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The Weekwith

RJR-FMNOSTALGIA - today -

11:00 a.m.This programme which wa>

tmroduerd last week, has hadfavourable public reaction. Andno wonder, for it satisfies thatlonging which the dictionarydescribes as "home sickness".On 'Nostalgia' you are treatedto some of the mellow "goidies".Last week you heard the best ofLes Brown and his orchestra,thr inimitable Nat King Cole.Gordon Jenkins and Lionel Ham-i *pton. It's a return to the goldendays, and you'll be happy 10learn that records on today's pro-gramme are available in theisland.

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TRAVELOGUE - Tomor-row — 7:15 p.m.

Continuing his fascinatingscries, "Travelogue", globetrot-te r Alex H a w k e s puts thespotlight on South Africa. Thecontroversy which South Africa'spolitics evoke is worldwide., butAlex in his music and talk pre-sentation hews to the line of cul-ture. With a population com-prising many races, African.Europeans, Indians. Chinese,etc. plus an intriguing southernmoderate c l imate . SouthAfrica's Culture should be abeauitful. fascinating fabric.

EVENING CONCERT:Monday. Tuesday and Thursday8:15 p.m.

Kate Davies has prepared afinr selection of classical musicfor "Evening Concert" th isw e e k . P r o g r a m m e s a re asfollows:

Monday: Overt u re Solonnelle 1812 Tchaikovsky Concert*) i t . D major for ViolinBrahms Wall* from "Masqueradr Kl iat haturtan .

Tuesday: Symphony in fi-lial major, Op. 38 -^ Schu-mann Sonata for Viola andFlute - Kraus "A ShakespeareSuite" from "Richard III" - SirWilliam Walton.

Thursday: "Light Calvary"Overture Suppr Piano Cone r r t o in A m i nor. Op. Hi( i i i r g "C.apr iccm I t a l i a n " .Op.4r> I i/haikovskv.

MEMORIES ARE MADEOF THIS - Wednesday -7.15 p.m.

Everv other wrrk Ban Ion< *

son invite-, a gur>i to this pro-gramme, and engages him orher in an interview. He asks hisguest: "Tell me. what bit ofmusic brings back memories toyou. and whyr" His guest thinksfor a while, then mentions apiece of music or a song, whichBar! ptays for him. Ban's twolast guests were Mr. LouisBoothe and Mrs. Bevcrley Man-.ley. Who will it be on Wednes-day r . another interestingpersonality-

ttlONAL MON-EY *- Wednesday - 7.45 p.m.On chis programme you willhear how Japan meets head-onthe problems of inflation: byinjecting 3.000 million poundssterling into her economy. Other reports deal with:

• Thr Mexican peso, whichis under "attack" due to theimpact of recession.

• USSR and her allies, whohave borrowed SI. 3 billion fromthe West

"HELLO TOMORROW*' -Saturday ~ 11:90 a.m.

Among the interesting subjecis on this programme are:

• J a m a i c a ' s new sugarregulations.

• Women in AgricultureBangladesh and Pakistan• "Chewing stick ". well

known in Jamaica, is said to bea cur- fur sickle cell disease.

Other items arc equally interand choughi provoking.

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firmlyTHE INSISTENT beat of reggae, for

years treated as music's poor rela-tion, is now shuffling into the big-time.

Established artistes like Rod Stewart andDavid Essex include obligatory reggae tracks onalbums, and Bob Marley. Jamaica's leading reg-gae artiste looks like becoming a chart regular.

But in West Indian areas of London, like Brixton, Harlesden and Lad broke Grove, reggae ismore than mere music. A closed society has beenbuilt around it, which is growing stronger daily.

As my colleague Angus McGill observed thisweek, the more exotic elements in the black com-munity have adopted the beliefs of Rastafari and.so-called "dreadlocks" as a hairstyle. Reggae, nor-mally a potent mixture of politics, sex and reli-gion acts as the backdrop for this philosophywhich is noticeably gaining strength among theyoung, normally first generation of West Indiansborn in Britain.

What it means"For young West Indians, reggae represents

the same thing that used to be provided for theAmerican negro in the blues," says Joe Sinclair,who runs record shops and a record company alldevoted to reggae. "It expresses all the desiresand frustrations."

The music hasn't been promoted strongly bymajor record companies or pop businessmen; thesizeable trade which now caters for the demandfor reggae owes its existence to a grass-rootsmovement.

Many of the leading reggae records are pro-duced on small labels like Bamboo, Creole orLocoks. A top disc can sell over 50,000 copieswithout appearing in the charts, because therecords are sold through specialist outlets like Sin-clair's Muzik City shops.

The hard core reggae clubs, like the Metro inLadbroke Grove are so popular among blacksthat they rarely need to advertise even in blackmusic magazines.

And many of the leading artistes themselvesare hardly familiar names. The current reggaechart, for example, contains records by such art-

WAY OF LIFE: Musi* City staff and the sound

istes as T. T. Ross, Jah Woosh, and Prince Jazzbowho currently is at number four in the chartswith EVERY NIGGER IS A WINNER.

West Indian musicThe West Indian community has always had

its own music, but the society that now icvolvnaround it appears to be more defined than everbefore. According to Sinclair: "It's really allbased on the Dreads and the Rastas. The Rastasare the ones who are more into the religious side.They follow Rasta. and Haile Selassie. WhenHaile Selassie die I noticed a lot of my customersshaved off the dreadlocks in respect.

"The other guys, the Dreads, they're not sointo religion. They just like the life, the easygoing part of it. They have the same kind of atti-tude that used to belong to the hippies.

The music itself was once simply dance musk;,a combination of ska and bluebeat. Now. lyr-ically, it follows more deep felt themes.

"Get up.urges Bob Msongs put forgroup shortly]called Burhm• •

an even stronjli

In much <!be more of asociety comp;by many ofrecords prodAmerica. Thied, stillwhite valuesdeal. '

"There'sinvolved." $ai<

"But tolife that is ih«very imports

Cynthia Richards back fromsuccessful four England

Unknown to most ofher fans. Cynthia Rich-ards has just completed asuccessful seven monthtour of England and isnow in the island taking abreather after working upquite a storm since leav-ing her homeland in earlyApril this year.

The 27 year old singer ,quietly slipped into theisland recently and I waslucky enough to meet herat her new local headquarters. Talent Corporation,on Oxford Road in NewKingston.

She departed for Eng-land after negotiationswi th Jamaican musicagent Elvis Breary ofCarib Agent in London.The tour was made pos-sible following her bigimpression on the Englishmarket with her two sin-gles If you're ready comego with me and For yourlove I will do anything.Both tunes weren't thenavailable in England.

"Due to spec ia ldemands for these tunes, Iwas forced to hurry off onthis tour and what a suc-cessful tour this was for

V

me! I formed my ownbacking band, the VIP's *and we toured all overEngland and even did asession with the "ChosenFew' at the Empire-Ball, . i t * i ( * , • / « .-.- * j ..ft>Y.: Ji • w*a* also

By Bob West

h o n o u r e d w i t h a ninvitation to the LyciumBallroom on that memo-rable night when Bob

CYNTHIA RICHARDS isall smiles followingher return to theisland with a newtitle, "Queen ofreggae".

Ma rley and the *rsperformed. They were justfantastic and how proud Ifelt to know that it wasmy Jamaican brothers get-ting such tremendousr a v e s ' * C y n t h i acommented.

PerformancesHer band was of two

Jamaicans, an Englishmanand other West Indians,and there were six mem-bers in all. The perform-ances started off quietly atthe Apollo £».

then on to the Ham-mersmith and the EmpireBallroom.

Cynthia toured dozensof English countrysides,including Gloucestershire,where she performed at ajam packed session at theSports Club. Other placesshe visited includedLeeds, Nottinghamshire,Phebes, Q, Club, GayTower Ballroom. CalypsoClub, Manchester, andClub Noriek.

She completed her staywiih Carib Agent in Mayand for the remaining sixmonths, all her engage-ments were done on herown bookings.

"After I had finishedwith the agents and aftera few more performances1 was contacted with theidea of repeating thoseshows but I did not acceptthe invitation. This wasnot because I wasafraid ofgetting stale, but simplybecause 1 was not fussyabout making such a has-ty return.

1 rested between Junand

nai tracks which I wrote.I was also featured on

percussions on an albumby Englishman ArthurBrown which is beingreleased in London byAMI records/'

Popular"I was loved so much bythe fans that theycrowned me "Queen ofReggae." I also did aninterview with CapitolRadio and. during thisinterview there werephone calls asking for mytunes. Then to crown itall they gave me a bigfarewell show at ClubNoriek which was fol-lowed by a surprise partyfor both myself and myband at Slough. Thisa private affair.

I was also nominatedone of the judges in theannual Miss West Indiesbeauty contest coronationin London on November28, but I have to make adecision on this later", shesaid.

7 didsome sightseeing. Whennot on cours I did somework on an LP whichincludes "If; you're ready**.There- are also

On tour she receivedvarious contract offersfrom leading RecordingCompanies in North

i and England,aba contacted to

do nxordings but ko&offers wet* turned down,"•Bead she B now

olnck piles up the dollars ito wares yet another miolder brother. Eddie, wasbricks on a muddy builrecently. Their contrastingsurprise Eddie's woBrotherly love, it seemsextend towards much sEngel's uJMuumc. wealth.Engel. who changed his nArnold George Dorsey to t19th century German

estimated *2-m a;ury house in

Surrey. Eddie lives aaway In a one-bedrooflat and takes home a boweek- His 26 year-old Gwife works in a factory

afford a recoto play Cngei

's biggest ambition ihis own home.a waver he build;others. "Ufeishe said. "Peopl

I work Mca Ibis wfcen I hrich brother, bvt I woul

Not tbrother is in

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parents v<hits a high

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