The Royal Peacock is dead.
“Last night around this time, the place was packed,” says a baby-faced bartender while handing out Red Stripes and scooping up dead presidents.
Shit.
Looking around the barren nightclub, it’s hard to envision the room packed with dancing, gyrating, sweaty folks. Sure, there are a few people in the house. But the crowd is sparse and scattered, and most of them are sitting in chairs around the perimeter of a very empty dancefloor.
When a dapper crooner by the name of John Holt went onstage at the Wildey Gymnasium minutes after 2 a.m., he truly put the gold plating on Vintage Reggae Gold to lift sagging spirits and a few sleepy heads after a long night.
Decision awaited in ‘Family Man’ suit
Music interests around the world, not to mention the two parties involved, are now awaiting the decision of the UK High Court regarding the multi-million dollar claim brought by former Bob Marley and the Wailers guitarist Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett against the Marley family and the Universal Music group. Barrett is seeking payment from contracts between 1974 and 1975, which include copyright in six songs and royalties.
After his debut single Plead My Cause, it seems certain that this man has the ‘X’ factor that some say is missing from reggae music.
Junior X says he is here to pick up where Malcolm X left off. “The name is from Malcolm X. I don’t think that him did really get fi complete him circle, so me deh yah now and ah go complete it by all means necessary,” he said.He smiles as he says this, but you know he means every word.
In a high-decibel function, and with several media personalities and entertainers present, Radio 92 officially became Hitz 92 FM on Thursday night at the Asylum nightclub. In addition to the station’s roster of DJs and sports personalities, other team members on hand included RJR Group Chairman Lester Spaulding, morning show host, sportscaster and Hitz 92 manager, Simon Crosskill, François St Juste, Neville Bell and Kadene ‘Miss Kitty’ Hylton, among others.
Although dancehall Reggae deejays (rappers) must be lyrically tough, unleashing rapid-fire guns in the ghetto rhymes and inflated sexual boastings, dancehall singers can attain great popularity sensitively cooing about a new found love, melodically lamenting a love gone wrong and emotionally conveying other oh-so tender concerns.
The sensual, honeyed vocals of Wayne Wonder have made him a consistent hit maker since the late 80s.
Producer John John lands his first number one in four years
Producer Lloyd ‘John John’ James Jr son of legendary record producer Lloyd ‘King Jammys’ James, has reasons to celebrate this week. His production of Beenie Man’s We Set the Trend on the Nookie rhythm, has taken over the number one spot on both the RE-TV Dancehall chart as well as the Choice FM Reggae chart in London.
If you lived in Santa Fe during the ’80s and early ’90s, you enjoyed the comfort of knowing that warmer weather brought with it a multitude of reggae concerts worth attending. If Reggae Sunsplash wasn’t blowing through town, then Jimmy Cliff or Peter Tosh was probably picking up the slack. Lately though, most major reggae acts — with the exception of Toots and the Maytals and Burning Spear — have passed us by.
It has been a few years since Winston Rodney — aka Burning Spear — has played in Santa Fe, and like our city, his life’s path is changing with the times. If you want to catch up, Southwest Roots Music presents Burning Spear in an all-ages outdoor show on Wednesday, May 3, at the Santa Fe Brewing Company.
Wayne Marshall speaks on fatherhood, Forgive Them Please
By now you must have heard Wayne Marshall’s inspiring tune Forgive Them Please. Marshall says the song originated from a personal experience. “It was inspired by a very personal experience. It is a spiritually and emotionally charged song,” Marshall said on the weekend.
Forgive Them Please speaks about bringing an end to the crime and violence affecting the country at large. Asked if he was put in charge of the country and how he would tackle the crime situation, Marshall said, “It will take a good amount of years to curb that. But first you would have to start to find the foot of the crime, which is illiteracy. Most youths don’t have a proper education to get decent jobs, so they align themselves with gangs.”
Reggae dancehall’s Elephant Man will trample into Japan with a ton of Jamaican bling this week, showing audiences from Tokyo to Okinawa the evolutionary link joining the brashest strains of dancehall reggae and hip-hop.
Plodding a course that leaves far more fearsome tracks than fellow Jamaican deejay Sean Paul, Elephant Man nevertheless has benefited from the polished crossover sound of his compatriot, which has done much to adjust U.S. ears to the rawer sound purveyed by Ele. This culminated in the huge hit “Pon de River, Pon de Bank” from his 2004 long-player Good 2 Go, in which Elephant Man instructed young urban audiences outside the Caribbean how to do bizarre almost comical Jamaican dancehall grinds such as the titular “Pon de River,” the “Signal the Plane” and for those who don’t actually want to escape quickly–the “Parachute.”