Q: Tell me more about DaSilva. Roman Stewart did some memorable tunes for him, he was behind the Hungry Town label and he had a link to Augustus Pablo in Jamaica at the time. A: Yeah man! And the guy what named George Nooks. All right, me, Horace Andy, Roman Stewart and George Nooks. Everton DaSilva was a good guy. He was a Rastaman, brown-skinned. His mother was a rich woman in Jamaica, she owned the big beauty shop in New Kingston named Rosalie. She owned the place up there, the big beauty shop in New Kingston, Jamaica. They were money people. Well anyway, I met him through Roman Stewart, 'cause Roman Stewart was his friend and Roman brought me in, and then George Nooks come in and then Horace Andy come in and we all hook up together. And then he had a friend in Queens, a record store name... Q: Not Brad's place? No, Clocktower wasn't in Queens. A: No. Clocktower, that's Bronx. In Queens, Ali's Avenue (?), his friend name was... I don't remember that record shop, haven't been to that store so long ago (the store was also a label and owned by one Byron Whitely, named Island In The Sun in Corona, Queens, NY). Anyway, we start doing songs for him, yunno. He was interested in musical art, a good guy. We do a few songs for him, I can't remember the name of the songs I did for him, but... Q: 'Plan For Babylon'. A: Huh? 'Plan For Babylon', yeah. (Sings) 'I'm gonna make a plan to keep down Babylon, you cannot build a house without a foundation, first you mus' know your left from your right, to start a fuss much more to make a fight now, here's a plan we didn't understand...'. I remember that tune perfectly, yeah! OK, and went on and went on and do a little t'ing for him and it... the way he died, he died so funny. He died very bad, he was in a store, and in his friend's store too. No, h i s store - he opened a store, and something I don't remember exactly, was something about some guy working there and he wanna fight the guy and something when another guy come there to disrespec' his store and he run the guy off. And the guy came back and shot him. He know the guy was coming back too, he know the guy is coming back but he didn't leave. He say: "Fuck it, he didn't come". And the guy came back and killed him right there. That's what I could say about that, I don't remember the exact details. But all I could say is Everton DaSilva was a wonderful person, man. Good guy. He was good, good. Kind! The guy is beautiful! Q: Humble. A: Humble, man. Beautiful person, his whole family. He's got about four or five kids, man. I wish I could see them now, y'know. Q: They're probably still around. A: Well, they're Americans, they are born in Brooklyn. So I guess they're in Brooklyn still, y'know. The whole family is Rasta, the whole family. His wife was good, the whole family is good, man. Beautiful guy, man. Always smiling, whether he's mad or not he smile. But he was no punk, y'know what I'm saying, he was no punk, he was a soldier. But that guy shot him off guard, yunno. 'Cause he was waiting for the guy to come back, he had his gun too and everything, but the guy surprised him, man. 'Pam, pam!' Dead right there. Everybody mourned, man. It was the biggest funeral I've ever seen. I don't go to funerals, but I go to that one. BIG! I mean, like thousands of people, man. 'Cause it was a good guy, had a good reputation, y'know. He don't bother nobody, y'know what I'm saying, he don't rob and t'ing like that. He's a good guy, one of the good ones.

Q: After the recordings for Hungry Town, did you move on to Wackies next? A: Oh yeah, Bullwackie (chuckles). You got me, he's in the Bronx, yeah? He's no good, man. It's the same t'ing, Bullwackie's no good, man. He's no good. Q: You cut 'Step In Jah Jah' for his Black Star imprint. A: 'Step In Jah Jah', yeah. (Sings) 'Step in Jah Jah, step in I say, your eyes won't believe all the things they see today, they pull and they fix and they turn the world upside down, not even the trees are remaining, but for the sea they keep a...' - big tune, man. Big tune! Man know nutten, them man a wicked man. But I'm gonna do it over, man. It's gonna be on the new CD. Yeah, I'm gonna lick it over. Q: There was 'You Don't Have To Dance' for him too. A: 'Don't Have To Dance', I don't remember that one. Yes well, I did a few songs for him, but I don't remember every one of them names. Q: Also 'Happy Love' for Wackies. A: Eh? 'Happy Love'? Q: Not one I've heard. A: I don't remember that one either. Q: So there was no intention to do an album for Wackies? A: Nah, that man don't do right, man. Them t'ings are 45's, not much for an album. Never. Then I go... oh, I forget to tell you about Inner Circle. I did an album for Inner Circle too. Q: 'Star In The Ghetto'. A: Yeah.

Q: How did that come about? That was done in Miami in any case. A: Yeah, I was down there, I was down there visiting Prince Tony. Q: This is '82 or thereabouts? A: Yeah. Bwoy, you got it right. And them know me from back home too, so we get together with this guy... Q: You mean Ian Lewis? A: No, the other guy, what him play again, tall...? Q: 'Touter' (Bernard Harvey), the keyboardist? A: Yeah! Wha' him name again, Touter? Touter, yeah. I met Touter, first, before I met Inner Circle, the whole a dem, we was talking, and they said, "Come in, man, we've got a studio and everything. We have a studio and you have something in the bag, come on, man, you're Barrington Spence". So I go down there and we did an agreement and I got paid, but they didn't promote the album properly, y'know. You heard the album? Q: Never. A: Yeah, good tracks on it, man. 'Star In The Ghetto', this and that, all original songs... I got paid but the promotion was poor. But by that time they wasn't doing too good anyway, 'cause from Jacob Miller died, everything went down. So it's like they had some law, some court-case just going on with them. So I hit them the wrong time. I get involved with them when the people is not really too prosperous and pride, but they still got the name, Inner Circle is a big name. So I did the album for them, that's what I could say. They're pretty nice guys, pretty decent fellows. I intended to go back to them too, I wanna give them another shot. But I no ready for them yet, yunno. You hear the guy that did 'Bad Boy, Bad Boy', is my brother in law, y'know, my sister have kids for him, my last sister by my father's side, not on my mother's side, right - Carlton Coffie. Q: Sure, I've spoken to Carlton, many years ago now. I remember I urged his manager to reissue his seventies killer 'Chant Away', I wonder what happened to it though. I hope it comes out again one of these days. A: Yeah, that's my sister's baby-father. But Inner Circle are good guys, Ian Lewis and his brother.

Barrington Spence

Q: So you laid idle for a while after this album failed to make any impact? A: After that I was in Florida for a while, with Tony so to speak (chuckles). I did a couple shows, dancehall shows down there, sound system jamboree. It was about four months, like every other week I get a gig. Go to a place named Jacksonville, we go to Ft. Lauderdale, we go all around, all around Florida and keep dance shows. With other artists, not me alone. Like we would have wha' the one deh Buro Banton, you have Hughey Ranks, you'll have... I forget this guy's name, Icho Candy. He comes in sometimes, yunno. You know Icho Candy's name, right? You've heard about him? Q: Yes, overlooked singer. A: So we just do gigs, we'd do jamboree, dancehall t'ing down there. Then when I left I came to Texas, came to Houston... No, no, no! How I came to Houston here, from down deh, was like a club-owner. It's a club in Houston called International Pub House, a man named Pupa Fritz. He was down there lookin' for an artist to do a Christmas show, and I tell him "I'll do it". And I came up here and I spent about... I came a week before the show and get it promoted on the radio station and a big blow up, big blow up t'ing. Just packed, man, I tell you it was packed. I didn't go on stage until two o'clock in the morning, all because he didn't wanna pay. The guy junk, he paid me the deposit, but I tell you the night went like this - 'cause I don't know him and I don't trust nobody like that, I said: "Listen, you give me the deposit and the night of the show you give me the balance of the money". Thirty minutes before showtime, he don't wanna pay. The place is packed, I mean PACKED! Anyway, there is a guy I met the same night, or the day before, named Jah Live, and he becomes like a manager right away. He say, "Don't go on stage, man. This man is junk, when you finished, man, get the money". And he go to him and demand that he pay the money, and he take him away through the rest-room and count out the rest of the money and give it to me and the band that backed me was the Yard Band, with Frankie on drums, Naphtali on percussion, Daniel on lead vocal for the band, and the keyboard player again, I forget about the keyboard player again. And the guy that play bass, we call him 'Bassie', I don't remember him name, but we called him Bassie. But this was the Yard Band. They're in the studio working right now, they got a big 32-track studio, that's where I'm working right now. They emerged and have a studio, but the band is not no more together really, 'cause the lead singer left the band. They're having just helter skelter, if you got a gig you can get them and they hire a keyboard player, and the drummer is still there. And all of the studio, it's still the original. And Naphtali is still around. But the band is not together as it's always been.

Barrington Spence

Barrington Spence

So, I did that show in the club, and I fell in love with Houston, man. 'Cause I used to come before, I used to come to Houston to do a lickle gigs at college, and in Austin, but I didn't come to Houston and spent a long time that I did when I came to do that Christmas show for this man at that club, the International Pub House. I fell in love with Houston because Houston is kinda laidback and it's easy, like it's not cut-throat like New York or Florida them kinda place I've been, it's just nice. As long as you've got something happening for you, you're alright. If nutten is happening for you, you can still be alright, but you've got to have something happen for you. So Houston is nice, that's what keep me in Houston. I think I'm gonna stay here for a while with my lady, and I wanna travel. I wanna go back to England, I wanna take her to England. I wanna come back to Europe, 'cause I love over there, man. And the little time I spent there really inspire me to go back. But I stopped singin' for a while... No, I met Don White, I met another producer up here. Don White, I did a song for him called 'The Love of My Life'. Yeah, I did it for him, but he's deported to Jamaica right now. I met another man called T, he had a record store called Vibration Record Store, and I did a song for him named (whistles, claps)... 'Black Beauty'. But he didn't do nutten with it, he just have it down, lay there in his shop. His shop has closed down. But he was a good guy too, he was a good one, good intentions. I give you a joke: all through the years I do the song 'Contemplating Mind' for Coxson, I never heard it again until one night. It's been out for so long, for so many years, and one night I got a phone-call in Houston right here. A guy come to the shop when it opened, and the guy who was selling it in the shop name's Cracky. Cracky, he worked in the record store, he calls me and said, "Barrington, Barrington!" - 'cause he see my name on the album, and he say, "Tell me who sing this song, tell me who sing the song?" And he put the telephone to the speaker-box, and I hear it and say - it took me about five or ten seconds to say: "It's me! It's my song! Yeah man, yeah man, is my song! Bad song! Heptones on background vocal". He say, "You're right". So he expect me to remember the song, 'cause is an old song, yunno. We've got that song right here, we have that song right here in Houston, we have the album (possibly Trojan's 'Musical Fever' where 'Contemplating Mind' was included), very beautiful. Anyway, so I met T, I met Don White and that's it. But I said well, it's time to move on again. And I still do a little show here and there. Lickle gigs, mostly dancehall jamboree an' t'ing like that, is sound system and me go sing on the microphone, sing off dub-plates. How I started this CD right now, is when you contacted me. It went through Yard Sound studio, 'cause they know where to find me, so I said alright, I'm gonna go back and do something now.

Q: What's the content of this CD, you played me a nice snippet of a Wailers tune you're working on, over the phone - which one was it again? A: OK, yeah. Well, it was a Bob Marley tune, but I turned around. What you heard is completely different now, all the lyrics has changed. They called it 'There You Are', but I'm gonna call it 'Your Loveliness'. Q: Wasn't it 'Stand Alone' rather than 'There You Are'? A: Yeah, OK. That's what they called it, right. So you're gonna have 'Your Loveliness', 'Yasmine & I', you're gonna have 'My God & I', you're gonna have 'Step In Jah', I'm gonna do it over. You're gonna have 'Sweetest Mellow Voice', you're gonna have... Q: 'Tears On My Pillow' again (chuckles)? A: No, that's too eccentric for me. I'm modern now. I'm gonna blow them out of the water, man, when I come up with the antenna (chuckles), tellin' you, Peter. You're gonna have 'Thinking Back In Time, you're gonna have 'Girl Next Door', 'Mother Moon' gonna be on it, and you're gonna have 'Do You Remember' and 'All About You My King'. Q: Seems like a nice mixture of cultural and love songs. A: Cultural and love songs, yeah. Q: Good that you maintain the cultural material. A: You got to. Q: Otherwise you might lose a lot of your old audience, they love your cultural approach. A: Definitely, like I changed, like I switch (chuckles). I can't leave the culture, man. I'm a yard man, Peter (laughs). Q: So who takes care of the production on this new album? A: I'm doing this. The producer who's producing - I'm the producer, but the engineer is Orville Adams from the Yard Sound studio. I am the executive producer and the producer right now. No, as a matter of fact, I would say Gale Gilbert is partially my executive producer. Q: So Orville programs the riddims for you? A: Yes, Frankie too. Frankie and Orville make all the beats, the original drummer.

Barrington Spence

Barrington Spence back on track and in fine form is a real treat for reggae fans out there, trust me on that, folks. His distinct sound is something missing on the scene and I'm sure I am not alone in regarding this man as a great talent and a voice we didn't hear enough from back in the day. If only the majority of his singles could be gathered and cleaned up for the CD market, music which hasn't been heard widely for the past twenty-five to thirty years, then everything would be almost perfect. A new album combined with a retrospective compilation would surely boost his name out there again. It's about time if you ask me. 7" single information courtesy Roots Knotty Roots.

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