Q: And 'The Flames'? A: That's me because I've been to the theatre and they have a big show and this foreigner was there - James Brown. Q: 'James Brown & The Famous Flames', right? A: Yeah. We perform on that show along with James Brown, and so it was James Brown and The Flames, so I come up with that name - 'The Flames'. I didn't want to use that name 'Flames' because it's firing and you know how James Brown would perform, he was a fiery type of man. And I really loved James Brown from original, so that's where I come up with the name. I want another name to go with it so I get the name from the bible, the 'righteous'. Q: But 'Righteous Flames' was after the Alton period though. A: Yeah. When we were working with Alton it was 'Alton & The Flames', but after he migrated to England and gone, y'know, so I took over from that time so I did want another name. So I come up with the name 'Righteous'. So I put it together and I said 'Wow, this is great!' This is the right name that I really want, the Righteous Flames. I started to use that name from that time. But a lot of people put out songs with all kinda different name so they can't identify who is who, but is me because I used to sing at Studio One too, y'know, and the call me the Underground' and the... Q: 'The Underground Vegetables' (chuckles)? A: Yeah, and all kinda different name! With me and Enid Cumberland and Larry Marshall, they used to hide away in all those songs, come out with some different names. Q: That was 'The Freedom Singers' I believe. A: They call me all the 'T Man & The T Bones'. So, Lee 'Scratch' Perry is another man like that, he call me all kinda names. I did a lot of songs for Lee 'Scratch' Perry.

Q: Back to the Alton & The Flames period, you went for an audition back in '66? A: 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969 up to '70, '71. Q: You went to Treasure Isle first? A: That's where I started. My first career started from Treasure Isle, Duke Reid, with Alton Ellis. The first song I sing, I did - I was going to the studio one day and I buy a... I did draw a herb from Mortimer Planno and then after I left out the yard the police hold me with the weed and took me to jail, so I get bail and when I come out I was there for about a week. And when I come out I go down by Bond Street and I saw Duke Reid. So I told him what really happened and he told me that Alton Ellis is upstairs and do some recording an' t'ing, so I must go upstairs there - the studio was upstairs. After Alton gone I go to Duke Reid and tell him what happened and tell him that I need some money, for the case, and he told me that I have to sing a song before it. So I come up with this song 'Ease Me Up Officer'. So that is my first song I do for Treasure Isle, 'Ease Me Up Officer'. Q: Can you recall the audition you had for Cuttings, with Alton & The Flames? A: Yeah, we used to go there every Sunday. On Sundays, right through the week where we have something to do by Duke Reid's and we do some voicing and t'ing like that. We go down on another Sunday, Duke Reid - the only time that you can get to see Duke Reid, and have some talk and have a meeting with Duke Reid is only on a Sunday, when not too many people are there. So we choose to go on Sunday and t'ings like that and rehearse. It used to be a very long line down there on Sunday morning, a lot of artists are there, audition new artists and old artists, everybody together. So you have to go through that door and pass Cuttings, which is Stranger Cole's brother. You know, I don't know if you've heard about Cuttings but he was the man that's taking the audition along with Gladstone Anderson, he play the piano. That's where we used to go on Sunday, by the Duke Reid studio, and we won the endorsement and recording down there, a series of classic rock steady items. Q: One of them was... A: I did 'The Preacher'. Q: 'The Preacher', you wrote that? A: Yeah, with me and Alton Ellis, 'Girl I've Got A Date' and 'Blessing of Love', 'Cry Tough', 'Dance Crasher', 'Duke of Earl'. We do a lotta songs for Duke Reid, which were very good at that time, y'know. So there were hits after hits after hits. Coxson get jealous now.

Duke Reid.

Q: But money for the hit songs, did Duke compensate for this? A: No! Nothing, never. The only time I hold a money man is the firs' song I did for Duke Reid by myself, y'know - 'Ease Me Up Officer'. I left after I did that recording, go by Studio One too and do the same t'ing, and then I earn a little money to cover that debt, y'know. Q: When was 'Dance Crasher' released? A: Yes, it's '67/68. It was a number one in Jamaica for many, many months. Q: A reaction to violence at the time, linked to the music. So were the rudies intimidated by that song and looked you up (chuckles)? A: That's right, that's right. What really happened is you have a lot of rude boys used to really behave in a type of manner that is disrespectful to people, y'know, and we were not of that type of person. So we were more like a teacher and a role model, and so we never really go on that road. Those type of t'ing that make a lot of people have to run up an' down and leave the community and they kill a lot of people and they destroy the family and destroy the love that we're supposed to have for one another, so we were on the top of that. If you can put out some songs to let them know that we're not in that type of t'ing and they must respect their brothers, especially the elders. Also the mothers and the fathers and the children, because they're not setting no example. So that's why we're coming out with that song 'Set A Better Example', with me and Alton Ellis. Also 'Dance Crasher', they go to the Ambassador Theatre and they kill a guy, kill another one up there and we are showing them that they must stop it and trying to live up in a better harmony with the community and their family and their children and our children. So, that's how we come up with that song, y'know, 'Rudie At Large'.

Q: Your community felt you took care of the right issues, speaking directly for and about them, you had a lot of support in the ghetto where you lived in at the time? A: People love us, man! We were like an idol for the whole community, everywhere we go and we're walking the street or driving, whatever, you have lot's of people admire us for the song that we are doing, so we get a very good response back, feedback from that. Q: Alton said that The Wailers more or less glorified the rude boy image at the time - in song, would you agree with that? A: They were the top, yunno. They'd call us the most skilled artists", Bob Marley and the Wailers they were number one. Q: And Alton felt the need to criticise them for supporting badness. A: Yes, because you see the message that they put out at the time, y'know, people listening to your music and if you say something that they really want to follow through and they feel that is the - anything that you're singin' about is what is really happening. They go on top of that and they start to do bad things, y'know. But The Wailers them - the song that they put out is like it was on the side with the rude boys. But is not really that, is the type of person who Bob Marley was, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer at the time, they were forceful and they're really more forceful than me. So that's why I'm living now and what happened happened. But I'm not saying that is the right way for them to die, but he was a very forceful or powerful type of person and he was a outspoken type of person also. He had a lot of good in him! For the world to see, and learn off. But everybody is different. If your mother have four everybody grow up in a different type of way. But I didn't really have anything to say at that time about that, but that's what everybody used to say.

Winston Jarrett.

Q: And then Alton & The Flames moved from Treasure Isle to Coxson's stable after so many hits, what took place there? A: Well, we never sign no contract with Duke Reid at that time so everybody was jealous of us, as the group. Producers them used to be jealous, so Coxson and Duke Reid they always used to fight all the time. Coxson put out songs and Duke Reid figured more or less that they told him that he had some badman a follow the sound. They go and mash up the record and mash up the sound, t'ing like that so they keep fighting all the time. If you see the record released from Studio One that Duke Reid don't have and when he carry it to play on his sound and everybody start to rise up and love it and jumpin' up in the air and place just get mad about that song! Duke Reid get jealous, so he called us back to do some songs too, and Downbeat do the same t'ing, so it's going back and forward like that all the time. Q: What was some of the first recordings you did for Coxson? A: Well, after Alton Ellis left... Q: But Alton & The Flames did 'I'm Still In Love' for Coxson before Alton left the group. A: We do all those songs and then he depart after that, after we finish that album he left for England. Q: Why did he decide to leave for the UK at that point, he was just fed up with how things went? A: He just want to get a promotion on the international market, because he did travel to England with Jackie Mittoo and the Studio One band, with Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson in the early days. So, that was his first trip. He come back to Jamaica and we finish that album and then he left after that and said because of the government and the politics in Jamaica at that time, he figured more or less that he want to travel outside of Jamaica to find a better career for himself, owing to the fact that he did all those songs already on release so he's trying to get a bigger market for himself on the international market like England, Europe and United States, and wherever. A lot of corruption used to be in the industry and he's not getting what he is supposed to get from Studio One and Duke Reid. He did pissed off about the whole situation so he just want to travel and uplift his career into a better manner than how he feel at the time in Jamaica for him. So nobody could tell him what to do and he just want to go to Canada, that's where he started from first. He left and go to Canada and then he stopped in Canada for a good while, just because of immigration documents. So after a period of time he start to go to the States here - that's where I am right now - and then he was in the States here promoting himself with other promoters 'til he left and go to England, and from that time he lived in England and lived there for a period of time and he come back to Jamaica and start back and forward. Q: Did he actually say to you that he's moving to Europe and the group is no more and...? A: I tell you the truth, he didn't say nothing. He just go, he just leave and go. Maybe one or two time, I can't recall or remember but he just left on his own and he just went to England and get married in England and take up his family up there and considered say 'OK, I'm going to live in England for a period of time'. But, I was very unhappy but I decided to myself that the way that he wanted to go, an' t'ing like that, you can't stop him from go. So I have to work out a different formula for myself, that's how I come to work up this song 'I Was Born To Be Loved'. It was one of my - I wouldn't say one of the best, but up to now I still have to say is one of the best songs that I recorded for Studio One and Jackie Mittoo. And then I come up with other songs like... Q: 'Ease Up' for example? A: 'Ease Up', 'Your Tender Pride'. Then I go to 'Fear Not' and 'Solid Foundation', 'Old Me Israelites' and all those songs, 'Caring' and...

Q: After Coxson, you went to Prince Buster for a couple of recordings. A: I was up by Studio One and things wasn't working for me, moneywise, no money nor nutten, so I was pissed off and I was by my house and I start to ask questions and then answer it by myself, and then I said 'I must still go on and try something more for myself, I can't stay by Studio One all the time'. I was trying to make maybe one or two or three step up more on my career. So, I come up with 'Isn't It Wrong' for the Upsetter, and 'One Heart' for the Upsetter, and then I met this engineer which is cousin of Downbeat - Coxson, and his name is Sidney Bucknor. So me and Sidney Bucknor, he love me bad and he call me one day and said he want me to do two songs for him, so I come up with 'True Born African' and 'Let The Music Play'. So, he used to do his own little recording at that time with 'Johnny Too Bad', that song. Q: By the The Slickers. A: He record those two song at the same time, the same day. So that song come out again and make a good turn for me, 'True Born African' and 'Let The Music Play' for Sidney Bucknor. And then now, everybody start fe checking him when they hear that song, y'know, and I just move to the Upsetter and I'm in-between the Upsetter and Prince Buster, they were on Orange Street at the same place, just maybe two doors. Scratch was at Orange Street and Charles Street an' Prince Buster was at Orange Street, and over the other side now was Studio One Recording shop. I'm talking of record shops now, those are the shops right in - facing eachother with different producers, and you gonna have Lee Perry and Clancy Eccles right there also. And further down you're gonna have Mrs Pottinger and further down you are going to have Tip Top Records, which is Mrs Pottinger. Then you're going to have Mr Pottinger further up the road, so the whole of that road was like a music street. Because, everybody have a record shop down there, Joe Gibbs and all those man have them shop down there and then you come up now with Stranger Cole and Derrick Morgan also have a shop down there and some Chinese too used to have shop down there. They have a lot of jukeboxes, maybe over two thousand jukeboxes between all of those people, y'know. Is a music street. Q: It was one Chinaman called KG there, or that's somewhere else? A: KG was in Cross Roads, yeah. And then you have like a man named Bossa. Yes, he's down there too and you have a lot like Swing A Ling, you have a little car down there, one of my brethren but he died, named Charley Ace. Yeah, he did have like a little record shack. Q: A mobile shack, yeah. Swing A Ling. A: Yeah, a little van. Yes, so he used to sell records right on the street. But I used to sing for Joe Gibbs, me and the High Priest (Roy Shirley) and Errol Dunkley. And there's two more groups and that's where Joe Gibbs start from, right there on Beeston Street and Orange Street, and Love Lane or Mark Lane, one of those lickle lanes, that's where Joe Gibbs started from. I told him that he must check the government and get one of the - see if he can rent somewhere down by downtown there, West Parade. And he put - build up a little board shop right on the sidewalk and got that gutted and he did put up that shop there, and he started right there. Yeah, until he get another shop.

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

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