKZWO-RECORDS, Berlin). Since then he has had several single releases on 7”-
vinyl. Currently he is working on a new album which is to be released later on in
2008.
photo by Alex Waltke
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