Contents - Beth Lesser

utes of soul, disco and funky in between rockers sets because it attracted a
‘better’ class of people. Rough guys used to hang out at sounds like Tubby’s
- rude boys. That’s why those sounds got mashed up so many times.” *
Most of the soul sounds would still play a portion of reggae. “They start
[the session by] playing reggae,” according to Anthony Malvo. “Then, after
that, they start to play disco music. After that, soul music play for an hour.
When it reach down to like one o’clock, two o’clock, then they play reggae. It
depends on the type of party. Some parties you play everything and it’s just
cool. Some parties it’s just soul and reggae.” **
The mixed sounds like Gemini were more commercial than the roots
sounds of the ‘70s. It was a question of survival. The soul sounds attracted a
wider audience including a more uptown crowd, while the more specialized,
‘dubplate’ sounds like Papa Roots and Emperor Faith maintained a smaller,
more hardcore following. Squiddley Ranking explains, “Gemini is mostly like
an uptown sound. They used to play in Gemini Club, Skateland, and that
club in New Kingston, Tropics. Gemini was the sound that carry the most
spenders, the most respectable men who have money. Everybody wan’ follow
Gemini sound and when you keep a dance with Gemini, in those days, your
liquor must sell off, because Gemini carry a spending crowd.” But, Gemini
could also shock out in the ghetto. Gemini was at home anywhere. Uptown
or down, Ocho Rios or Portland, it always drew a crowd. In the country, “it
would be chaos,” says selector Deejay Funky. A crowd of one thousand people
would be blocking the road.
Gemini
Gemini first appeared on the scene in 1967 with the owner, Papa Gemini,
doing all the selecting. Papa Gemini (Gerwin Dinal), started out as a record
collector and his love for the music led him into the sound system business. In
the early days, he worked as a machinist in a work shop near Cross Roads and
it was in that little shop that he started playing records for the public. From
there, he and his partner started to put together the sound. They started with
three tube amps and a turntable. In 1974, they had well known technician
Denton make them a new amplifier. The sound was expanding.
* There were a special group of sounds that played mainly dubplates of locally made reggar music.
Like Emperor Faith, as Mikey explains, “I was the dubplate sound. I had the most plates, I used to
play pure dubplate right through, a rhythm sound. Sometimes you had the singing, but I had the
rub-a-dub rhythm [without the vocal) and I used to play them one after the other and the deejays love
that. It had to be a special music. I hardly play music they play on the radio. Our music was different.
If you wanted regular music you had to go somewhere else. We were the innovators. Some sounds
could get away with it, but I couldn’t get away with it cause when the crowd come to listen to me, if
I woulda start play radio music, they would leave very disappointed.”
** The reason people don’t realize the amount of foreign music that was played is because the fans
would wait until the reggae part came on to start taping the sessions. Anthony Malvo explains, “When
the reggae start now and the deejays take the mic- then everybody turn on their tape recorders.”
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