The Legendary Festus has teamed up Dance Hall Reggae Legend Anthony Johnson for his 48th year celebration tour 2014/2015..... FESTUS COXSONE Feat’ ANTHONY JOHNSON - ON TOUR 2014/15 Festus Coxsone lives for the music, a love superseded only by his spiritual devotion. Born in St. Thomas, Leith Hall in Jamaica, Festus had a fascination with music and DJing from a very young age, which often landed him in hot water with his parents. Today, he is renowned as the leading legendary selector, the favourite of artists like Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Michael Rose, and many others. I built a sound system out of cardboard box. I knew every song that play on the radio by heart. I was 10 years old. It looked like it was ordained. Festus family moved from Jamaica to Britain on Good Friday, April 16th, 1965, settling in London. At the age of 15, in 1966, Festus began DJing when he convinced a friend, who had won some money, to invest in a sound system. The following year, Festus started with Coxsone Sound, becoming a trailblazing sound man and dub cutter at the forefront of a growing creative musical movement, the Sound Systems. With Coxsone Sound, Festus star rose as he was the DJ who played many of the top Reggae tunes before they became popular. Festus popularity stemmed from his commitment to providing the best quality music and sound. He led the growth of innovation in DJ Sound Systems, working with dub cutters like Gussie Clarke and Dennis Brown, among others. Today, Festus remains a major influence in the music scene, still cutting fresh dubplates for Sound Systems around the world.. Anthony Johnson was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1957. Many of the top Jamaican singers of the time were also from Trench Town, and Johnson took inspiration from the likes of John Holt, Dennis Brown, and Alton Ellis, regularly visiting the latter’s yard in nearby White Street. When political violence escalated in Kingston, Johnson moved away for a time to Montego Bay, where he stayed with Ellis’s younger brother Irving, and while there sang with Irving’s steel band, which performed at local hotels. When Johnson moved back south, he lived in Portmore, where he befriended the actor/comedian Carl Bradshaw, and played in Bradshaw’s backing band. In the mid-1970s, Johnson began auditioning at Kingston’s studios, along with his friend Horace Grassett (better known as Badoo). His first recording was “Free Black Man” for producer Bunny Lee, although this was not released; Lee did, however, suggest that Johnson drop ‘Roy’ from his name, and he has performed as Anthony Johnson since. He went on to record for the Hoo Kim brothers at Channel One Studios, and was sufficiently successful that he was able to buy a guitar. Johnson spent a lot of time at the Rasta camp on Selassie Drive, where he met Les Clarke and Balvin Fials, with whom he formed the vocal trio Mystic I. They recorded several tracks with Linval Thompson, which he released without their knowledge as the album Mysterious in the UK in 1979. Tracks from those sessions were also released in 2009 by Johnson on the Perilous Time Showcase album. The group then recorded three tracks for Lee “Scratch” Perry at his Black Ark studio, with “Forward With Jah Orthodox” released by Perry as a single on his Black Art label. On going solo, he recorded for several of the top Jamaican producers, most at Channel One Studios, including Linval Thompson (“Africa”, “Life is Not Easy”), Henry “Junjo” Lawes (“Let Go This One”, “Now I Know”), and Harry J (“Follow Them Footsteps”), but had his greatest success working with Jah Thomas who produced his first big hit in 1982 with “Gunshot”, which pleaded for a cessation of the so-called “shotta” mentality, and which has remained a perennial favourite with sound systems. The single was followed by an album of the same name. Johnson continued to record throughout the 1980s, working with Prince Jammy on the hit single “A Yah We Deh”, and with Dillinger on the single “Too Much”. youtube/watch?v=CycHutxVEnI youtube/watch?v=caIAztXibPM Bookings: Please contact TL 44 7947 894 449 E-mail: info@monkeybizmanagement
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 10:49:58 +0000
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