Metromedia
The Metromedia sound system has the unique distinction of being one of, if not THE original, sound systems in Jamaica. What was started as The Great Sebastian by Tom Wong in the fifties
The Metromedia sound system has the unique distinction of being one of, if not THE original, sound systems in Jamaica. What was started as The Great Sebastian by Tom Wong in the fifties only became known as Metromedia after Wong’s suicide and Lou Gooden took over the sound system in 1971. Lou, after some years, then passed the sound to its current proprietor Haldaine James, known worldwide as his onstage moniker Jimmy Metro. BACKAYARD recently sat down with Jimmy to discuss, among other things, the illustrious past of the mythical sound and what he thinks about the business of owning a sound system in the present day.
How did you become the owner of Metromedia?
In the early seventies, my friend Lou Gooden used to operate this club called Baby Brother in Crossroads and Metromedia was the resident set. This was while I was working at Dynamic Sounds and through the love of the music I link up wid Lou at the club and I started playing the set there. Lou migrated to the United States after a couple of years and during that time I started to buy equipment for myself and I was searching for a name for my discotheque or sound system. I fall in love with the name Metromedia so I decided to continue using the name Metromedia. That name actually came from a record label with a group called The Winstons on it and Lou used it from then.
When he migrated how did you actually ‘get’ the sound?
Well there was no equipment or records as such it was jus the name that I ended up using. I actually started it on my own in 1975.
Where was the sound based? Was it still Crossroads?
No, in this area Woodford Park, I have been living in this area a couple years well. I have been living here from about 1968.
When did you start to play outside of just Woodford Park?
Dem time deh it was a small small small system. We used to jus do likkle area jig, likkle bars, roadside and house party. After that we started to build up the sound but even before I had a certain level of equipment we had a vast following. Because I used to be at Dynamic Sounds music wasn’t a problem.
Oh so as soon as the records press you got them….
Right, right as soon as the records come out and then I used to link up wid other record companies like Federal. So music wasn’t a problem especially for me who was the one who actually played in the early days. Going up to the early eighties, we had a selector who we used to call Snack Jack. Him used to live said place in Woodford Park and during that time you used to have big sound like Gemini, Black Scorpio, Virgo, Afrique who used to deh down by Franklin Town. Where Metromedia got the big break is when I link up wid Peter Metro. At the time he wasn’t even Peter Metro, him used to call himself Peter Ranking but hear wah happen now. There was another Peter Ranking down by Greenwich Farm wid a brother name General Lucky. It always cause a likkle mix up, yuh nuh, who is who. So one night he was DJing same place down here and him seh him is no longer Peter Ranking he is now Peter Metro. It happened that around 1983, I went to England with Peter Metro, Josey Wales, Snack Jack and Sister Verna. That tour gave us some management problems but overall good. So basically during that time Metromedia was off the road. Is not like now when yuh travel yuh jus send some selector and the sound still productive. We actually spent around 9 months in England so we were off the road for that time in Jamaica. We came back from England and the selector Snack Jack decided that he wasn’t coming back so when we reached back we started looking for a new selector. Peter Metro and Sky Juice was friend so Peter brought in Sky Juice. We also linked up wid Zuzu, Wayne Wonder who is a singer, Ashman… a whole lot of people.
How important was having singers and Djs affiliated with your sound?
All of the names you hear mi call like Zuzu, Peter Metro, Dr C, Squidly Rank and Wayne Wonder was exclusive to Metromedia.
Not sure something like that would happen now….
Inna dem time deh dancehall used to different. How a Dj mek him name in dem days deh is be a part of a sound system. Is not like now you hear about a particular artiste who have nuh connection wid a sound. When yuh talk about sound like Jah Love yuh talk about Brigadier Jerry, Stereograph wid Josey Wales and Charlie Chaplin, Black Scorpio wid General Trees and SassaFras, Lees Unlimited and Yellowman and going back to Gemini wid Wellington Irie and Ringo, so every sound had a name brand Dj attached to it. What used to happen sometime is that a Dj would move from one sound to another sound. But Peter Metro adopt him name from the sound ….
So him couldn’t move….
Yeah …(laughs)… But him used to freelance and whatever whatever. Is jus like now you have selector now, who we call Pouchie, him jus move round wid him music in him pouch. Dem days deh it was more stable wid us still.
After the early eighties how did the sound system business progress for you?
In the mid eighties after coming back from England, we started a Wednesday night thing right here in Woodford Park. Gemini was one of the first sound that start a Wednesday night ting at Brentford Road by a place called Love Shack. Stone Love used to be around Adams Lane Torrington bridge di same Wednesday night. That was one of the big break for us. At that Wednesday night ting you find all the big DJ there, Shabba Ranks in fact Cutty Ranks that was where him come round deh come shine him light and actually mek back him name. He actually ended up on our sound too. Going up to the later part of the eighties the music started to change. What happened you had the sound system Classique they used to jus play straight music. So what they used to do is go round and voice the artiste dem and yuh find that the crowd start react to it. Stone Love was a similar ting while we were there still using our live Djs but the people dem after a while now don’t want to hear it right throughout the night. They more wanted to hear a mix of music, likkle calypso, likkle souls and whatever else. We actually made a change in the late eighties and started cutting alot of dub plates. When we did have di Dj dem we never need fi cut no dub plate, yuh nuh, we di have live dub plate. In the late eighties early nineties we started to add more selectors to the sound. We brought in people like Oliver, Scratchy, Lucan Silver a whole lot of dem. We had around 6 of dem in nineties during some good times when it came on to music.
Well my experience with Metromedia goes back to the cassettes I used to listen to…
Dem cassettes was more eighties cassettes, mid eighties coming up to the early part of the nineties dancehall cassettes.
So nineties were good for Metromedia because of the expanded roster?
Because the base was here and we could still send some selectors overseas and still play here. We started in Woodford Park and always stayed in Woodford Park.
What has changed in the business for you?
Most of the nineties we were still using vinyl dem time the business was really really good. Since the CDs come in the whole business change, vinyl is something where a man caan jus get up and tek a record and copy a record. You have to go through a process, now a CD you deh yahso wid yuh laptop and yuh copy it and that’s it. Music is much easier to come by now and that is why you have so many selectors or so called selectors we call dem Pouchie. Honestly sound business is here to last but some of these people who come into the business, they are hustling it. And we the foundation people weh set a standard over the years, alot of time we put into it. A hol’ heap a night life, family life get messed up and all these tings to keep it to a standard. We try our best to keep it clean even though we get harassed by police or the law of the land. But these people jus come inna di ting and start hustling it. Even some a di songs dem weh a record dem a change di beat to sound more hip hop, we need to stick to the roots. You still have some sound like we and Stone Love a try keep the ting natural. We still able to travel all over the world considering that we coming from way back inna di seventies and we still recognized the foundation at least set. We get called up for all different type of dances a man would seh him wah Metromedia to play wid a Stereograph or a Black Scorpio fi a foundation dance and we can still fit into modern ting what is happening now. We still have all our foundation tune dem and we keep up to date, you have younger people that come into the system. So they would want to hear a different sort of music like a Movado or a Kartel.
But the foundation will never die…..
You have some session like Good Times at Mas Camp is more eighties and nineties and that crowd age range is like 18 to 25 or 30. So you see there will be always an appreciation for good music. We are still being requested all over the island and plus the US, England, Canada and the other Caribbean islands.
What do you think about the future of Metromedia and sound system business in general?
With the sound system business all of us need to get more organized and bring back the Sound System Association. There was started by Louise Frazier Bennett unfortunately she died some years ago. But right now we have something in the making and you will hear about it soon. What is happening now with the night noise act is they are enforcing it more. So with this new association hopefully we can lobby with the government and see if we can get the time extended. The future of Metromedia look good with Sky Juice, Oliver, Skully, Jiggy Hunks and we have selector overseas called Lucan Silver. I still play my old hits we might get some dance that we might haffi call in Peter Metro but overall that is the current lineup.
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