Q: By the way, I seem to remember some details about how you met up with Tony, contrary to what you said - you had a friend from England called Bunny, you were about to do a tv show on JBC and on the way to the tv station he showed you Tony's shop and that's how you both linked up. A: Right, yeah. Bunny tell me, James still tell me, because Bunny he lived in Westbury. Yeah, he's the one... I told you he was the one who... I don't remember exactly what, but when you point these things out, you can remember. 'Cause it's a long time, it's a long time, Peter (laughs)! We're talkin' about a looong time ago. (Laughs) Oh, you've got some shit on me, bwoy! Officer, 'officer Peter' (chuckles). Q: (Laughs) Right, 'you won't get away this time'. So what's the details about the period Tony had when a deal with Virgin in England was established, he got album deals for the Gladiators and U Roy and your voice appears on some of those U Roy tracks, like the chorus of 'Just Another Girl' and 'Moving Away' (U Roy's 'Runaway Girl' and 'African Message' respectively) on the 'Dread In A Babylon' LP for example (Barrington wasn't credited on the 1975 LP by U Roy, but on the following year's 'Natty Rebel' LP he's credited for the appearance on 'Go There Natty'). A: I did all the complete songs, and he just... Q: Cut it out, like they do. I believe it was Errol T who did the mixes at Joe Gibbs. A: Yeah, cut out. I did all complete songs, I sing the song firstly and he brought his people in on the songs. You know, like he did to Big Youth and U Roy, he bring them in and he put them as what you'd call a combination, y'know, take a part of my voice out, bring that U Roy voice, take U Roy voice out, bring my voice in - it's a combination together. But basically I did the vocals first, complete song. Q: OK, I read the opposite. A: Nah, I saw it in a magazine too, I've got a copy of the magazine too. But these people, obviously it's me, my voice, it's all... beca' nowadays is what you'd call a 'hookline', but no. You got to sing the whole song, the whole song first, completely, then they put the other person on. I did the whole song completely, man. But I've got to say you have to give Prince Tony some credit for me in the end, 'cause he's the one that exposed me internationally. Without him nobody would know about me - in America, in England, in Germany, in Africa, y'know. I was supposed to go to Africa with Big Youth but it didn't happen. He took somebody else with him, because he's a dreadlocks head. That boy is a wicked boy, Big Youth. Q: Did you get any compensation for those Virgin tracks you were a part of? A: Yeah, I get paid for them, I get pay. But they get most of the money, because the entire names wasn't project inna the record, it's not like 'U Roy and Barrington', you see, they just say 'U Roy'. And then they make... bracket my name on bottom like say 'Barrington' in small print. But the big name on record was U Roy, because they're the one who - in those days the deejays was coming in powerful, deejays start to come in now, like 'S-90 Skank' and them bwoy, Trinity, and have him deejay. Have them start get big, prevalent now, yunno, so they were projecting the deejay more than the singer. But I still get a change, I still get a piece of the pie, y'know. But they got more, because they are the ones who got more projected than I was. But I still got a piece of the pie.

Q: When Tony got Trojan to release your album debut 'Step Softly' back in '75, did you get to do a few shows over in the UK? Or was the only visit back when you accompanied Big Youth like you mentioned before? A: With Big Youth, yeah. That's the only time I did it. And I've been back to that place in '75-76. Q: What places did you play at? A: I've been to supper, just supper clubs, right. Yeah, small gigs, like a place name... Q: Birmingham? A: Birmingham! Yeah, I was trying to remember that name, I almost said 'Brooklyn' there (chuckles). And we went to Germany one time, I forget the place we went there. Holland, where's Holland? Q: Holland is neighbouring to Germany, so you went to like Amsterdam too? A: It was Holland, it's Holland we went to then. A long time, we went to Holland, we went to Birmingham and we went to supper clubs. I went to Ladbroke Grove and stayed there for a little while, 'cause I had some friends over there and I met them and just hang out for a while. Q: Did you record anything while you stayed there? A: No, not one song, not one song. Q: Because I figured that could've been the recordings you did for Winston Edwards and his Fay Music label in London, he was in association with Joe Gibbs for a while, and politically involved somewhere too. A: 'Flames'? Q: No, Fay Music. I think he's releasing this music on the Studio 16 label nowadays. A: I don't remember him at all. Q: You had 'Baby I Love You' on Fay back in the mid seventies anyway. A: I don't remember him, I don't even remember that song at all, he's the one person I don't remember now, Winston Edwards. Joe Gibbs, I do a few tunes for Joe Gibbs too when we speak of, but I don't remember which names.

Barrington Spence

Q: Did you check with Trojan how the album went when you were over there in London? A: No contact, was no contact. It was just with Big Youth and Tony, Tony don't take us nowhere really. Was hotel an' t'ing, I found some friends and when they left I was still there, man. I love England a lot, right now I wish I was living in England. I love it although it's different from here. Q: Nowadays it's almost the norm that artists get the exposure they need in the media, but what about those times? Not much in terms of promotion, was it? A: Nah, never get none of that at all. But Tony was the man to do them t'ing. Q: Of course, but he never invested much for your stuff. A: No. Q: How did you feel about it? A: It would just lie in his pocket (chuckles). Tony is a hundred per cent cool now, but I give him respec' what he done for me at the time. He's a selfish person when it comes to money, but he give me exposure, enough for you to even think of finding me, you understand me, or to know about me or a next person to get to know about me. 'Cause I gotta say if it wasn't for Prince Tony - maybe I would be better off for somebody else, but he give me the jump-start, y'know what I mean. So I can't really mud his face up, he has his faults and his ways, but he pull the staff (?), he came off good in the end, y'know. I give him respect. Q: It seems in hindsight he was doing something good at the time, a talented producer in other words. He knew what he was doing. A: Yeah, he was like Coxson, was like Coxson. Sharp. Good brain, good brain. Good thinker. Shady, he was shady just like Coxson. 'Shady' (chuckles)... You know Coxson died, right? Q: Yes. A: Coxson died, died in Brooklyn. Q: No, no. Died in Jamaica. A: In Jamaica? I thought he died in Brooklyn. Q: Jamaica. A: OK. Tony, he was just a slicker, Tony was just a slicker. He knows everything, he knows every rude boy, knows every bad boy in town, 'cause he is a fast talker. No matter what (inaudible) say to you, what he's gonna say about him, he is just that. And then he's got money too, y'know. And his parents used to own buses, his parents. I think he come from a good well-off family, beca' his mother used to own buses on the course between Kingston and country. You know, the big buses and...

Q: Alright, so they had a bus company in the family. A: Yeah, a bus company. So he didn't suffer, he know money, y'know. Q: Keith Poppin was telling me he sold cars. A: Yeah, he sell cars too, used to buy and sell cars. And he own a lickle plaza, he bought a plaza on Slipe Road too. Yeah, the boy is smart, man. Q: He sold tv's and radios as well. A: Tv's an' t'ing (chuckles)... he sell the thing, yeah. He used to ravel out at Derrick Harriott's place, he own a place there. He's a smart seller. He's in Florida now. Q: Yeah, he had a studio there. But Tony never tried to get you a deal for Virgin after the 'Speak Softly' LP came out? A: Nah, he sold me out to Trojan, man. That is what they did. Sold me out to Trojan, I heard. Q: That was about it? A: That's about it. And then, I give you a joke: after the album I did for him, the 'Speak Softly' LP, then I find as though the treatment was not something to what I expected, I expect more, and the exportion was good and put me name out there that people could know me good, I drift away from him, y'know. Q: 'Speak Softly' came out in Jamaica and in England in '75 and the year after you had a good seller for him with the 45 'Go Deh Natty'. A: That was his too, with U Roy. Q: Yes, it was a riddim U Roy used on his second Prince Tony album, but this was a single you had in '76. Was there any talk of doing a second LP for Tony? A: Nah, I no want fe go that far with Tony again 'cause I didn't appreciate the way I was treated for the first album, but I do one or two 45 still, 'cause you know...

Q: Like 'Dat In Court'. A: Yeah, to keep things in the flow and have paper coming in, have paper coming in your pocket and take care of the family, 'cause I was a family man, children, so I gotta be doing something to achieve, y'know. So, yeah, 'Go Deh Natty Dread' was done one day going in a taxi. I think it was three of us, me, Sly and him - me, Sly and Tony was in a taxi going to Cross Roads and the idea came to me... No, Sly was hittin' the back of a seat with a drumbeat, 'doo de doo de dum' (claps), with his hand, and I just keep 'Go deh natty dread ca' yu dreader than dread, go deh Iyahman...'. It was the time of Jacob Miller too, 'cause I had the touch of the 'ih ih bah ah ah' (imitates Miller's slur of the time), and he was pissed off with that saying that I touched him, y'know. But it was just a style. So Sly was the one who really inspired me to do that 'Go Deh Natty', with the drumbeat with his hand, hittin' the back of a taxi seat. You're sitting in the back of the taxi, he's hittin' the seat in front of him, he's the drummer, so he's got the drumbeat. And then I cover the lyrics, 'Go Deh Natty'. Q: The typical 'Rasta bandwagon' lyrics of the time. A: The trend you go through, yeah. 'Cause you see, when certain eras comes around you gotta go with the flow, y'know, if you rap you gotta rap what's going on, if you sing you gotta sing what's going on, 'cause everybody sing about 'dread, dread, dread, Jah, Jah, Jah, Jah'. Q: Right. Such as 'Jah For All' and the hit 'Jah Jah Train', that one hit pretty big for you. A: Oh, my God, 'Jah For All', bwoy (chuckles). Is a lickle side of my songs. Is a lot of songs that I did, but I can't remember the names of everything. If I could just see the name and I could come back to the lyric, yunno.

Q: 'Jah Jah Train' hit for you, didn't it? It was a revamp to 'Train Is Coming', Ken Boothe's Studio One classic. A: Yeah, a Ken Boothe version. That was a big tune, I got a blast with that, I got good money for that too. I got royalties, you see, I got royalties from Tony for that. Q: I think the new Trojan staff included that one on one of their box sets a while back. A: Oh, yeah? It came out recently? Q: Not sure when, but perhaps two years ago. A: I will have to get it, then I can go through a copyrights thing and get my things to work, what I deserved.

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Article: Peter I (Please do not reproduce without permission)