Contents - Beth Lesser

ecorded for singer Gregory Isaacs.
Gregory Isaacs was among that early group of artists who bucked the system
by starting their own labels. Way back in 1973, working with Singer Errol
Dunkley, Gregory opened African Museum, a record store, in downtown
Kingston and began producing himself and others. He continued to record
for other producers while putting the revenue back into his own work. Unlike
many others who have tried the same thing, Gregory succeeded. He was
signed to the UK company Virgin’s Frontline label who released albums for
him containing the 45s he had put out independently on his African Museum
label. He became one of best known reggae singers abroad and he was in demand
for shows all around the world.
The original lineup of the Radics was formed to support the hugely successful
Gregory Isaacs on tour when Sly and Robbie got too busy. The Riddim
Twins were booked up in the Nassau Compass Point Studio where they were
working for Island records backing such rock luminaries as Grace Jones and
Joe Cocker. When the Radics began backing him, Gregory was about to tour
with a lineup of songs he had developed with Sly and Robbie, who had played
on his most recent albums, Cool Ruler and Soon Forward. A quick listen to
both LPs reveals that the music was already changing. Songs like ‘Our Relationship’,
‘Jah Music’ and ‘Mr. Brown’ have an entirely different feel to them.
These songs feature rolling bass lines with a dip and a gentle sway. The Radics
brought this sensibility into Channel One Studio and began working with
Junjo Lawes to make some of the biggest this of the decade.
The BaSS: flaBBa holT
“The bass that I got is an old time Fender Jazz bass, and it’s one of the wickedest
sound in the world. Bass guitar is the thing whe’ carry off music. Drum
sound is a very important thing, but the bass line, trust me, if you listen to a
sound and if you don’t hear the bass, that heaviness in the sound, it’s like it
ain’t got no taste. The bass line is the leader for everything. If you listen all
them Studio One, it’s the bass that carry off the song.”
Errol ‘Flabba’ Holt started out in music as a dancer. “I was one of the best
dancers, me and Johnny Osbourne. I used to go on Vere John Opportunity
Hour and I came first. I was one of Jamaica best ‘legs man’. Nobody coulda
dance like me.”
Flabba had begun experimenting when a friend of his handed him a bass
guitar one day and suggested he try it. He was surprised by the feel of it and
said to himself, “It’s coming like singing. It look easy but it hard.’” (Flabba
was also singing at the time, as he continued to do, however infrequently,
throughout his career.) The bass appealed to him and Errol left the dancing
and the singing for a time, and dedicated himself to learning to play.
Hanging out at Chancery Lane, a.k.a. ‘Idlers Rest’, Flabba met Eric ‘Bingi
Bunny’ Lamont who became the rhythm guitar player for the Radics. At the
time Bingi Bunny was working with Blacka Morwell. The Morwells, the
74 | RUB A DUB STYLE – The Roots of Modern Dancehall