Bricktop - Up Here!

[Gamma]

I remarked to one of the persons sitting beside me that this band would not succeed in Jamaica

curious as to why you thought that way, it seems you were right though. still interested in what was the reasoning behind your pronouncement.

[Historian]

It's Like This....

I remarked to one of the persons sitting beside me that this band would not succeed in Jamaica

curious as to why you thought that way, it seems you were right though. still interested in what was the reasoning behind your pronouncement.

A good question, Gamma, although unfortunately you missed what I said in my next sentence.

I remarked to one of the persons sitting beside me that this band would not succeed in Jamaica (that was in the very early 1980s). In secular music, maybe, but not in the more tradition-oriented gospel atmosphere that Jamaica was (and still) is.

The Jamaican gospel audience back in the 1980s was very traditional and intolerant of rock and funk-type groups. The groups most welcomed included the Grace Thrillers and, for the more sophisticated uptown type, a group like David Keane & the Sunshine Singers. We’re talking here about the post-Claudelle Clarke and Otis Wright era. You remember Rev. VB? Well, if you wanted to know where the tastes of the Jamaican gospel audience lay, just listen to his then highly popular radio program.

The groups who were going outside the local self-imposed boundaries, for example the Insights gospel band with its heavy doses of pure reggae, Change with its funk stuff, the Maranatha Affair, etc. had a difficult time surviving thanks to their contemporary gospel styles. In fact, groups such as these only managed to survive largely because of the young, urban teen Christians in Kingston and Montego Bay!

The band Flight was even far more advanced than the already advanced ones I named above!

Today, not a great deal has changed, although the general gospel audience has become somewhat more sophisticated. But most Jamaicans, if given a choice, would still prefer a steady diet of the Shirley Willis, Grace Thrillers, Carlene Davis type of gospel.

[Gamma]

ok .... i thought so, but it was not that clear because the connection was not immediately clear to me (it was missing a "because" type connection.

thanks.

[Historian]

I Agree

ok .... i thought so, but it was not that clear because the connection was not immediately clear to me (it was missing a "because" type connection.

thanks.

No problem, Gamma . In fact, reading now what I wrote earlier, I definitely agree with you that a “because” type connection would have made my statement much clearer.

By the way, even Skip’s group was regarded by many rural gospel music supporters as being too “different”, meaning “too radical” or “nontraditional” or “too unlike Noel Willis’ Grace Thrillers” (lol)! But it was the really progressive groups like the Insights (led by that blind saxophonist) that felt the full brunt of the backlash from the traditionalists!

One day I might attempt a discussion of Jamaican gospel music’s struggles and post it here.

[Gamma]

That sounds interesting. Especially seeing that Glen had one foot in the band with Skip and the Grace Thrillers. I am sure there might be a timeline issue but nonetheless he made that transition. Did he compromise, you think?