Musical Youth - Pass the Dutchie

Musical Youth
Pass the Dutchie

Musical Youth was formed in 1979 and were Kelvin and Michael Grant, and Junior and Patrick Waite, with Denis Seaton joining shortly after on lead vocals. With a few pub gigs under their belt it was an appearance on the John Peel Show that brought them a record deal with MCA records.
In the autumn of 1982, the group released 'Pass the Dutchie' a song all about a cooking pot! The record went straight to number 1 in October 1982, and went on to sell over four million copies, and was also nominated for a Grammy Award. The accompanying video made them the first black artists to be played on MTV.
They released debut album' The Youth of Today' which went gold in the UK. But the title track single only reached the number 13 chart position but the next single "Never Gonna Give You Up" fared slightly better by reaching the number 6 position in the early part of 1983.

Their second album, 'Different Style' was released in 1983 and portrayed the band in a more R&B-influenced style hoping to make the band more accessible in the North America. But the album flopped on both sides of the Atlantic.

A cover of Desmond Decker's "007" saw the lads back in the Top 30, but after one final hit "Sixteen", their commercial success ended.

Musical Youth disbanded in 1985 and Denis Seaton released a solo album in 1989. Plans for a Musical Youth Reunion were scraped when Patrick Waite, died in Birmingham in February 1993, at only 24 years old, he collapsed from a hereditary heart condition.

In 2001 now reduced to a duo, Michael Grant and Dennis Seaton reformed Musical Youth and had planned a tour. However, due to 9/11 the tour plans were cancelled.
In 2003, Musical Youth finally performed as part of the Here and Now tour, and to this day still perform up and down the country - Currently, Grant and Seaton are working on a new studio album