Beggar & Co and The Original Light Of The Worl

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.

After a much acclaimed concert LOTW decided that it was financially very difficult to continue as an eight piece band with the contract that they had earlier signed and split into the three units. McKrieth Wellington and Baptiste agreed that the newer members could continue to use the LOTW name to ensure that they could secure a recording deal as a duo. Beggar & Co had to secure their release from the original contract and initially embarked on this through the courts. The success of Beggar & Co was also quite ironic, since it kind of heralded the band stripping back down to the original roots without the augmentation of Augie Johnson's brilliant all star cast and scoring their biggest selling records to date. The commercial success of Beggar & Co and the massive Incognito had somehow always eluded Light Of The World, but the timeless value of the Round Trip album would sustain the band for years to come.The dispute with the record company was eventually settled amicably and allowed the band the band to maintain their previous good relationship and goodwill with Ensign Records.

LOTW released 'Check Us Out' on EMI before the remaining duo decided to make some solo recordings,with Ganiyu recording a solo album. Nat signed a deal with A & M and did some work in the States with Dexter Wansell before eventually releasing a cover version of 'Too Busy Thinkin' Bout My Baby', before joining the group Imagination and recording the album 'Fascination Of The Physical' with Leee John. Wellington, Baptiste and McKrieth had released a Beggar & Co album which contained a variety of different ideas, some of which worked well. The album contained two hit singles and some jazzier tunes like 'Bahia De Palma'.

In 1985 Ensign asked Wellington and McKrieth to work on remixes of 'Time' and 'London Town'. This they did adding the vocals of Phil Fearon and Galaxy to a revised version of London Town. Once again Light Of The World got back together for some promotional work and tv shows like &..39;Soul Train'.

Ganiyu then formed a new group known as The Team which recorded a cover of 'Wicky Wacky' and a version of 'Rock Creek Park&..39;. Following this, Nat was invited to join Kenny Wellington and Breeze McKrieth in the studio where they were working with Soul II Soul keyboard player/producer Simon Law. This resulted in the recording and release on Chrysalis of 'Keep The Dream Alive'. Kenny Wellington had met Simon Law earlier when doing some work as a session musician.

The next Light Of The World collaboration was a song called'One Destination' for Cooltempo Records. This was a really small configuration of LOTW with the deal being signed by Kenny Wellington and Ganiyu with Jean Paul Maunick as producer. This was short lived however as Incognito signed with Talking Loud and Gilles Peterson scoring a massive hit with 'Always There' meaning Bluey obviously had to focus his energy there.

After some intermittent appearances at clubs around the southern counties things had ground to a halt until Kenny Wellington was approached about recording an album with the band by record label owner Junior Hart after Kenny and David Baptiste had toured Japan with some of his artists. This resulted in what is presently the last album of new material by the band to date

'Inner Voices' probably represents the closest thing to the natural development of the founder members of the band McKrieth, Wellington and Baptiste and the original ideals that they first had way back in Ickburgh Road, Clapton, with the possible exceptions of 'No 1 Girl' and 'Famous Faces' from the 'Check Us Out' album. Songs like 'City Life' and 'I Like' being the updated versions of classics like 'London Town' and 'Pete's Crusade' and the excellent 'Bahia' and 'Back 2 Back' highlighting the influence of bands like Spyro Gyra and early Kool And The Gang. Bass player Frank Felix who had been playing live with the band was also invited to join the band for this project and finally appear on record with the band after his fine contribution in place of the outstanding bassist Paul Williams. Nat who had joined the group Imagination was also invited to contribute to this album as both trombonist and featured vocalist. Kenny and Breeze had written some songs with this is mind and Nat put in a great performance. This album kickstarted the band in terms of resuming live appearances.

Since then Light Of The World and Beggar & Co have appeared with various line ups in the studio to this present day. The last studio album featuring original members McKrieth, Wellington and Baptiste was the excellent 'Inner Voices' released in 1999 with 12 new and original compostions including the popular 'Bahia' and 'I Like'.

The most successful of the LOTW splinter groups is undoubtably Bluey's band Incognito, having continued to make great albums consistantly for many years and highlighting some major musicians and vocalists from many different parts of the world.