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Remembering Bob Marley

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FULLY: One time Chinna brought Keith Sterling by the studio to record on a song. He loved the band and we loved how he played. So I would go to his house sometimes and we'd play jazz. His brother, Lester Sterling was very famous at that time with a group call the Scatalights. And he had another brother who played trumpet with us named Roy. We did the first live recording with Dennis Brown. Ninie come in now with the Observer label. We used to see Ninie in the street selling records, barefoot. He was from the country and would sell records for anybody he could. One day he came to the house when we were rehearsing, and he said he had a hit song he wanted us to record. We said, "But you don't have any money. How're you going to pay us?" He said he had money and everything was cool. So we said, "All right." It was Santa, Tony, me and Chinna. We went to the studio and we played a tune for him named Love and Fire and some more songs. But by the time we were done and ready to pack up, we couldn't see Ninie anywhere. Ninie run gone with the tape and everything. So we decided anytime we see him, we were going to kill him. It was about a month after . . .

TONY: We were playing Montego Bay.

FULLY: No, we were outside my house and we see a taxi drive up. And Ninie come out well dressed and smiling. And we yelled at him, "You bumba clot." And we were ready to beat him up. But he came out and hugged me up and said "No, mon", and he laughed and said "Everything alright mon." And he reached in his pocket and pulled out a big pile of money. Then he explained that at the time we recorded for him, he didn't have any money. It was a guy named Beverly who helped him out. And the song we played was a big hit. Then he paid us every dime. So that was how we started to work with Ninie. We recorded for him and he opened up a little record store and an Orange Julius. Dennis Brown was the main artist. And that's how we made the first hit song for Michael Rose which was Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. That's how the whole thing come about with Observer and him. We used to play for him constantly. Then Big Youth came in, and Keith Hudson. Keith Hudson was a bad boy. We used to hear about him and were afraid of him. We used to hear about him and a guy named Stammer.

TONY: They used to go on like they were bad and had guns, and drive their big car -- a white Capri; like gangsters.

FULLY: Keith Hudson was a good-looking guy and had a sidekick named Stammer who would stammer when he talked. So one day they came to the house and said they wanted us to come play and record. At first we said no, but he was very convincing and we did the session. The first song we did for him was called S-90. It was a big theme song, Big Youth was on it -- a big hit. That's how we started working with Big Youth. A guy named Flames brought his motorcycle in the studio and revved it up -- that's how the song started out.

FULLY: Tenor played sax with us. And Arnold Breckenridge. Trami too, on horns, and Donald Green.

TONY: Goldfinger -- our little sidekick.

FULLY: A feisty guy, very dedicated to the band. He used to live at my house.

FULLY: Remember the The Case of The Bald Head Rooster? It was a live drama. What do you call it?

TONY: It was a play. With actors. But we were the music behind it. It was funny.

FULLY: It was so funny. You laugh ‘till you weak -- The Case of The Bald Head Rooster.

TONY: Dennis Brown's father was an actor in it.

FULLY: And you have a guy named Ben Louis and Bean ‘n Bomb. The two of them used to come to my house. A lot of people used to come to my gate, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, every single artist you can think of.

TONY: That's true. Freddie MaKay, Darrel Wilson, Gregory Issacs.

FULLY: Big Youth used to come pick me up and we'd go to the beach and cook food. U-Roy . . .

TONY: There was some big festival at Garrett Park and all the artists came to Fully's yard. We had to chain the gate up because the crowd outside wanted to come in. The band wanted to rehearse and everybody wanted to come in.

FULLY: The first stage show Yellow Man played on, it was us who backed him up. Anyway, the yard was so famous. There's a big stone at the gate. Remember, Tony?

TONY: I remember one time when Bob got shot, he was the headliner at a place called Tivoli Gardens.

FULLY: That was a serious place. Family Man didn't want to play. Bob came to me and ask me to play, and I told him, "No, sir." But Tony went and played, him and Chinna. Bob would never pass us without hailing us up.

TONY: The last show I played on a show with Bob Marley was at Garrett Park. I was back stage and Bob said to me, "Wha happen Tony?" He say to hail you up, Fully.

FULLY: I had a lot of respect for him. The last picture we took with Bob was when we were in the studio doing our album. Bob was there and so was Jacob Miller. Jacob had wanted to become our vocalist for a long time. He sang with Inner Circle. So we took a picture with Tony, Bob, Jacob, and Chinna. We were sitting on a car back. A couple nights after, Jacob Miller was dead.

TONY: Yeah, Sunday night he was dead.

FULLY: He was in a car crash and was eating sugar cane. He choked on the sugar cane and died. A couple of years later Bob was dead too. I don't know who has that picture. Tony licked down Bob's gate once with his car. Tony misjudged and ran down the gate. And Bob Marley said, "Everything cool."

TONY: A lot of people will say they know Bob, but ask them if Bob know them.

FRANCES: So Keith was playing with you on keyboards then. When did Jahmaka come in?

FULLY: Hear the whole story. When I used to go to Greenwich Farm grade school, Jahmaka and his brother used to be in the same school; his mother was a teacher. She was my teacher too.

FRANCES: So you knew each other from childhood?

FULLY: Right. So he used to play with Sapauo. So when Keith went off the play with Peter Tosh, that's when we got Jahmaka. When he came in the band, his name wasn't Jahmaka. Somebody gave him that name after he'd been playing with the band for a while.

TONY: That was the time Santa left to go play with Jimmy Cliff. Sly was Jimmy Cliff's drummer but he left Jimmy to go play with Peter Tosh. So Santa left us to be Jimmy Cliff's drummer. So we didn't have a drummer. So we got Max Edwards back. When we went on tour with Big Youth, the people loved the band. We met a guy named Easy Money who brought the Soul Syndicate back to America later.

FULLY: There was a money problem and that's where Warren Smith stepped in. When we met him he had on these big boots.

TONY: He was the first white person we'd ever dealth with. Warren said he had a friend who had a big house on a hill that overlooked the whole of San Francisco where we could stay. His name was Richie. He had a big dog. So we all moved into his house. Richie liked to go shop everyday. A nice guy.

FULLY: And he had someone who would come drive us everyday too.

TONY: The members in the band were Max Edwards, Arnold Breckenridge, Donovan, Tenor, Chinna, Jahmaka and us.

FRANCES: How long did you stay in San Francisco?

FULLY: Long time, two months. We were going to stay longer, but Donovan got up one night and said he saw a hand calling him back to Jamaica. He had just gotten married two months before and just wanted to get back to his wife. So he left. So we left too. When we were on the plane, Tenor started to sing, "I left my heart in San Francisco." The next time we came back on tour, Tenor stayed. That's when things started to change.

TONY: That's when Warren started to manage us. He came to Jamaica and filmed a movie with this brother, Jerry Stein.

FULLY: With Earl Zero and Chinna. Earl Zero used to record with us for a brother named Bertram Brown. Another guy named Prince Ala. We did a whole heap of recording for Bertram Brown. So Warren came in and liked how Earl Zero sound and wanted to do an album with him. We played on the album. Then we met the guy who did the movie Word, Sound, And Power. It was filmed at my house. We had just finished a tour. Freddie McGregor and Arnold Breckenridge left the band at that time. So that's when we started singing -- me and Tony.

TONY: And that's when Leslie Butler started playing keyboard with us, too.

FULLY: Leslie Butler was a jazz keyboard player, one of the best in Jamaica. So when Freddie left, it was good for us, in that we all had to start singing. We had to focus.

FRANCES: So how did the Soul Syndicate albums come about?

TONY: We recorded the first album, Harvest Up Town in Ocho Rios with Warren Smith and Pete Julianna. We spent about a month up there rehearsing.

FULLY: There was a hotel up there that was rundown. Nobody was using it. It had about 60 rooms and Warren booked out the whole hotel. And you could stay in any room you like.

TONY: We lived there for about a month.

FULLY: And Pete brought down all his equipment for recording the rehearsals. We practiced a lot every day. Chinna wrote a lot of songs for it.

TONY: And Max Edwards played drums on it. Santa came back on tour with us later and did the next album.

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Remembering Bob Marley