Edi Fitzroy - Forward

Edi Fitzroy –

Ray Hurford

(c) & (p) Small Axe 2023

“Even before I was born, my father was sound system operator, in the fifties in Montego Bay. And in those time my father used to play all over – St James, all those places. He would play Rhythm and Blues.”

What was the name of his system? “Vasco, Vasco Sound System. Well after that now my father kinda give it in, like say in the late sixties – moved, come to Chapleton in a place called Clarendon. I was originally born in Clarendon, Chapleton. After that we moved to Kingston with mother and bigger brother. Well I was still interested in music a whole lot. And used to check studio like Joe Gibbs and Channel One, them places. But as young artist I never had anything on wax, and in those times the studios wanted only artists who were already established.

Sometimes you may get a breakthrough, but not in most cases...”

Edi Fitzroy “Well living in Kingston, I meet up with a youth called Freddie Thorpe who ran a little system called 'Anchico One' and he had a whole heap of youths who used to go over there, like around evening time and sing and dj, and smoke herb and drink up a whole heap of juice and ting. It was just a little community sound. Well I used to go over there, and sing and sing and ting. But it was the youth who control the set and Freddie Thorpe he encouraged I still a whole lot you know. Cause even then you had them, who would come and say “You Can't Sing.” But Freddie would always say “Boy, you must continues, cause you really sound good.”

“After that now, when I leave school in '72, I started working in JBC in 1973, in January. As a Junior accountant clerk. Well usually on

Saturdays and weekends. I would go up there still and put on dub albums, put on a tape. There was a guy there called Milford who was a technical operator at JBC. He would usually tape me while I was singing, and then sit in the studio and listen back. Well in 75 now, you have this guy called Michael Campbell at the controls. He came to JBC and started working. And there was a lady called Pam Hickling, she worked there also.”

Who had influenced you in those days, your own style is very distinctive? 

“Who was I influenced by? Well to tell you the truth, a lot of people at the time said I sounded like Jacob Miller. But to me still I thought I had a style of my own, but I like man like Jacob Miller, cause the guy came in a different style completely from all the rest of the artists. He's a guy who you couldn't really imitate. Just couldn't do it. The guy was so different in tone. The voice was so different. Back home you try to get artists that try to imitate me, like you get imitators of most

artists still, but it’s hard for a guy to imitate my style, cause it’s so different in tone.”

When 'Check For You Once' came out, it was so different, it was original. Everyone's influenced by someone, but your style is original.

“Seen, the Wailing Wailers, Bob, lyrically I'm inspired by those guys, you know. They speak a lot of the social commitment, not only back home but all over. Things happening all the time, in this time, and in the future. So groups like that, and Jacob Miller, The Heptones... Ghetto Living. I don't slander woman you know, I totally disagree with that. The woman is the mother of the nation. So if you write something, you write something good. You shouldn't slander and call them all sorts of names. And the women have started to resent it. They may not come

upfront and speak open – like in the paper, but they resent it.”

“But artist like The Heptones used to sing about ghetto living and ting in a different fashion. And the man like the Wailers used to

sing about the more realistic side of life, struggling and all them kinda of things. So it was a balance. Still after those times you find

my recording was 'Miss Molly Colly'. It was written by Pam Hickling and partly by me. I did some little arrangement, but basically it

was her idea.”

Where did you record it?

“I did the song in 1979 at Channel One. It was laid by Sly & Robbie. In those days they were the Revolutionaries. And it was engineered by a guy called Bunny Tom Tom. Well the song came in '79 and did well in the Top 30. It get up to No.9, my first song. And after that my second song was 'Country Man' which I heard did pretty well over here on pre, on 'Dread At The Controls. Still in late 79, Pam Hickling kinda break off and Mikey Dread take up my producing. And his first production on his own with me was 'African Religion'. Then we did the 'Gun', then

'Stylee'.”

Didn't Mikey recut that himself?

“Yeah, he had one called 'Style Wild' ('Warrior Style'). Me and Paul, my manager here, and Mikey we used to do a lot of rehearsals with

another guy named Foot – 'Ranking Foot'. We did a lot of rehearsals and most of Mikey songs, to be honest were written together,

me, Paul, and him – to speak the truth, but after breaking up...”

Did that happen after you visited the UK with Mikey?

“Yes in 1980, and those songs were released then. In that same year we did a lot of recordings. He had finished his album by then, 'World War 3', and we came over to do some opening acts with this group called The Clash. We went all over England on tour. And then went back home in June 1980 to do some more recording with Mikey Dread, and it didn't work out as planned. We

break up, and the latter part of 1980, I just cooled out for a while.”

And then you worked with Lloyd Norris?

“Yes, that's then I come in with Norris. I did the tune 'Bad Boy'. Well it didn't release in that year. He put it out in early '81. Then I

work with Musical Ambassador – Trevor Elliott. We went into the studio, and we did quite a few tracks. And the first one that was

released was 'Check For You Once' which was a master hit back home and in Europe. The album came out in 1981, and then we

released another single from the album called 'Youthman Penitentiary'… another boom. And in the meantime we had a song

done over from The Heptones, 'I Hold The Handle'.”

Where was Trevor based, was he a Kingston producer?

“Yes a Kingston producer, but this friend of mine called... Who we have been moving with for a long time. He has asked if I could

do a music for him. He's not a producer as such, but he just wanted to do something with me. So I said alright, lets record a song

for you. He had 'I Hold The Handle' and said he would like me to recut it. So I did it over, and it went to No.9 in the Top 30.”

A regular chartbuster!

“Yes man, the album came out and it a master hit you know. It went to No.1 for five weeks in the Top 5 album chart. What

happened here (in the UK) was that we give it to this distributor in Jamaica. And in December a lot of music always come over

to here, but 'Check For You Once' came later. And it was like the only new album out, it was a slow period and everyone was waiting, so everyone bought 'Check For You Once' on pre. And the import market just flood. By the time my producer came over to

do business, the sales had been lost to import. It was a mistake on our part, if it was released here before, it would have been a

master, it did well but the potential could have been greater.”

It could still sell well for you here.

“Till this day I still don't think the album get the real promotion. Since I came here, I've begun to realise just how popular that album

was over here. Back home people respect the album so much. It’s like a collectors item. They like the social comments like 'Youthman

Penitentiary' and 'People Them A Suffer', 'Mr Bandulu', 'Check For You Once'. I sing about farming, giving credit to the farmers.”

“Well in 82. Trevor went to America, and talked to this blues label Alligator, well they liked the album. So they take the album. We

was going to do some tours for the album, but it fell through. The tour never came through, but the album got some good write ups in magazines like Cashbox and Billboard magazine, which made it reggae album of the month. I hear that 'Small Axe' gave it a good write up. All the critics were very good to it. So we came back home and we started work on the new album 'Coming Up Strong' and we have tracks like 'Watch Them', 'Princess Black' , 'People Them A Suffer' and 'Love The People Want', quite a few tracks, but the album never finish. Jah

know why we never finish it. But when we go back home, we will go into the studio and finish it for release in '86. We have already released a few tracks from the album 'Love The People Want', 'The Gun' that mashed down the yard – bad bad.”

‘Princess Black’ was a big hit for you as well, on the charts for a long time?

“For months, the longest stay on the charts right now. 30 odd weeks. And back home right now they even have shows like the

'Princess Black Extravaganza' with all the  top female Jamaican artists. The women back home respect I to the Ites. International

Woman's Day – back home I performed for them at a place called the Zinc Fence. That was really great. Now I have a song

called 'Death Trap'. It deals with the ghetto runnings universally, the youth and youth - “I don't want to see the youth get caught in a

death trap – youth in Jamaica have to struggle everyday to get their daily bread – don't let the system get into your head –

show them you are strong and that you got to live long for long – youths of today, don't get caught up in a blood up, blood up, or

rob up, rob up. Try to show you got a part to play.”