This is a pretty amazing line-up

[Baldhead Selector]

I don't really know the Old Boys Association who appear to be the beneficiaries of this gig though. I think they are actually rivals of ABAPDC which is a different Old Boys association and is the one that I know and donate to.

I have asked Sister Fraser for clarification and if I get it I will post the info up here.

Still - pretty amazing line-up all the same:



Respect

Baldy

[zapatoo]

If I've got any cash to spare, I'd love to go to that one...

[consciouspilot]

Is it my eyes, or does that say Rico Rodriquez, the man from Warwicka...

[papastalawatt]

That's certainly a far more interesting line-up than the ABS benefit that's happening up here in Newcastle the week before...

Baldy, this show appears to me to be promoted by the Old Boys Association - the small print at the bottom says it's in aid of "halfway house for students leaving Alpha Boys School".

That's not very specific, but I wonder if it might be Alpha's halfway house in Waltham Park? I haven't come across a reference to any other, though I'd guess that may not be the only one they run.

Respect,

PapaS

[Baldhead Selector]

consciouspilot said:

Is it my eyes, or does that say Rico Rodriquez, the man from Warwicka...

It wouldn't be a proper reggae event without a few typos



Respect

Baldy

[Baldhead Selector]

papastalawatt said:

That's certainly a far more interesting line-up than the ABS benefit that's happening up here in Newcastle the week before...

Baldy, this show appears to me to be promoted by the Old Boys Association - the small print at the bottom says it's in aid of "halfway house for students leaving Alpha Boys School".

That's not very specific, but I wonder if it might be Alpha's halfway house in Waltham Park? I haven't come across a reference to any other, though I'd guess that may not be the only one they run.

Respect,

PapaS

Thanks for that Papa S and my apologies for not responding to your email. My feeble excuse is that I've got TOOOO much stuff to do but it is slack of me nonetheless.

Yes I saw the reference to the Old Boys Association too. These guys sprang up recently - much to the upset of Basil Hylton who was already running a different old boys association (ABAPDC).

They seem to have their shit together and be active though. These are the people who secured some cash for the school through the Trojan Records Alpha Boys School CD and they/Trojan are putting on this gig with all those names - so someone in the set-up is well-connected. They have quite a nice website too.

It'll be interesting to hear what Sister Fraser says about it all (although she's not known for verbosity).

In the meantime I have added this gig and the Newcastle University gig to the calendar at:
www.myspace.com/alphaboysschool

Respect

Baldy

[matt]

I assume those with the * have yet to be confirmed?

[papastalawatt]

baldheadselector said:

Thanks for that Papa S and my apologies for not responding to your email.

No problem!

BTW, I came across this old Billboard article on the ABS band earlier, posted on a Polish forum - not sure if you've seen it before:

www.rrr.udp.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?p=13096

It mentions the Waltham Park halfway house.

Respect,

PapaS

[Baldhead Selector]

Thank you Papa S - but unfortunately I couldn't follow that link to the article. Perhaps its because I'm not a member of the forum in question.

Thanks again anyway - and respect

Baldy

[admin]

Yes, strange one at the Toon. Aimed towards the dubstep crowd methinks. At least they'll hear proper reggae at the warm up

Respect

Gordy

[papastalawatt]

baldheadselector said:

unfortunately I couldn't follow that link to the article

Sorry - I assumed the link would be okay, though I hadn't actually tried it - I accessed Google's cached version earlier to circumvent the corporate firewall Try that instead: tinyurl.com/yew56q

If this doesn't work I'll copy and paste the article for ya!

[Varese]

Looks like I'm going to have a pretty hectic start to February then. Fantastic! ;D

[admin]

I can't make it down

Dunza done for the time being, gotta make a few payments on my card.

Que sera sera and all that!

Respect

Gordy

[admin]

At least it's quite easy to get to though!

Respect

Gordy

[professor]

That's quite a line-up - be sure not to miss "The Girls Pet" Owen Gray, he can still rock a room.

[BBR]

Jeez! What am I doing in Australia! Another reason for me to move back to England this year. The Elephant is where all my dad's family are from and partly where I grew up and now I'm on the other side of the world when everything I want to see is back there.

And at the Coronet! There used to be two cinemas at the Elephant. They were both across from each other by the bridge on the New Kent Road. I think it was the ABC that got pulled down. It was the Coronet where I saw JAWS in 1973, but got a kick-in from a load of Millwall boys in the back row wearing 14-hole doc martins sprayed silver. They were robbing some kids while the movie was on and I turned round and (being gobby) said something. Didn't help wearing an arsenal scarf. Got dragged over the back seat and set on. The movie was still going while old ladies were trying to clean the blood on my face with hankerchiefs. Ahh, memories!

[rosko]

Nice lineup!

Sadly, I'm closer to London, Ontario than the real London.

[Baldhead Selector]

Got it PapaS. Many thanks - I'm sure I can use some of this material.

Respect

Baldy

Title: MUSIC IS KEY AT ALPHA SCHOOL , By: Oumano, Elena, Billboard, 00062510, 07/17/99, Vol. 111, Issue 29
MUSIC IS KEY AT ALPHA SCHOOL

As modern youth continues to be increasingly viewed as an economic opportunity, at Alpha Boys School--a small charity boarding school here--children are still seen as the future. And as music and other arts are red-lined from U.S. school budgets, at Alpha, music is viewed as integral, necessary sustenance for children's bodies, minds, and spirits.
Founded and run by the Roman Catholic order of the Sisters Of Mercy and supported by private donations and a small, per capita allowance from the Jamaican government, Alpha has been proving the transformative power of music on a daily basis for more than 100 years.
Alpha is more than a home for wayward, indigent, or orphaned boys. It is even more than an institution that transforms inner-city boys into proud-backed men of skill.
Alpha is the little engine that could and the primary force behind Jamaica's musical explosion of the '60s and '70s.
Without the musical training and life lessons they received at Alpha, the late tenor saxophonist Tommy McCook, trumpeter Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, the late trombone genius Don Drummond, and alto saxophonist Lester Sterling--founding members of the Skatalites, the architects of ska--might never have picked up an instrument, let alone come together as an internationally acclaimed group.
Ska itself--a blend of the island's mento folk music with stateside jazz and R&B--would never have been. Nor would there be reggae, which developed largely thanks to the above and other Alpha "old boys," as well as the youngsters they tutored.
Some excelled in Jamaica; others in North America and Europe. They include reggae/jazz trumpeter Eddie "Tan-Tan" Thornton of Jazz Jamaica, formerly of Aswad and Boney M; the late jazz tenor saxophonist Wilton Gaynair (who also wrote music theory and practice books); the late U.K. free-form jazz saxophonist Joe Harriott; leading U.S. and Nassau, Bahamas, jazz flutist "Little Jesus" McNair; jazz trombonist/dentist Felix Taylor; U.K. jazz trombonist Rico Rodriquez; flugelhornist Joe "Jo-Jo" Bennett (who played with the Satellites in Canada); saxophonist Carl Brian; legendary jazz trumpeter Alphonse "Dizzy" Reece; Ruben Alexander; Deadly Headley; the Buchanan Brothers--sax and bass players who worked with Nassau's Ella Louise Trio; reggae drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace; reggae trumpeter Bobby Ellis; and reggae vocalist Leroy Smart.
"Alpha's had a very pivotal role [in Jamaica's music]," says musicologist Dermot Hussey, the host of Jamaican radio station RJR's "Global Beat," which is simulcast on the Internet at www.radiojamaica.com.
"Jamaica was put on the map musically by musicians, who, to a large extent, came out of that institution playing jazz," Hussey continues. "Dizzy [Reece] was in England when Miles Davis invited him to come to New York and record for Blue Note Records. That tells you the kind of training Alpha gives. Many boys came out of dysfunctional families, so music meant everything to them. They'd patch up their instrument keys with soap. Those Sisters of Mercy have to be praised to the skies for having foresight, vision, and consistency, and Alpha is still putting out fine musicianship."

LESSONS FROM 'OLD BOY' SPARROW
One sunny, hot morning last May, bandmaster Winston "Sparrow" Martin, a renowned jazz drummer and, like all of Alpha's bandmasters, an "old boy" himself, calls the band from the yard into the band room, a large, bare space in a one-story, concrete-walled, and tin-roofed structure. On the wall behind the boys hang framed photos of noted alumni under the painted words "This is our history, you are our future." The facing wall is covered by a large, impressionistic sketch of a colonial soldier blowing a trumpet.
All eyes are on Martin. "We're going to play the first four bars in a reggae style--tic tic tock tic tic," he instructs, then counts down. After a few bars, he signals the band to stop. "What key should you be playing in? "C, sir," 22 boys answer in unison. They start up again, and once more, Martin calls for a halt. He walks over to each section to give precise coaching, then counts the band down again. The result is tight, dense, and harmonious. Two visitors appear in the doorway--"old boy" and former Skatalite Moore, with American trombonist/ producer Delfeayo Marsalis in tow. Like many American jazz musicians, Marsalis is fascinated by the genius of Don Drummond. Moore has brought Marsalis to Alpha to see where the legend began.

DEEP ROOTS IN JAMAICA
In 1880, Alpha was founded as a school for girls (the girls' school closed in 1973); in 1884, the school opened for boys. A drum and fife corps, taught by an English soldier from the colony's army camp, started two years later. After Jamaica's bishop got brass instruments from the States, the brass concert band was launched and, soon after, played its first engagement. "Of course, it wasn't much, just marching up and down," says Sister Ignatius, the Jamaican-born nun who heads Alpha and first came to the school on Feb. 1, 1939, when she was 17 years old.
Alpha's 22-member band and its subgroups bring in a hefty share of the school's working budget. Since January '99, this band has done 400 jobs, sometimes splitting into a group of eight led by one of the boys, and a group of six led by Martin.
"When we play out, we charge $3,000 Jamaican [at an exchange rate of $1 Jamaican to $0.03 U.S.] an hour, plus transportation and refreshments," says Sister Ignatius, as she finalizes arrangements for that night's King's House performance. "Still, it's a constant struggle for funds. Old boys donate, and the old boys who have done very well leave us their instruments when they die. We have about 12 instruments from them."
Moore, who performs and records with his Skalites band, is a frequent visitor. "I'm a Rasta; this is something inside of me since birth," he says. "But there's a special thing I have for Sister Ignatius as a person that goes beyond religion. She's just a unique person. I couldn't allow religion to come between us, and she's the same. I love her very much."
In the '40s and '50s, boys usually came to Alpha through the colonial government's petty sessions court, but "trouble in those days wasn't like trouble today," says Sister Ignatius. Today's boys usually come from a family court-mandated "place of safety," and virtually all blossom in its atmosphere of loving discipline.
Not all the boys are allowed to choose music as their trade, but Alpha's band is clearly the school's, if not the island's, shining star.
How successful has the band been in soothing the "savage breasts" of Jamaica's troubled boys? "Maybe 10 or less out of a hundred go back to the streets for a time," Sister Ignatius estimates. "What they learn here is not in formal classes but in looking around and seeing, in talking and listening. They remember that little thing you say to them 10, 15, 20 years after. The little kindness has a great effect. Children today don't have that kindness, that interest."
"She's something else," says Martin of Sister Ignatius. "She don't take foolishness, but she's calm and very sensitive. She's even showed boys how to throw a left hook."

THE NEXT GENERATION
Back in the band room, Martin signals for the drums and percussion to kick off "Carry Go Bring Come," Justin Hinds & the Dominoes' diatribe against Mother England. It's a jaunty, rollicking arrangement of a ska anthem, and the boys have obviously practiced hard.
Martin, who teaches every instrument in the band, accompanies the boys on keyboards. An older boy stands to take a fluid, heartfelt alto sax solo. Eighteen-year-old Kevin Bonfield, who is now also a woodworker, is clearly slated to be among the next set of stars out of Alpha.
It's been nine years since his parents fought one night and his mother left. His father put his nine children in care; Kevin and two younger brothers wound up at Alpha. He hasn't seen either parent since.
"When I came to Alpha, I got more chance to hear music and meet great musicians, like Tommy McCook," says Bonfield. "I said, 'I want to be like them.' "
Before Alpha, his idols were Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton. Today, they're Charlie Parker and James Moody. "I'd like to tour the U.S. and Europe in a jazz band," Bonfield says. "Alpha has given me education and music. If I hadn't come here, probably I'd be a thief now or in a gang." Martin and Sister Ignatius are ensuring that Bonfield's bright future materializes.
"He'll go to [Alpha's] Waltham Park Halfway House," says Martin. "I convinced [noted saxophonist] Dean Frazier to give him a saxophone. Then Deadly Headley borrowed it and gave Bonfield $20 [U.S.]. I told him to shake Headley's hand and say thanks and keep doing that whenever he sees him, even if it's for 10 years. Air Jamaica wants to adopt Bonfield as part of their team. But you have to teach them to not let their head swell.
"There's so much talent in Jamaica, especially in Alpha Boys School band," the 58-year-old Martin continues. "This is where I got my experience. I was here as a boy for 10 years."
It was actually Marcus Garvey's marching band that led young Martin to Alpha. Unable to resist the lure of the drums, he'd join the crowds that followed the band from his Trenchtown home all the way to Ella Louise Park, where Garvey and his followers held meetings.
"I didn't understand what he was saying," Martin recalls. "I just followed the band. It was led by Saint William Grant, who rode a white horse and carried a sword. I'd try to get home when they reached Crossroads, but my father always caught me and gave me a whipping. All I wanted was to play music. I attended Catholic school, but it didn't teach music, so the priest said I should go to Alpha."
Martin enjoyed an illustrious career in bands like Carlos Malcolm & the Afro-Jamaicans and played on Bob Marley's "Catch A Fire" set. But his heart has always been in teaching.
"What I love about the boys is when I look at each of them, I see myself," says Martin, himself a father of 10--each with his or her own instrument. "Sometimes I go home and think about their problems. Some parents don't even come to see them, so I make sure when those boys play out and get money that Sister gives them some to go to the movies and buy ice cream. We give the band freedom when they play out, because they're musicians and they shouldn't have to line up like in school for their food."
Everol "Stringwray" Way, who plays trumpet for Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers and plays on Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)," came in 1980, at age 11.
"I was getting in trouble, not staying home," he says. "I was musical, and I needed to get off the streets, so it was the best idea. I always watched the band practice, and one evening, the bandmaster, Carlton "Jackie" Willasy, invited me to play. He just gave me the trumpet, and I'm glad he did."

A FEEDER SYSTEM
When a visitor asks today's band if anyone wants to become a professional musician, she's answered by a loud chorus of "Yes, miss!"
Every one of these boys won't earn a living in music, but, over the decades, Alpha has become a feeder for the Jamaica military band, providing it with skilled musicians who can both improvise and read.
Martin is currently planning a Nov. 2 concert at Kingston's Little Theatre to raise funds for the school. He's calling on Jamaican artists to donate their services.
He is also accumulating instruments to start "my own music school," he says, "so the kids of the street can learn. The schools don't want to help because they don't think music is as important as academic subjects. But when the band starts to move, then they realize."
And the band is as essential to Jamaican music as it is to the boys who play in it. "Musicians are the innovators, and then the singers come and ride on top," says Hussey. "If you believe in cycles, Jamaican music should be coming full cycle now. Jamaica needs musicianship to reassert itself as it did during the era of ska. Alpha could help re-create that blossoming."
As the wealthiest "first world" nation in the world concocts increasingly chilling strategies for controlling its lost youth, a struggling boys' school on an island nation designated as "third world" or "developing" offers a strong reminder of our humanity and what we owe our children.

[Baldhead Selector]

baldheadselector said:

I don't really know the Old Boys Association who appear to be the beneficiaries of this gig though. I think they are actually rivals of ABAPDC which is a different Old Boys association and is the one that I know and donate to.

I have asked Sister Fraser for clarification and if I get it I will post the info up here.

Well its not an earth-shattering response but as I said I would post it up, here it is:

"Yes, there is some amount of confusion in the fund raising efforts for Alpha Boys' School. Several different entities started to raise funds who are not related to one another. Each entity has its own motivation and way of doing things. It might be ideal for this to be a coordinated effort but the reality is that it wasn't planned that way. Alpha Boys' School does not operated nor have direct control over these various charitable entities but appreciates their collective efforts to raise funds for the school.

The "official website" for the school is www.alphaboysschool.Com It is kept up by a man named Dave Rosencrans who was intimately involved in the School during the Experience Music Museum exhibition which featured Alpha Boys' School. He has been helping the school ever since.

I hope this helps you understand the dynamics a bit more.

Take care and thanks again for all you support.

Sr. Susan"

Respect

Baldy

[dbd110]

Recorded a DVD of the show.
To support the school.

Mickey

[dbd110]

Review about the show.
Hear and read nothing from website and papers.??


Mickey

[Baldhead Selector]

Yes a review would be nice. I requested one from the organisers but just silence so far.

I fear that they may have left the promotion a little late - certainly I didi not hear about this gig until I had prior arrangements.

Respect

Baldy

[dbd110]

Pitty

Mickey

[steverice]

it never happened did it.....i'm sure someone would have heard something

[DJ Greedy G]

(It did happen)

[lankou2]

seems like it happened, as i got some Skatalites news from their french tour agent and he told me the old boys were there.
Some people from The Jamaican All Stars were there too (at least Sparrow Martin was, pretty normal as he is the head music teacher at Alpha) but Johnny Moore wasn't : he is not always in top form and winter time in Europe isn't always easy for him. I think some other members of JAS, being younger alumni of ABS, were there too.

[Deleted]

baldheadselector said:

Yes a review would be nice. I requested one from the organisers but just silence so far.....

Complete flop....no audience.
Unrehearsed band. Well below par performances. Bum notes, dodgy chords, off-key singing.....terrible organization, . Awful Sound.
And the place was cold! (coat time )

Everyone except Cedrics Brooks performed. Great to see so many legends on stage.

Have some photos...don't know how to post them

[/img]

[lankou2]

yes, C Brooks has unpleasant health problems at the moment. let's wish him luck !
i suppose the organisers meant well but maybe the task was too much for them. Given the lineup, they surely could have reached out to a broader audience. I can just imagine that it was more like a community thing. I am pretty much sure such thing could draw big in any sizeable festival in spring and summer, and probably even more in continental europe.

[Baldhead Selector]

One of the organisers got in touch with me with just over a week to go and asked if I would sell tickets on their behalf. I suspected at that point that he was clutching at straws a little because they'd not got the promotion right.

Its a shame though not a complete surprise.

Respect

Baldy

[Baldhead Selector]

inyaki said:

baldheadselector said:

Yes a review would be nice. I requested one from the organisers but just silence so far.....

Complete flop....no audience.
Unrehearsed band. Well below par performances. Bum notes, dodgy chords, off-key singing.....terrible organization, . Awful Sound.
And the place was cold! (coat time )

Everyone except Cedrics Brooks performed. Great to see so many legends on stage.

Have some photos...don't know how to post them

[/img][/quote]

Inyaki - many thanks for the review.

What a shame.

I can get your pictures hosted and posted if you'll care to send them to me. I might like a few for the ABS MySpace page too perhaps.

Anyway, no worries and no pressure whatever - but if you want me to post them up just email them to:
[e-mail]

Respect

Baldy