No, ’72/73/74. Like ’73/74/75/76 – all of the seventies coming up there. Then also came along from my talent show was Barrington Levy, he was also from talent shows of Bohemia. Happy Love was also from the talent show of Bohemia. George Nooks, George Nooks he was both from Bohemia and Jaguar Lounge because I was workin’ at both circuits. Yellowman came from Jaguar Lounge. Big Joe, he is the only one who ever – ever – look at anybody for a given interview and said, “Well, this man has helped me”. But, he wasn’t even Big Joe then, he never have a name. So, I used to go take him out of school, and take him of course when I had shows in the country, and take him with me. He was little and thin, y’know (laughs). He’s still going to school and… I called him ‘DJ Jolly’, ’cause I didn’t have a name for him so when I introduced him to the people I call him DJ Jolly.
That’s not ‘Big Joe’, is it? It’s Ranking Joe you’re talking about?
Ranking Joe! Sorry! It’s Ranking Joe – I called him ‘Big’ y’know, because him get so big now I always say ‘Big Joe’. Yeah, Ranking Joe. Also from the Tastee concerts, I was one of the executive officers for the Jamaica Federation of Musicians, and I also had involvement in ‘Day Fees’ (?) concerts. So all these artists also went over with me to Tastee concerts, including Yellowman. Nadine Sutherland, I used to work with a band called Rebel Vibration, and I went to play up in Rock Hall, up there in the hills of St. Andrew, and she was maybe about nine, and they brought her to us, y’know. And Bassie, who was the band manager, knew her dad and she did a couple of songs, like two songs, and she was good. Just a baby, y’know, we were very excited about her. We encouraged her dad to take her down to Tastee, y’know. A lot of things happened from there. Junior Tucker came from Tastee concerts too, so… I had a lot of involvement in a lot of entertainers who made it, because it’s my goodness. When I see talent – I love talent, I love to see and to discover musicians, people with ability for music, so I always help them. If there’s anything I could do, I always help them.
You had that feel for nourishing talents.
Yes, yes, yes. From 1970 to 1979 I also kept a series of shows every year between February to July it was the slow times, and it was called the ‘Rock Series’. And I used to provide entertainment employment for the artists, because no shows was going on at the time. So I built up something with the owners of the theaters across the country – the signman who rise the sign for the theater, the bandmen, the artists. So all I had to do was to book the dates and everybody would come along, I didn’t have to lay no money out. Because whatever money was made from any performances it was actually shared equally among all the artists, y’know. Like, if it was a hundred dollar, it was two hundred, three hundred dollar – every man was getting three hundred dollars. The theater would be paid for, the transportation would be paid for, the band would be paid for, and so we go to the next venue. And we were doing shows like Old Harbour, Santa Cruz, south St. Elizabeth, Grange Hill (?), Mandeville – just name it! We went all the way – Black River. And artists that was in this package were artists like Toots & The Maytals, Ken Boothe, Bongo Herman, Horace Andy, Freddie McKay, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, Carl Dawkins. Actually, every name that you can actually think of in that era – Mighty Diamonds, everybody was a part of this because it was something good. And everybody knew that, y’know, no trick in the business. That was like; whatever we make, we shared, and I was responsible for that, I was like the boss actually. I’m not takin’ the credit for being the boss, but I was in charge of it. And up to this day, whenever I see any of these artists that was on any of these shows, they give me maximum respect, because they always remember. And to mention Ken Boothe, Ken never stop talkin’ about the time when we did a show and we made a lot of money on this show, so I gave him double the money. I double his money, and he say, “Well, why you gave me so much money? This is for the next show?” So I said, “No, if the show had fell down without making the money, then everybody would go home without money. So if we make money tonight then everybody’s money is double”. That’s what we did, y’know.
What type of venues did you play at in the countryside, it was theaters or they had the odd club, or you played outdoors?
Theaters. Yeah.
You didn’t play outdoors, like a showcase tent.
No, we didn’t have the foresight on that, and it would’ve taken too much security to do outdoor venues, y’know. And them times we were only charging like ten dollars to get in. We go to a country and people would be scaling the fences. I remember doing a show in Old Harbour with Alton Ellis and people climbed on top of the theater to get in! You know, people opened the side-doors and all of that so we tried to use in-closed places so we didn’t have to lay out too much in employing too many people. Fay Bennett was a part of that, Dennis Brown’s father, Arthur Brown, was a part of that, those concerts. Bam, from Bim & Bam, was a part of that. We had everybody there with me.
Bim & Bam, this was a comedy act.
Yes! That man, especially Bim – Bim Lewis, a lot of people has not spoken about people like Bim Lewis, or Bim & Bam. Bim Lewis was one of the greatest playwrite, show-writers, writers for play, that Jamaica had ever seen. When he died I think he had an Order of Distinction. But that man, he wrote a lot of plays. ‘Gun Court of the Air’, that was a big show, that was what broke GT Taylor who is now on Irie FM. GT Taylor and I speak a little bit about it too, GT Taylor was the MC for all the shows across the island I did when I did the Rock Series. And actually, I was one of the first person to put a mic into GT Taylor’s hand to tell him that he has the ability to be an MC. And today he is one of Jamaica’s greatest radio personalities. He wasn’t on no station then, he was playing with a band with Bob Mac – what band them was…? Mighty Cloud! Also, even PHRY-FM in Toronto – Delroy G, Delroy G came from that period too, and he is on FM in Toronto – a very, very popular guy. He came from that era. I spoke with him last week, and he’s doing good, y’know. Same with Delroy Bryan, we call him Delroy G, yeah, and he came from that era too. We had Ruddy Thomas who came from that era, so did a lot of other people. There was a band that – this guy Roy Mico at the time…
Who’s that?
A guy called Roy Mico, I forgot what his real name was. But we could see that Delroy also was good at, y’know, something in music. As he get a chance, even when the band would take a break, if the band was on break, he was there (laughs). So sometimes people would say ‘Watch Delroy! Watch Delroy!’ You had to face up to get a bite, y’know. But there I was also very proud of him because he accomplished what he had, what he set out to do.
By the way, what happened to Bob Mac of the Mighty Cloud band?
He’s somewhere in Queens, I think he went into the printing business. I got a number for him and I called him a couple of times, but… I spoke with him one time, then I lost track of him again.
Were you a member of any group, like in the late sixties or around that period, before you recorded solo?
(Laughs) Actually, my first try was with a group called Silvertones, with Lloyd, Shirley and Roy. Then, the first song they did was ‘True Confession’ – you remember that song, right? But I didn’t record with them, because they would – I met them…