Q: And at the time you had struck up a deal with Adrian Sherwood in the UK, 'Ten Thousand Lions' came out on a 12" on his Hit Run imprint I think. A: Yeah. Q: That led up to you being on tour with Bim Sherman and Prince Far I in 1979? A: 'Ten Thousand Lions' came in England as a pre, as pre-release, yeah? Q: Right, which led to the UK release. A: Yeah, you used to have a newspaper called the Black Echo paper (now Echoes), and my song was number one in the Black Echo paper as a song that came from Jamaica. They used to like chart the songs, which is the best or next best song from Jamaica or which songs gonna be hits, and my song was the number one song. And people phoned me from England and said, "Listen now, man, your song is really mashin' up the place here, man!" Other artists came over here and find out what was happenin' too and come back to Jamaica and explained it to me. Anyhow, Prince Far I knew Adrian Sherwood before I did, he was a friend of his, yunno. And with me and Prince Far I being in the business like we kinda walkin' up an' down flatfooted in Jamaica doing the same thing, and with me establishin' that recording, the story that we talked about before, I was introduced to Adrian Sherwood through Prince Far I. And I said to Adrian, said "Listen, I would like to come to England", y'know, just to kinda get the chance to be here, get to know the people, and establish my business. He said to me, say "OK, I'll try my best to help you come over". But at the time I did not have the cash, the straight up money, to really buy the ticket. But I had a lot of stuff, a lot of records in Jamaica, y'know what I mean, as records I had been sellin' from my store. So what I did, you had some cigarette called Craven A, you had some big boxes, some massive boxes when these used to come into Jamaica, and I full one of these box of lots of 7"-inch records, and send it to Adrian Sherwood them and tell him to sell the records, both 7"-inch and 12"-inch records, and asked him to sell it and buy me a plane ticket. And that's the chance I get was to come to England the first time ever. Adrian buy me the plane ticket, I came over, and then we start doing business together, we start workin' together as a unit. And when I came over, we came over with Bim Sherman, Prince Far I came over too as much. And we came over and do a tour with...

Prince Far I.

Bim Sherman.

Q: The Creation Rebel band. A: Yeah, with Creation Rebel. The tour was called 'Roots Encounter Part 1', that was the name of the tour. Which we toured from England right back to Scotland, all over the place, you name it, we've been there. Q: That was in '79. A: '79, yeah. Q: Places like the legendary Dingwalls in London. A: We done all the Dingwalls circuit, every Dingwalls circuit, we've done all of them. And then... Q: I learned about a story where you apparently fell off the stage in excitement on one of the gigs on that tour (chuckles)? Is that true, or just another one of those rumours or exaggerations? A: Where, who? Q: Somewhere on that tour this had happened. Hope you didn't get injured though. A: No, no. What I used to do, I used to jump off the stage and jump in the audience, yeah? Q: Right. A: I jump off the stage, and because I like workin' with my people, so I would jump off the stage in front of the people, stand up in front of them an' t'ing like that, singin' in front of the stage, walkin' around, singin' from one person to the other, then jump back 'pon the stage. That's what I told you before, they used to call me 'The Legs Man'.

Prince Hammer with children.

Q: Yes, 'The Dancer'. A: 'The Dancer' (chuckles), y'know. Because the stage is where I live. Prince Far I is totally different from me, the three of us there, is three different acts. Bim Sherman, he would just stand up like Gregory Isaacs style, and sing like that. Prince Far I would be like chalkin' up the place, really movin', not as fast as I would've done, but really commandin' and demanding these people (emphasising it, the way the late Voice of Thunder would) 'to accept that I appreciate that they listen to me, I am Prince Far I', y'know, type of a t'ing. He would've been that type of a guy. With me now, I would be more flowing, I would be flying and fly from that side to this side of the stage, as I said before snap-falling, splittin', jumpin' off the stage, jumpin' in the crowd, y'know, doing all these type a mad t'ings and so on, which really excite people. Because in those days - it's not like the now dance when you have all the bogle and these type a t'ings, those days it was like skank and shuffle and split, and all these type a dance, you remember these type a t'ings. Those were the type a dance them times, so when I've gone on stage I would be shufflin' off me foot (chuckles), y'know, and throwing the mic in the air and split-fallin' and catching back the mic before I reach the floor and all them t'ings, those were the t'ings I used to do. So, yeah, we had a big tour and that's when I get the chance was to tour with UB40 and the Boomtown Rats... Q: And the Slits? A: Yeah, the Slits and also The Clash. And I've had a good time workin' with them, especially UB40 them and the Slits, Ari them and all these girls. You know Ari lives in Jamaica now? Q: Yeah? A: Ari, the lead singer for the Slits. Q: Oh, right, Ari-Up is down there now, I saw something about that. A: Yeah. She live in Jamaica for many years now, from the band break up she's been livin' in Jamaica. Q: That exposed your name further. A: Yes, because we did, as I said, I had a chance was to work with all of these big artists, and I've gone to like Birmingham and spent a lot of time with UB40 in their recording studio. Is a couple days I've been lookin', going through all me details inna me house, and I've found like autographs from them from all those years, and I've still got them in the book, y'know (chuckles).

Ari-Up, lead singer for the Slits.

Q: You had another tune high on the Black Echoes charts, 'Love Title'. Was that one of the bigger hits at the time, even in Jamaica? A: Which? Q: 'Love Title'. A: 'Love Title', yeah, that was one of my biggest songs too. Q: It was pretty high up on the Echoes charts back in 1978. A: Black Echoes charts, yes. And Adrian done a lot for me inna them time too, you see, because the guys them... Q: You did 'North London Thing' for Adrian. A: 'North London'? Q: Right, 'North London Thing' on his Hit Run label. A: Yes, on the Hit Run label. Yes. And the guys that I've met, I've met them inna the Stonebridge where Adrian Sherwood took us under the Stonebridge and I met Tony and all these guys, there was like a lickle studio, a recording studio there. And Adrian introduced me to these other guys that he work around more time, but they didn't get any - they wasn't established. But with settin' up the tour now, going to Holland, y'know, me and Prince Far I and Bim Sherman them going to Holland, that give them the first chance was to go to Holland and get themselves established. Now they're one of the biggest bands now, the Undivided Roots (known these days as Ruff Cutt), which was one of the biggest bands. Because the name's been changed to Undivided Roots now.

Q: When did your LP 'Roots Me Roots' come out? A: That was inna the eighties. Q: Checking 'Roots Knotty Roots', the discography shows plenty of Belva singles, things that could make up an album, most are uncollected I think. A: Yes, because I did work with people like Enos McLeod and all them people deh. If you notice there's a lot of people them deh, Echo Minott, and a lot of different people I've worked with them times. Q: You produced a various artist set called 'Africa Iron Gate Showcase' in about 1982. A: 'Africa Iron Gate', yes. You know, all of these albums, right, I don't even have a copy of them for myself, but I'm trying to find copies of them. I'm trying to find copies of them so I can re-release them. A lot of people been askin' me for them. But I've been diggin', diggin'. Because a few months back, one of my sons buy me a copy of that, 'Dreadlocks T'ing', and he pay £ 75 pound for it, y'know. Because them vintage record, you can't get these records again. I ask him and he saw the label and I wanted back the label itself, the Belva label, so I can copy back again. And he buy me the record for £ 75 pounds in England for me, just a 7"-inch. Q: It's getting expensive now, the vintage market, been expensive for some time now in fact. A: Yes. So I'm gonna search anyhow, because I know there's a few places, most places I go to, a lot say 'oh, I've got your record in the selection, I've got this in me selection'. So I'll naturally try and search and find - I've got master tapes, but I've lost a lot of master tapes with a lot of these songs in King Tubby's studio, when King Tubbys died. Because Bunny Lee, 'Striker' Lee, he had a lot of tapes in the studio itself, in King Tubby's studio, and when King Tubbys die, I was in England at the time, and by the time was the chance to go down there, a lot of stuff had been moved out. You know, master tapes of mine had been moved out all over the place, and I could not really establish if it gone left, right or center where my tapes had been gone to. Even though I've tried my best to speak to his sister and his niece, and so on, to see if I maybe could get a lead to find back these produc'. But I've lost them. So the only way I would really get back this stuff now is that if I would find somebody with all these materials on vinyl, and then transfer them back and try and get them on CD and vinyl again.

Q: Good luck with that, hope you succeed. You did an LP called 'Vengeance' as well. A: 'Vengeance', yes. Q: When was that? A: That's late eighties or early nineties I've done that, or either early nineties I've done that one. And that's been put out in England as much, and I've done very well with that album. If you notice I've done even poetry on that album, because I've been trying and changin' my style again there. So I've done sing-jay style and I've done poetry on it, just to get my audience to listen to something different. I've always been changin', from ever since I've never been a steady deejay, somebody who just stick to one style. I've never been like that. Because I'm one of the first deejay ever to come to England to deejay and sing, and that's where Clint Eastwood get his style from too. A lot of these guys adapt from me, when I came to this country and start doing deejay and start singin' at the same time. Because I've used to do both things on stage, sing and then I deejay, and then Clint Eastwood them pick up the idea to start, because I was doing so well with it. And Clint Eastwood was with General Saint at the time, and he pick up the style from there and start use it himself too. Q: Both of those guys live in the UK nowadays, Saint doing video production and Eastwood is out of the business, doing social work I think. A: Yes.

Q: You even completed a dub album too, 'World War Dub'. A: 'World War Dub'. Yeah, with the one I'm flying the plane. I've just been designing another cover now, because I think I'm gonna re-release that dub album again. Q: You should. A: Yes. So I've just been doing, as I said, I have an artist now doing some art work and everyt'ing like that now for me to really put it out back again. Because a lot of people's been talkin' about that dub (chuckles).

Q: Speaking about producing, I believe you cut an album with Jennifer Lara who sadly passed away the other day, what did you cut with Jennifer? A: Yes. I'm the first one who ever put out any songs with Jennifer Lara, I've done three songs with Jennifer Lara, but I only put out two songs for her in that period. And the first song I put out with her gone straight up in the chart to number two... sorry, number three, in the charts. Beca' we used to live together, you see, she coming from the same community, man. She coming from - you remember I was tellin' you about these gangs and so on, like Skull and Tel Aviv, yeah? And she was with one of the Skull guys, y'know, one of them leader. And I took her away from him! You know (chuckles)? I took her from him, and then I start live with her, because she really had qualities, and she didn't have a chance by being with this guy. So getting involved in the music business that's what gonna save, so I took my chances with her and t'ing like that, we lived together, and I've given her the first chance. Then she went to Studio One and she start work amongst people like Johnny Osbourne and all that, yunno. Q: What about Rod Taylor, how did you meet him? A: Well, with Rod Taylor now, we've always been on the same - ca' Rod Taylor come out of Dunkirk, right, and he always been on Idler's Rest itself, yunno, Chancery Lane, which we always call Idler's Rest, and it's like I say to him one day, I said 'listen', right, because he's got a voice there which is really like a fine voice, really fine, and to me I did admire him voice, but a lot of people didn't wanna work with him. But I said I'm gonna take my chances with him, because I liked what I heard. So I said to him seh, 'OK', then I booked the studio, rent Channel One studio, I went there and build the riddims. All those riddims I've built is all original riddims, and we sit down and write the lyrics together and we do everyt'ing together. And when I came over to England, the first place I took the album to was Greensleeve, and they wouldn't accept it because they were talkin' about his voice, his voice is too fine. You know, his voice is not really 'uuuhhhrrr' (imitates the deeper type of voice) type a t'ing, what they wanted. And I was a bit disappointed with Chris (Cracknell, part-owner of Greensleeves Records), y'know what I mean, for him not to take the album. Because Greensleeve was the guy, those were the people at the time. And I talked to Adrian Sherwood about the album, but the album - I find myself end up in hospital, y'know, because one night I went to a movie and I ate some popcorn, and I had a problem with my stomach, the same night it's like in pain, etcetera. And when I went to the hospital, what they did, they keep me in instead of sendin' me home, and then they find out that there was a problem. Because in Jamaica, I had been shot in Jamaica, and like one of my tube (intestinal tract) had been blocked up, because of the injury I had inside. And it's like the see what they're seeing inside me stomach, and they ask me for permission to operate on me, and it happen, things jus' go hay-wire from there.

Q: That album, 'If Jah Should Come Now', came out on the Little Luke label. A: It's just like, yeah, because that's Daddy Kool label. Because it's like Adrian Sherwood would come and see me one day and we were sitting down and talkin', and I said to Adrian, y'know, "Listen, Adrian, I've got this album, but what I really want is a bigger established label". Because Adrian was doing OK, but what I really wanted was to have a bigger, more mainstream company, instead of with Adrian. But when I was in the hospital now, I needed money because what I did want was to go back to Jamaica. And I said to Adrian, "OK then, if you find a way to really get this album out so I can achieve from it by the time I get out of the hospital, then I'll be OK then, and it's OK to even go and talk to Daddy Kool". And he went and talked to Daddy Kool about it, and both of them come together and they came back and we put an agreement together, and we say OK, that's it. And then that's how the album come out. And it goes straight in the chart - number one. Q: Right, that was a big album in 1980. A: Yes, seven weeks it was in the charts - number one - for, and the single was in the charts for three to four weeks, y'know, the title track... Q: 'If Jah Should Come Now', yes. A: 'If Jah Should Come Now'. Yeh, that was in the chart for that long. So that was one of the biggest album. And, what happened there, I tell you, life is a funny thing, yunno, because like when I was in Waltham, the McKay Lane, and I told you about 'Junjo' Lawes, yeah? One day Junjo was walkin' down in the community, and he was singin', but he was singin' off-key (chuckles), and in Jamaica we always have a say 'encouragement sweet labour', right. Encourage somebody, they'll get better or do better, right. So I said to him, say: "Wow, wicked, my yout'! Respec'! Yeah man, big tune, I like what I hear, yunno!" And just talk to him like that, that's the reason why he get involved in the business, that encouraged him to get involved in the music business, you see. And then he start working with people like Yellowman, yunno, Ranking Toyan, and a lot of these other guys start now, Linval Thomas (Thompson) and all these guys start gettin' involved now with Junjo. And Junjo came over to England and I was with Adrian Sherwood in Harlesden High Street in London one day, and he came over here after making all of his stock from recording all these guys, and he came over. And he was walking down Harlesden High Street with his bag on his shoulder and he didn't know where to turn at all, didn't know which way to turn (chuckles). And that time Trojan Record was just about a few yards from where Adrian used to be, and Creole Record, all these record companies they just been close by there. And Mr Palmer of Jet Star was just around on the High Street itself too. So I said to him, seh, "Alright, this is what I'll do, I'll give you a few details of people you can go to". Because I said to Adrian, say, "Adrian, listen, this is my friend from Jamaica, we come from the same community, he's got this stuff, what do you think?" Adrian said we couldn't afford it at the time, so I give him details. I said to him, seh, "Alright, you can go here, this is Trojan, this is Creole, this is... and this is Greensleeve, go to Chris and tell him me sent you". And that's where he went and made his name, he went to Greensleeve and Greensleeve signed him up there and then, give him a LOT of money, and says "Go to Jamaica, make the songs". But what Greensleeve did, right, was ask him to make an album with Rod Taylor!

Rod Taylor.

Q: Yeah (laughs)! I know. A: Because Rod Taylor was in the chart - number one. So they asked him to make an album with Rod Taylor, right. Before Junjo went to Jamaica and make an original album, right, with the guy, he went and put him on some mek-over riddims, some riddims that a'ready been made, that people already knew. But what people was lookin' for, and listening for, they was listening for me to record Rod Taylor again, make another album with him, not anybody else. You understan'? So Junjo make the album with him, took him to Greensleeve, the album flopped! It went nowhere at all! You know? And we had an argument over it, me and Junjo, because I said why don't make an original album with him, y'know what I mean. I was a bit disappointed, beca' Greensleeve, like they take me for a ride there anyhow by not really taking my album, by sending somebody else to make another album - is like doing things behind my back! That money that they gave to Junjo, they could've give it to me and said "Alright, Prince, y'know, you go make another album now with the guy, because we like what we hear". All right. But not even 'we like what we hear', but they guy see it's in the chart - number one. You know (laughs)? So we give you some money and you go and make some more songs with him so we can start achieve from it as much too, which I would've gone to Jamaica and made another album with the guy. But he just gave Junjo some money, Junjo go down, give Rod Taylor some money, and they go to the studio, and the riddims already make a'ready. He just go straight over them, and that's it, yunno - he just flop. And that's the biggest ever album Rod Taylor's ever had, the biggest album. That's why Junjo always look up to me, right, because we're so close. Because I'm the guy who give him the lead-way and the door to go through. And that's why we were really really so close, he always said to me, even before he die - just a couple of weeks before he died, he came to look for me the firs' time, because he had not been to England in how many years, over seven or eight or nine years he had not been here. Because he had problems with people here, y'know, gun-fightin', etcetera, blah blah, them type a madness, yunno. And when he came over here, the same day when Manchester United won the Treble, he came over from Jamaica the day before, and the following day Manchester United was playing when they win the Treble, Junjo was in my house, sitting down with me an' his family an' my family, and I was cookin' chicken and rice and peas and everyt'ing for them in my house (chuckles). And he sit down and watch everyt'ing about the football on my Sky television, and so on, and he went and die about two weeks after that. You know, get shot up in London and died. And I was really disappointed, because he said to me, he looked up on me, seh "You know, Prince, all I've got, all I've owned, brethren, is because of you, you is the guy who put me in a position to be the person I am now". And I was very proud of him, y'know wha' I mean, to know that for him to could've turn 'round and look at me and say that I put him in the position he's in, y'know. With all the finance, everyt'ing, his house, everyt'ing what he's got, because I was the person who direc' him, and introduce him, etcetera, to people when he just came to England the firs' time, I was the one who direc' him. And I was happy about that. At least him acknowledge me.

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

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