Looking back upon the musical journey of Tony Chin - from the
heady days with "Soul Syndicate" during the golden age
of reggae in Jamaica, to riding the crest of a wave in the form
of an international hit song with "Big Mountain", and
continuing to travel the world lending rock-solid rhythm guitar
support with the Fully Fullwood Band.
Soul
Syndicate Page
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Remembering
Bob Marley
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Tony
Chin was born "Albert Valentine Chin" in the Kingston,
Jamaica 'Public Hospital'. As to where the nickname of
"Tony" came from it appears to be a mystery. The son of a Chinese/Black father and
Indian/Black mother, Tony didn't seem to inherit his musical
abilities from his kin, saying "None of my family do
music. I'm de only child. My mom sing in de church an' my aunts
sing a little singin' but not a big musical family. I'm de only
one."
Tony's
schooling began at St. Annis Primary School and then graduated to
Kingsway Senior High School, where "I was listenin' to de
Wailers and de Heptones from de ska days to de rock-steady days as
a little kid growin' up an' ting, an' hearin' all dis music an'
ting. Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson." His first formal
introduction to music came as a Boy Scout where Tony learned to
drum, then later when in High School he joined Cadets where he
learned to play the bugle.
Later,
thanks to his father, the first step in Tony's musical journey was
taken. "I
get into music by accident. One day my Dad bought an acoustic
guitar from dis drunk guy an' bring it home. It have two strings
on it. I never knew how to play guitar until I had dat. A friend
of mine named Morris Gregory he could play guitar a little an' he
showed me a few pointers. In Jamaica, all de girls love
entertainers y'know, people who do music an' ting. De always
follow dem - an' I always admire musician an' I practice and
practice."
...................................
The
following is a transcript of a conversation that took place in May 2000 at Fully
Fullwood’s home in San Clemente, California. Fully, Tony,
Frances (Fully's wife), and Vickie (Tony's wife) were visiting in
the studio when Frances turned on a tape recorder and recorded a
good part of the conversation.
When
the tape recorder was turned on, Fully and Tony were talking about
how the Soul Syndicate got started back in Jamaica.
Thank
you to Fully and Frances for making this transcript available.
Please visit Fully on-line at FullyFullwood.com
...................................
FULLY:
We were playing as little kids way before that, playing out on the
street. Me and Maurice Gregory used to sing and play. I was
playing guitar and Maurice was playing guitar. Tony would sing.
One Sunday morning me and Maurice was sitting down and Tony came
by . . .
TONY: A brother named Benji
came to me looking for a guitar player. So Benji carried me up to
Megan and Algon's place. They said they needed a guitar player and
I told them about you, Fully. So I carried them down to your
house.
FULLY: So I would go down to
their place and practice sometimes with them. But they really
wanted a bass player. So I would play bass on the low octaves on
the guitar. So we play. Megan had trusted a guitar and amplifier
from the music store, but they were going to take it away because
he couldn't pay for it. So I came down and told my father about
it. Megan Allen came down and told my father to finish paying for
it and we could control it. So my father paid for it and the band
moved up to my house. Then me and Algon and Megan started playing
out, and in the backyard, and we called ourselves the Riddum
Raiders.
TONY: A brother named Toby
played keyboards.
FULLY: And Tony used to come
round same way and hang out with we.
FRANCES: So who played
what?
FULLY: Algon played drums and
Megan played guitar -- two old guys, one a shoemaker and one come
from the country. And the drum he had, he make it, he make it out
of goat skin. He made his own drum set.
FRANCES: What kind of
music did you play then?
FULLY: At the time it was
rocksteady and ska mento.
TONY: It was the 60's.
FULLY: It was that time when
that song, "Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy Hang On" was a big
hit.
TONY: And "I Can't Get No
Satisfaction"
FULLY: Way back then in the
60's. So that's how the band as the Riddim Raiders start out. Now
afterwards then we have this little guy named Toby --
FRANCES: When you were the
Riddim Raiders, what were you doing? Were you playing at hotels?
FULLY and TONY: No. No. We just
played in the backyard and probably around at little places. We
played at the Labor Right Club and the Boys Club. It was in the
area and it was near us in the neighborhood. It was like a center
where everybody hung out. So we would go over there and they would
call us to play at functions. Maurice Gregory would sing. He died
now.
TONY: My best friend, he died,
um.
FULLY: A couple years after that
now then, Megan got too old and couldn't manage to play anymore.
TONY: I bring in
"C".
FULLY: Tony bring Cleon Douglas
in to sing and play guitar. So we had two guitarists now -- Tony
and Cleon. So the band at that time was Tony and Cleon on guitars,
Algon on drums and me on bass. We didn't have a keyboard player
yet. When Algon got too old and couldn't manage anymore a guy
named Scottie come in and play drums. At that time the band was
still the Riddim Raiders. We used to play at a place called
Victoria Pier. We would go down there and play little shows every
Sunday. A few years later a guy named Glen Adams, who was a
tailor, came in to play keyboards. He was the one who made our
first uniforms. Then Scottie moved away and Max Edwards came in to
play drums. He came from the Boy's School -- a bad boy, but a good
drummer and he could sing too. So he came in and start to play
with us.
TONY: Glen Adams was Bob
Marley's keyboard player.
FULLY: That was during the
hippie days. That time Bob Marley business never a go on, because
we used to play for Bob Marley.
TONY: Yeah, mon.
FULLY: We used to play at
Shackadillic Shack with Bob Marley Wailers them. They hadn't
started to play yet. They used to come watch us play. Stage show
start now.
TONY: I think the first show
we played on was called Three Dogs.
FULLY: It was two trucks put
together. That was the stage -- down in Greenwich Farm. Right in
front of Labor Rights headquarters. A big thing in Jamica then.
TONY: Every year they have a
band play. We backed up about 20 artists.
FULLY: Those days it was
Stranger Cole and the whole of them -- Delroy Wilson . . . That
was our first big exposure. That was when the band's name changed.
My brother used to run a little disco -- a little disco sound
system. He worked at the post office and would buy records every
minute: he used to keep parties. We used to watch the T.V. show
The Untouchables in those days. I said we should change the name
of the band to the Syndicate and my brother said, “How ‘bout
the Soul Syndicate?” And that’s how the name changed to Soul
Syndicate.
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Syndicate Page
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Remembering
Bob Marley
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