Culture ADD

Waul Of Sound - A Rare Interview with Franklyn 'Bubbler' Waul

05/09/2024 by Angus Taylor

The term ‘musical genius' is readily thrown around. But it's striking how often reggae industry insiders use it in reference to Franklyn ‘Bubbler’ Waul. Encouraged to enter Kingston studios as a teenager by his school-friend Winston McAnuff, Bubbler was so adept at the keyboards that he became a core part of Joe Gibbs’ studio house band The Professionals. He played on international hits such as Dennis Brown’s Money In My Pocket, Culture’s Two Sevens Clash, Althea and Donna's Uptown Top Ranking and JC Lodge’s Someone Loves You Honey. He was a member of Lloyd Parks’ We The People Band, Sly & Robbie’s Taxi Gang, and was also in high demand for countless freelance sessions.

More recently, he's performed at Rototom Sunsplash 2022 with his old Professionals colleagues Parks and Sly Dunbar. He appears on Fruits Records’ new veteran instrumental ensemble album Roots Architects and last year's album by Aleighcia Scott, Windrush Baby, to name just two.

These days Bubbler is easily found at stage shows in Kingston, often helping out on the technical side or supporting his musician friends. He is always happy to talk to fans of his work but somewhat reticent about giving interviews. Angus Taylor has been gently prodding Bubbler to converse on record for the last eight years. This February [2024], he agreed spontaneously at a Kingston restaurant where a concert was being held. The interview took place in a noisy car park, with no pre-prepared questions, no opportunity to play songs to jog Bubbler’s memory and a limited time before the live show began. As a result, it only scratches the surface of the thousands of sessions he has played on but gives a sketch of a humble, supreme technician: fully at home with the minutiae of his craft, less so with the sharp edges of the business. He admits that while he's great at playing the music, he’s been poor at chasing up his own publishing.

Read on to hear about how he got started at Joe Gibbs, an awkward but telling encounter with Bob Marley, his love of Manchester United, and his own special musical project Waul Of Sound.

**First of all, tell me the story of how, in the mid 70s, you and Winston McAnuff recorded his song Malcolm X with Earl Sixteen for Joe Gibbs.**

OK, as I recall it we'd be in the 70s of course, at school, Excelsior High School. I had never at that point been to a commercial recording studio. It was my first time! (laughs) Winston was telling me that I should go to the studio to demonstrate or probably record the song. Because he wasn't sure that the musical arrangement I made to his song lyrics, if the studio musicians would comprehend it in the way I had written it. I said “Ok I've never been to a commercial studio. It's going to be a first time for me”. I didn't think I was good enough, competent enough to play in a commercial studio. But Winston assured me that everything would be fine.

We went firstly to his friend's studio, Aquarius, Herman Chin Loy, and I think Winston wasn't happy with the pace. Things were going, sort of dragging along, I remember him saying, “You know what? I have another place we can go. I just remembered I have my friend ET, which stands for Errol Thompson, at Joe Gibbs recording studio”.

And we went over there and so said, so done. I was trying to demonstrate to the musicians the progression, the chordal arrangement and it was somehow not going so efficiently. And as Winston said “The moment you go on the piano, and Errol hears what you do, trust me, from that day forward he will hang onto you and they won't let go of you! You will be the primary keyboardist of the studio”. And he was right, that's what happened. (laughs)

So you and Winston worked together at school on the writing and arranging of the song?

Indeed. Being a co-ed school, boys and girls, our school rules dictated at the time, that our piano in the auditorium was for religious purposes. You see, these schools were run by the churches, our school being a Methodist institution, we were told this piano was for religious purposes.

Not for secular music.

Yeah, not for secular music. So we had to sort of bend the rules to go and do this. (laughs). We'd always be playing popular music and that kind of thing on it, right? We'd do that, I was composing the music on it, I was surrounded by boys and girls from our school who would always be present. There were shouts of “Wap!” - W A P - those were the initials for our principal, headmaster Wesley A Powell! But “Wap!” also meant you'd get a whopping you know? (laughs)

So he descended from his stairs, we were playing and he would be approaching. There would be shouts of “Wap is approaching! Wap is coming!” Everybody would run and scatter. I would have been surrounded. Many times I was not able to run away because I was trapped in a circle of people. I would have to switch to religious themes, you know, hymns! (laughs)

So he would come down and you'd switch the music?

Oh yes, he would come down and he'd look under his glasses and have a look. I thought I fooled him at the time! When you are an eighth grader, you somehow think that adults were born big. I thought I fooled him at the time when I switched to religious music. I would learn years later that he heard me all along.

He knew exactly what you were doing.

He knew exactly what I was doing. I knew that because about two grades later, now in grade ten, he approached me and he said “Mr Waul, we would like to be among those high schools to have an Olympic size swimming pool. So I would love you to be part of the organisation of a barbecue supper that would be held on our playing field to raise funds to build this swimming pool”. So at this time I thought, you know what he recognises I have the ability to put together the band, play the secular music and to raise the funds, the large amount of money to build this pool. So I was a part of that.

How did you get the name Bubbler?

Again while being in high school, I would be in multiple situations. We would have our school popular band, but at the same time I would be in other bands. I first would remember being in Zap Pow. That was with Dwight [Pinkney] you know Mikey [Williams] on bass and that kind of thing. And then also being in Inner Circle band. Now, Jacob Miller our lead vocalist, you would not be in that band and escape without a name, a moniker. Though I did not invent the style of bubbling…

Yeah I read that Aubrey Adams did.

I would think so, yes. Or shuffling as we would call it then. But I had my variation of it. I would have helped to popularise. So Jacob would exclaim “Wow you are the Bubbler!” We were of course young at the time. Dean Fraser was also a part of that at one point, so then it was Youth Bubbler that I would be called. Dean was even at one point called…

Youth Sax.

You might have seen that on your album covers right? Then evolving simply to Bubbler. So I credit that to Jacob Miller and the Lewis brothers. Yeah, Ian and Roger Lewis of Inner Circle fame.

Going back to Malcolm X, Winston told me that Joe Gibbs sat on that recording for so long, that eventually Winston took it to Derrick Harriott and redid it there. Did you play on the Derrick Harriott version or just the Joe Gibbs version?

I remember doing the Joe Gibbs version. I remember Earl Sixteen was the vocalist we had on the track.

Correct. On both versions.

On both versions. However, It would be the habit of Joe Gibbs to use his flagship artist, Dennis Brown to always do the songs that he thought were the strongest songs.

**And he did that with Malcolm X.**

Another example of that was Ghetto Girl. I can give you a whole story behind that.

Who wrote it?

(sings) “That little girl was born on the ghetto side of town…” So we would have auditions, on Thursdays, as I recall it. It would be a lot of wannabes at the studio outside looking for stardom. All the people who passed the audition would then go on to have a recording deal. I would be on the piano and it would always be like “Go to the pianist to work on the song”. So it would be like artist after artist, after artist, after artist. And that particular writer came with his guitar, he could barely hold a few chords and he would demonstrate in a real elementary style. Sings “That little girl was born on the ghetto side of town…” switching over to the A minor or whatever. So we would of course roll the song along eventually, Sly Dunbar, drums, Lloyd Parks, myself and so forth. Bo Pee was it, I think?

Yeah he did a lot there.

And that's how we'd cut it. And you know, decades later, here comes this publisher. I'm just learning this now, decades later that he [the writer] had been working in the correctional services, as a warder or something like that. That now was Calvin Cameron aka Bubbles the trombonist, also a publisher. He said “I want you to do me a favour, Joe Gibbs is like… well they call themselves The Mighty Two, Joe Gibbs and…”

Errol.

“Errol Thompson. They are claiming 100% ownership publishing of this song, right? Could you do us a favour? Could you just say or declare that this gentleman was the person who came to you at the piano with the song to demonstrate it or whatever?” I could only say to Calvin Bubbles “Listen, you have to realise this is decades later. I cannot remember the exact face as it would have been”. You have to remember it was always like ‘next patient, next patient, next, next, next’. And though I've never been to court, I see what TV court looks like! (laughs)

So I'd imagine that I'd be on the witness stand, that I would be under oath, to say “Can you declare that this man that you are looking at is the gentleman that…" I could only say, I couldn't do such a thing. Because I know the intricacies of scenes on television right? Whilst I couldn't sign something and say “This is the gentleman that came to me and we were outlining”, what I could do however is to say, I knew it was someone other than Dennis Brown who was at that piano originally. So Calvin said “Thanks, but no thanks.That would not be sufficient”. So that's the story behind songs like that.

**So going back to Malcolm X. Joe Gibbs took it to Dennis Brown and he sang it back. And Winston found that out later.**

Yes indeed.

So did you play on the Dennis version?

Yes!

So you played on both versions recorded at Joe Gibbs. But not the Derrick Harriott one?

Not the Derrick? My memory is a little vague on that, it could have been. You know, I probably did play on it because at that time, Derrick Harriott found me very useful. It was attractive for me to do tracks for Derrick. As a matter of fact it's either for Joe Gibbs or Derrick Harriott that I did the first instrumental. I did Before The Rain [as Franklyn Bubbler Waul and the Chariot Riders]. That was on the Chariot [label]. Oh, before that it would have been Theme From The Apartment. Soundtrack from the movie, The Apartment. That is what I think was the first instrumental I was doing.

But Derrick Harriott found me very useful. So I did a couple of instrumentals for Derrick. (laughs) I remember being paid. Not only monetary in cash but also Derrick Harriott's record store. I would say “You know what? Let me have all these records”. Yeah those disco 45 records or whatever from the 70s. So it is very possible that I could have played on the Derrick Harriott version.

Let's talk about some other Dennis Brown records that you did at Joe Gibbs. I've got a deejay cut of Money In My Pocket by Mikey Dread where on the B side you play an instrumental Bubbler In Money and the intro says “Cork it Bubbler, cork it”. So you played on Money In My Pocket?

Yes. And you know something? I'm glad you mentioned that because I always try to remember where that sample came from. Now, that would have been Althea and Donna saying that. And they also would have been, we also had that on the flipside of Uptown Top Ranking, which I did.

I'm glad you mentioned that rhythm. Because Soul Syndicate have said that they played on it rather than the usual musicians you mentioned such as Lloyd Parks and Sly. Did you overdub their rhythm?

Yes. Let me talk about that and you also asked about the Dennis Brown Money In My Pocket so I'll talk about that.

All in good time.

So Althea and Donna's Uptown Top Ranking. So what would have happened with that, there was a track, Santa Davis, Fully Fullwood, Soul Syndicate, as I recall they are the ones who would have done that track. However, on that track, I introduced, from our school, Marcia Aitken. We are all Excelsior High School attendees like Winston. Our school was chock full of talent. All roads would lead to our high school. We were just like the place to be. So introducing Marcia Aitken to Joe Gibbs, like I did, so she did (sings) “I'm still in love with you boy”.

Now, sixteen tracks, two inch analogue, at the time right? I would become Errol Thompson the engineer’s right hand man, in terms of all the overdubbing things that needed to be done and whatever. I remember we had this finite sixteen tracks. Two inch analogue tape. That would have been our main master recording machine. All our tracks would have been filled out. There was no more room.

I remember they had these two girls. I think Errol said “Oh they're from Havendale”, or something like that. These two girls. Uptown Top Ranking. They did their thing and Errol said to me at the time, we would like another intro instead of your regular horns intro (sings I'm Still In Love Horns intro). So that's how I came up with the synthesiser that we had there, a monophonic synthesiser. And we had that… (sings synthesiser intro) What's interesting about that is that all tracks were filled up. I could not go on the multi track tape. The only way you can go on this is when I'm mixing across to the quarter inch mix tape. I'll have to go in on channels. All tracks were filled out but we had extra channels on the desk, on the console.

So I'd have to play live. I'd also have to set up the synthesiser like a live concert and the clavinet where do the verses (sings clavinet line) so I would have to now play error free while Errol was mixing across to the thing. So we kick off, bam, intro here, I switch across to the clavinet for the verses, to the solo for that, error free, all the way to the fade. If I had made any errors, Errol would have had to have done the whole mix over again because we were mixing in real time. That's the story behind that song and how it was done.

**And what about Money In My Pocket?**

Money In My Pocket was a new arrangement. Not the one drop like the original.

Because he did it for Joe Gibbs before in 1973.

Now we had straight four, Sly, Lloyd Parks with a new bass line (sings bassline). And of course, I had to put on all the basic and the overdubs, the organ line and so forth. So I'm on that as well with Lloyd and Sly.

One thing, I remember hearing that back in those days, people didn't play that loud in the studio.

In the studio, in the main recording room, you had to isolate things. So we were all playing together. It's not like now where we're doing all one at a time. Drums, bass, piano, we'd have to have gobos, those temporary barriers to minimise the leakage between the instruments. It's all acoustic instruments. Acoustic drums in the drum booth. The piano was an acoustic piano so you had to have the gobos to reduce or minimise the leakage. The guitar amp, we had to have gobos around those as well. So it was all sort of isolated to minimise the thing. So we couldn't play loudly. If we did play loudly, there would have been too much leakage.

Did you play on the great Culture tunes at Joe Gibbs?

You know what would have been interesting, is if I had brought my folio album? I must find that folio album. You would see me in my Afro, in my school clothes at the time. And you would see Joseph and all of that in a cloud of smoke. And I'm looking at them curiously! We did all the major ones.

**You played on Two Sevens Clash.**

Yeah, we did Two Sevens Clash. We did Jah Jah See Them A Come. We did Never Get Weary (sings iconic keyboard line). You could call the titles. I don't know all the titles. But all the titles on the entire album.

Moving away from Joe Gibbs, let’s talk about some lesser known ones, I've seen you credited as playing on the Chantells Waiting In The Park album for the Phase One label.

Indeed yes (sings “You kept me waiting in the park all night all night”).

Roy Francis told me that some of the Phase One was recorded at Randy's, some of it at Channel One but some of it was recorded at Joe Gibbs.

Yes, some of it was at Joe Gibbs. I remember his famous Capri motor car. I was a part of that. I do remember doing Waiting In The Park.

Devon Richardson from We The People Band played drums on those sessions.

Yes. Exactly. Devon, that great drummer. I remember from day one, Lloyd Parks said to me we would rehearse at Norwood Avenue, Oxford Road, here in Kingston Jamaica. Lloyd Parks said to me “Bubbler, I'd like you to do me a favour, help me to audition the drummers today”. Some drummers came in. I remember when Devon came, he would play and his style was always shirtless, and from when he did a few bars Lloyd and me, we said “That's it. We don't need to audition anyone else”.

I think it was Devon who brought that Ludwig set? Those were the days of transparent see through drum kits. So I remember that as well. That's something I remember distinctly. The era of the transparent drum kits.

Devon is a very humble person.

Oh yeah. Love Has Found Its Way. That song by Dennis Brown. That's Devon on drums as well. That Clive Hunt thing on A&M Records, On The Rocks. That swing? All of that is Devon.

**Another thing you have been credited for playing on is the Overnight Players' Shaka the Great.**

Shaka the Great. I recall that yes. I think I need to hear that track. Yes. I think so. I would need to hear the audio.

**What about stuff like Weedfields for Desi Roots?**

Absolutely. That's my friend, Desi Roots. The main production of Desi Roots was my friend and partner in crime Roy Allen, Hawkeye, who you might know in Harlesden. Oh, that was a partnership there. Things like [Ruddy Thomas] Key To The World. Which was considered a national anthem of England at the time! The stuff we did with him, Lloydie Chalmers and Susan Cadogan. We had a dream team. Derrick Barnett on bass, Mikey Boo Richards on drums.

I was musical director on the tours for Ruddy Thomas. We'd come to England, we were sponsored by Capital, David Rodigan, we would do the Dominion Theatre, all these sorts of things. Some landmark things. We had shows for ladies only - can you believe that?

Coming there with Ruddy Thomas at the time, Hawkeye says to me “You know what, Bob Andy is in town, he has the number one local song at the time. Honey (sings “You are still my honey”). And he would like it if you guys could just do the backing”.

And I said “You know what? We came here exclusively from Jamaica as Ruddy Thomas’ act”. I did not want to appear before it was time to appear. So I said “Hawkeye, you're my good friend. Oh boy. How am I going to do this? I can't let you down, but I can't ruin my act”. I said “I'll tell you what, I am always solving problems, I'll sleep on it. I'll try to make the impossible possible. I'm going to sleep on how to appear without appearing”. (laughs)

And so I came the next morning to Hawkeye and I said, “You know what? I lost sleep over this. Let me take it or leave it. I busted my brain for this. This is how it's going to be. Bob Andy will come on, I have instructed the lighting engineer to put a spotlight on Bob Andy only. The stage will be darkened. We must not be seen, the band, at all during Bob Andy’s set”. That's the only way I could figure out that we could appear without appearing. Only when Ruddy Thomas comes on. Ruddy Thomas at the time was called The King Of Lovers Rock. So that's how it was.

When the music turned digital in the 80s, that wasn't necessarily a problem for a keyboard player. What happened to your career at that point?

No, it was not a problem. I just remember things went to where we had ADAT different recording mediums. I just do what I do. We still had the same reel to reel. Digital Mitsubishi 32 track tapes. I would just perform as normal. I was only told now though that technically what would be happening… that… And then I was also into engineering, so I myself would have to know what was going on. It's all about binary numbers. It's all one and zero, you know? Verticals are ones and horizontals are zeros. That sort of mics the analogue waveforms.

But I welcomed it. Compact disc came in and I welcomed it. Because I bought CD, digitals and all that kind of thing. I should say that the only part of digital recording that has been affected in any way in recent times was the packaging. No longer would you see it displayed in liner notes “Franklyn Bubbler Waul - keyboards, Syndrum” whatever. So I always say “Wow, I’m so glad I started out in the analogue days”. Because I'm not sure if I'd have the recognition. Because you see the credits. Now on a download the most you'd see is the name of the song.

Just a bit of artwork featuring the artist.

No real mention of the musicians.

I am glad you mentioned that because I wanted to ask about things you did in more recent times. You played on the Roots Architects project for the Swiss producer Mathias from Fruits Records gathering over fifty veteran musicians together.

Yeah, I've played for a Swiss producer. I'll tell you something… Why there are some parts that are as clear as a muddy lake, there are some parts of my memory that are really fuzzy. Because the truth of the matter is, when Tyrone Downie, as he posted on his Facebook, speaking of Robbie Lyn and myself, saying he wants to pay tribute to “Robbie Lyn and Franklin Bubbler who have both played on more hits than sands on the seashore”, it's really true in a way. There are so many songs. We are talking about almost half a century of recording. Song after song, after song. Sessions after sessions. And things on different labels.

This is the part in which I get very low grades. The music business. Not following up, as you say, who is the artist, for publishing purposes. I really don't even at this point, have got any revenue from my publishing. It's a shame. Zero point zero zero from all these hundreds of thousands of tracks. It's because of that, when you mention the names, I don't necessarily connect with the names.

You’re credited as being on the new album by Aleighcia Scott which was produced by Rory Stonelove.

I can remember that because it was more recent. And as we speak, tomorrow just a little earlier than this, I am in studio again with Rory Stonelove. We have a good thing going there. Aleighcia Scott, yeah!

We met at Rototom 2022. You'd gone to play as part of the Revolutionaries and Sly was there, Lloyd Parks was there and you were there. So even though it was called the Revolutionaries, it was a bit of a Joe Gibbs and the Professionals reunion for you.

Yes, indeed. That was absolutely great. At Channel One, though I refer to Joe Gibbs as my Motown, so to speak, I recorded at all the audio studios. The Channel One, Lee Scratch Perry's Ark, King Tubby's, Harry J, all these places.

But we were talking about the Channel One Revolutionaries, I've always thought “Wow, the Channel One recordings, that was digital recording so to speak before the advent of digital”. It was so clean. The clarity was so high. I always admired the sonic quality from the Channel One studio. I would look at it and say “wow”.

And they are using four tracks. They then went to sixteen tracks later. But how they were on that Studer 4 track machine. And the desk what's it called again? Oh wow, Sly will be disappointed with me. But those equalisers. Those great equalisations. That was a big part of the sound. And so I think that helped the Revolutionaries certainly have that signature because of Channel One. The clarity. The everything. You remember Sticky Thompson with all that percussion? Tambourines. That kind of thing.

I have to ask this before we finish because people will kick me for not asking. Did you play on anything with Peter, Bunny or Bob?

OK, I played on events with Bob Marley. Not any recordings with Bob Marley. The thing is his children started out being the Melody Makers, they started out doing little teeny bopping bubble gum songs (sings Children Playing In The Streets), that was We The People Band. We would be the backing band. Many times, their father would come and watch us in rehearsals and also at events, shows. He would not want to take away attention from them.So he would sneak into the audience, like at Skateland in these places right?

Of course eventually they grew up to be Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, right? So all that is my involvement as well. We had the Conscious Party album. Tomorrow People, all these songs, Tumbling Down, whatever. That was all me contributing to that as well, keyboards. Speaking about events, that famous Peace Concert…

In 1978.

I told you earlier about Althea and Donna. We were the openers for that concert. My friend Ansell reminds me that he was actually the very first act. Then I remember we would come on Althea and Donna. So I kicked off that concert for Bob.

That's a question people often ask me. Do I have any interaction, any speaking with Bob? I had a single conversation. I would always see him in the car park at 56, where I'd be rehearsing and doing recordings, that kind of thing. Play football and that kind of thing. There's a particular recording I remember doing one night, Carlene Davis, the rendition of The Way Old Friends Do. That was a popular number one song back here in Jamaica as well. Abba's The Way Old Friends Do. During that recording, the recording process being lengthy, you can have a bit of fatigue during the process. I would come outside, take a breather. And on this particular night, Saturday night I think it was, for the first time I will be running into Bob. One on one. This time it will be just he and I. I walk outside and who do I step into on the doorstep? Bob with his guitar, working out a few chords.

The uncomfortable silence. I guess somebody had to break it. He decided to break the silence. He said to me “So what the man name?” I thought I got an A for my answer. Tommy Cowan, who was producing his artists, came from out of nowhere and said “This is Bubbler, man. Don't you know the great Bubbler?”

And Bob said to me “So you're good?” Yeah, nowadays in Jamaica, when we ask “Are you good?” It usually means “Are you okay? Are you fine?” But back then what he really meant was “Are you good at your craft?” Good at what you do. I thought I'd got an A for my answer, when I responded and said “Well you know Bob, I usually leave that up to the public to judge that”.

I swore I got an A for my answer! The man went “Hold on, you mean you don't know if you're good? Well you can stay deh. I know I'm good at what I do”. Bang. That was the end of the conversation. It was that short. Just those couple of sentences. That had me thinking now. And then I realised the greatest of people, the wisest of people usually just speak in a nutshell. But inside that nutshell is like an encyclopaedia. There's so much to learn.

It bothered me though. I thought I got an A for my answer. Bob just went “No”. So I had to go to the elders and say “Bob asked me if I'm good at what I do. I thought I gave a good answer when I said “I usually leave that to the public” and he said “Oh you should know if you're good because I know that I'm good”. Interpret that for me”.

And the elders said “It's nice to be modest, it's nice to be not tooting your own horn, we know you're trying to be very modest, but in the popular music business. It doesn't quite work that way. It's all about promotion, promotion, promotion. When asked like that you should say “Yes I am the best, the best that ever is”. For all you know, you could have got a job right there”.

They said there's nothing wrong with saying you are the best so long as it is true. Just like Muhammad Ali. “I am the greatest”. As long as it's true, you can profess that. That's what I learned then. So that was my one and only conversation and interaction with Bob one on one.

You're a big supporter of the football club Manchester United. How did you come to follow the team?

Oh! (Laughs) This is where I might lose some fans. And gain fans! I call myself the real president of Man U. I'm more Man U than Man U itself you know? My association with Man U goes way back to the seventies. I would be on the early Dennis Brown tours, 1977, I remember that. I still have my scarf. I wonder what its value is now? I have my original Man U scarf from that time.

That's who I would watch back in Jamaica. I don't know, I just had this affiliation with Manchester United from back then. Although you'd wonder how has the president never been to a match at Old Trafford or whatever? Here I would be on tour. I would be on tour in Manchester itself, I would check into hotels and be told you know what? “Manchester United? They are somewhere out of the city. Don't talk about Manchester United here!”

Because they are Man City supporters.

And I'm saying to myself “How could such a club have such a following?” And yet everyone I am running into is saying “No, I am not a part of this”, or shunning it, right? I'm in London, I'm staying at my friend's house, And they are saying “We are Arsenal. Don't talk about Man United here”. I'm like “Wow. Okay I'll just be quiet!” (laughs) But it's always amazed me how Man U became such a huge thing and it's so shunned?

So what are you working on musically at the moment?

Well, here in 2024 I'm here to tell you that… well, we are always being told “Don't wait for something to happen, make something happen”. I'm seeing more and more where things are really diminished. Work is slow, not getting the calls that we used to, touring has dropped ever since that pandemic. Some regular gigs that we have had, I'm told, are not happening again. Even up to last night, one past member of the Inna De Yard crew is saying that he understands that there will be no touring this year from the outfit.

So I knew that there came a point where I would really have to start to come out on my own. So what I intend to do is my own Waul Of Sound Productions. And have what I call Waul Of Sound Edutainment. Like, I hope I am educating here now, right? But I'm going to put it in edutainment form. I will be having a number of acts on my Waul Of Sound Edutainment series. I will be launching this right here in 2024.

And it will be something to behold, I can tell you. I'm going to do a lot of exciting things. If I might just let out some of it, I'll tell you that Waul Of Sound can be anything from a one piece, that's a one man band that will be me myself and I, all the way to maybe even a ten piece thing, depending on the event. At these events, I'll be recreating. And I'll be telling people, listen this is how we did it back then, created a lot of these tracks, and right in front of the audience I'll create these tracks.

And I'll have guest artists who are available. For example, I might say, “Back in the day, this is how we did JC Lodge, Someone Loves You Honey”. And if available, I might invite June, and say, “To do the song for you, here is June Carol Lodge, here we go!” George Nooks might recreate some of the same moves as Dennis Brown, plus also his tracks which we did. So it's going to be very exciting.