Beijing Reggae Club Hoping for Some Marley Power
One couple is on a crusade to bring the sounds of Ja to China
“It’s going to be very difficult to bring reggae to China, but this is a start.†Former IT engineer Robin Liao looks out from the terrace of ‘Together’, Beijing’s first reggae bar, at this unlikely setting for a rasta revolution.
Desmond Dekker, 64, Pioneer of Jamaican Music, Dies
Desmond Dekker, the Jamaican singer whose 1969 hit, “The Israelites,” opened up a worldwide audience for reggae, died on Wednesday. He was 64.
He died after collapsing from a heart attack at his home in Surrey, England, his manager, Delroy Williams, told Reuters.
“The Israelites” was the peak of Mr. Dekker’s extensive career, selling more than a million copies worldwide. He was already a major star in Jamaica and well known in Britain. The song was his only United States hit, but it was a turning point for Jamaican music among international listeners.
Desmond Adolphus Dacres, more widely known around the globe as Desmond Dekker, is dead. The ska artiste, who was born on July 17, 1941, in Jamaica, died in the United Kingdom at 4:00 a.m. Thursday.
According to his manager, Delroy Williams, Dekker, who is known for songs such as Israelites, Shanty Town, It Mek, Writing on the Wall and Unity, was not ill prior to his death. “He was not sick; he simply died suddenly this morning from an heart attack,” he said when contacted by The Gleaner yesterday.
People are just like us, only naked
Last fall, I noticed that my travel agency was sending a lot of clients to risque resorts. Destinations like Hedonism Resorts in Jamaica — two SuperClubs properties where the management encourages skinny-dipping, pole dancing, toga parties, big biceps, baby oil, nude volleyball and other general naughtiness.
Having never been to one of “those†resorts, and purely in the pursuit of investigative journalism (please see me regarding the Brooklyn Bridge if you bought that one), I decided to hop on a plane and take a peek for myself.
Information – Key to Music Business Success
The following is the first in a series of essays aimed at offering insights into the music business for aspiring artistes and industry persons
With Thaddeus ‘Teddy’ Laidley
While sitting in the intransit lounge of the airport recently, I was in deep discussion with a small group of veteran musicians and other music industry players. The hot topic: why is it that members of the music industry consistently encounter a lukewarm reception, at best, from the financial and business sector?
The Fugees find Floyd’s ‘Foxy’
Jamaican singer/songwriter Floyd Lloyd is on the verge of a long-awaited breakthrough. Reuniting hip-hop stars, the Fugees are adopting his song, Foxy Foxy.
“I got a midnight call and the track was played on the telephone line to me and it was really a good moment, not just for me as a writer, but for Jamaica.
Memorial Fest will keep reggae fans happy for years.
This weekend, the temperature will climb from a simmer to a boil at the inaugural Memorial Fest, a reggae concert that boasts so many topnotch performers, it’s difficult to determine exactly who the headliner ought to be. The festival comes on a weekend that has become known for bringing dense crowds of visiting hip-hop culture lovers to an already-sticky and overcrowded Miami.
Swinging a bargain in the Caribbean
Dreaming of a Caribbean vacation but wary of the costs? Here are some money-saving tips that may help:
1. Monitor airfare sales: Fierce competition has lowered fares to some hot spots. When fare wars to a particular destination erupt, try to be the first to know.
Sign up for deal alerts with travel sites, such as Travelocity’s Fare Watcher, and with individual airlines. Also sign up to get e-mails from sites such as www.smarterliving.com and www.travelzoo.com, which monitor travel deals for many products, including flights, hotels and packages.
On May 11, fans of reggae legend, Bob Marley, marked the 25th anniversary of his death. That same day Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, his former colleague in The Wailers band, lost a long-running battle in the British High Court.
Three years ago, Barrett filed a lawsuit against the Marley family and Universal-Island Records for non-payment of royalties.
Five years ago when Shaggy became the target of many jilted females through his song, It Wasn’t Me, singer K-Dean was in a Dubai nightclub rocking to the beat of her fellow Jamaican’s runaway hit.
She says a colleague encouraged her to cut an ‘answer’ song to Shaggy’s international smash, and in true Jamaican fashion she did. The suggestive tone of her song, It Was Me, did not impress some who heard it, including Shaggy’s management, and the record was never released.