Contents - Beth Lesser

shoes, ‘terleen’ * and wool pants and them Arrows shirt ** . No bell foot pants
and all of that.”
According to Sonny, Arrows sound owner, the west had the reputation as
the birthplace of reggae. “Most of the artists, if they come from county, when
they come up they live in the west. Bob Marley started from Trenchtown, Peter
Tosh, Bunny Livingston, Leroy Sibbles, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson - all of
them were in west Kingston. They [the popular artists] were from Greenwich
Town, Trench Town, Denham Town, Allman Town, Jones Town they all
come from the west. The west was known for artists.”
“The west was where what’s happening was happening. [When] you were
there, you saw the new fashions, the new outfits, the new styles,” Carlton
Livingston remembers. “All of the studios were in the west. There was not
one studio in the east until Arrows came on in the ‘90s. There wasn’t a record
shop in the east. You go by Randy’s [Record store in the west], you see all the
artists- Leroy Smart, Trinity, all of them. The west was more flashy. I would
be standing in Randy’s, [as] a little unknown, watching Leroy Smart, Trinity,
Dillinger – like them just come from England, have on the latest Clarks
boots, knits ganzie *** , gold chain, and modeling, at the top of them voice: [says
it in a low Leroy Smart imitation], ‘Ooo. We mash up England’. U Brown,
all of them, Ranking Trevor would ride up and I was just standing there, all
amazed and just looking at them, star struck.”
This division had a considerable affect on the music. As all the studios and
record stores were in the west, the western artists jealously protected their
territory from the eastern outsiders. “It’s just a psychological thing,” Eastman
Carlton recalls, “We found it pretty hard to get things done in the west
because west people would try to keep us out. I can remember an incident
that happen with Blacka Morwell. I went to Channel One and he basically
ran me out the studio and he was like, ‘You can’t sing’, and I was like ‘OK, no
problem’. But after a while, he accepted me coming around to Channel One.”
Yet, despite the challenges, the east produced several of the most influential
artists of the decade. Ringo, Welton Irie, Lone Ranger and Carlton Livingston
all hailed from the East. As it was harder for them to gain acceptance
on the music scene at first, the four stuck together, forming close bonds that
have lasted their lifetimes. “Even to this day we are still very good friends,”
Carlton Livingston says of his close relationship with Lone Ranger. “It’s just
that we went to our different parts. But we always stuck together - always.”
* Terylene, a synthetic fabric
** To Arrows’ selector Zaggaloo, as an eastman, an Arrow shirts was the height of fashion, “I was
surprised when you look on the back of the label and it says ‘Arrows’. There were some with short
sleeves, but it was mostly long sleeves [they wore] and you had to have cufflinks.”
*** ganzie- refers to any t shirt, golf shirt, or any top of ‘knit’ fabric (meaning a loose weave as opposed
to a tight weave cotton suit shirt). Possibly derived from the Irish Gaelic word for sweater,
geansaí
106 | RUB A DUB STYLE – The Roots of Modern Dancehall