Sonic waves: How Generation Windrush brought Gospel to the mainstream

The Windrush Generation brought the sounds of the Caribbean into British worship. But the music would have an impact far beyond the walls of the Church, explains Colin Tomlin 

Music was an integral part of the new churches started by the Windrush Generation. And one of the primary purveyors of the new sound of worship reverberating from homes and halls around the UK was Rev Bazil Meade MBE, co-founder of London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC). 

Meade’s mother had arrived in Britain with her son in the 1950s from Montserrat, but Bazil was taken under the wing of Dr Olive Parris, a youth pastor at Clapton New Testament Church of God, after he witnessed domestic violence and ran away from home. ‘Mum Parris’, as Meade affectionately called her, bought him his first keyboard and, later, took him on international music tours.