'Getting It Back: The Story Of Cymande' Screening

Fresh from a World Premiere at SXSW and an award winning global festival tour, Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande is coming to Eaton to have its Asia premiere.

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They’re the greatest band you’ve never heard of…

The British group Cymande are unsung heroes whose message of peace, love and funk sailed beyond Britain's shores and helped shape music for five decades. Long after they stopped playing, the music played on, so they returned to play some more.

Now their story is told on screen for for the first time, with tributes from a galaxy of musicians and producers influenced and enthralled by their music, including Mark Ronson, Norman Jay, Jazzie B, DJ Maseo of De La Soul, Jim James and Louie Vega.

About the band

In the racially turbulent UK of the early 70s, a group of black musicians came together in South London with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to form a unique sound. Despite success in the USA they faced indifference in their native Britain, becoming disillusioned and disbanding. But the music lived on, as new generations of art-ists imbibed and reworked their pioneering sounds in fresh ways. From Soul II Soul to De La Soul, MC Solaar to The Fugees, the Dove had spread Cymande's message far and wide, prompting their return after forty years. This is their story.

About the director

Tim Mackenzie-Smith is an award winning British filmmaker known primarily for sports documentaries, such as Keane & Vieira: Best Of Enemies, The Mavericks, Rooney: The Man Behind The Goals and The Trilogy: Fury v Wilder. A passionate Cymande fan, he has spent the last five years working on this film and is proud to bring their story to the world.