Contents - Beth Lesser

couldn’t go back in the dancehall ‘ca I had to be hiding – running and hiding
from Junjo. I couldn’t let him ketch me and lick out all my teeth. Me and
John and Toyan in the dance and they always watching the gate for me to tell
me if Junjo coming.”
In the time she remained at home and away from the dance, she had her
first baby. But, after hiding and allowing her career to slip for too long, Ann
got frustrated. “After Junjo start to hunt me, that make me stop working. If
he had just allow me, make me continue, I probably wouldn’t have even got
pregnant, because I would have focus more on the music. But after he start to
hunt me, that’s when I start to hide away and that’s how I end up get pregnant.
I turned 20 then.”
Producer Leon Symoie began to encourage Anne to go back into music and
she went with Leon to the studio where they recorded “about 30-odd songs.”
One of the tunes, ‘Satta’, enjoyed some success. Her neighbors, The Mighty
Diamonds, heard it and carried her to Joe Gibbs Studio to meet Rocky, Joe’s
son, who took her on and recorded the ‘Informer’ 45 and album, her greatest
success of the period.
Ann began going to dances and performing again, but she always traveled
with company. Even after Junjo had cooled off, it still wasn’t safe for women
to be out at dances late into the night. She started to walk with the Ringcraft
Posse consisting of deejay Trinity, engineer Blackbeard, and singer Al Campbell.
“Trust me, not many women wanted to go in the dance and deejay. If you
live in certain neighborhood and you go to the dance, when you are coming
back you might get rape. The only time I go to the dance is when Trinity, Al
Campbell and Blackbeard come get me and me know them a go drop me right
back a me gate and me can run go inside of me house. So, many times I had
to run to prevent get rape, or beat up, when some guys want to beat you up
to take you away.”
The tomboys, and the women with strong male backing, had the best luck
negotiating time in the dance. Lady Ann used to be called “half a man” by
her male friends and was accepted into many all male groupings. “Me and
Tristan were close friends. Me and Little John and Toyan was good friends.
Every time you see John and Toyan, you see me. And if you don’t see me with
John and Toyan, you would see me with Peter Ranking and General Lucky.
Michigan and Smiley – all of them. They used to boost me a lot.”
To her credit, Ann was the first female to win Best Deejay of the Year
from Rockers International, and she was the only female deejay to record for
Coxsone Dodd. *
In 1983, Ann traveled to New York. Like many others, she never intended
* The material was never completed or released because of a person problem that arose when Mr.
Dodd allowed himself to be swayed by jealous performers who set it up to look as though she had
stolen something from the studio.
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