BIRMINGHAM, England — Conrad Kelly, a former member of international reggae band Steel Pulse, has died.
Observer Online understands that Kelly, who played with the band as a drummer for over a decade, was discovered dead in his house in Birmingham, England on Wednesday.
“He had a rehearsal last week but he failed to show up, but his phone was on charge so people were calling but couldn’t get him. They eventually called the cops who kicked in the door and found his body in the passage of his house in Birmingham,” Toney Owens, co-founder of Musical Youth in Birmingham, along with Freddie Waite, told Observer Online.
Owens said the musical community in the United Kingdom is mourning Kelly’s passing.
The instrumentalist joined Steel Pulse in November 1994. That year the group headlined some of the world’s biggest reggae festivals including Reggae Sunsplash USA, Jamaican Sunsplash, Japan Splash and Northern California’s annual Reggae on the River Festival.
Kelly left the band in 2005.
The band won a Grammy Award for their 1986 album Babylon the Bandit.
Steel Pulse has received nominations for Victims (1991), Rastafari Centennial (1992), Rage and Fury (1998), Living Legacy (2000), and Mass Manipulation (2019).
In recent years, Kelly was a member of the Reggae Winehouse band, a seven-piece tribute band that performed the hit songs of the legendary Amy Winehouse. He was also a member of a Bob Marley tribute band called Legend in the UK.
-Claude Mills