Tony English

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My story begins in the 70’s growing up in England, Birmingham to be exact. This is the UK’s second city otherwise known as the Heart of England and approximately 200 miles from London. My parents had a vast collection of vinyl records ranging from Mozart to Lord Kitchener and everybody else in between!. It was no surprise to anyone therefore that at the age of 13 years, I developed a deep love for music and soon started my own record collection. As a newspaper boy, my earnings were largely spent in the local record store most Fridays.



As I got older I became involved in the ‘Sound System Culture’ which was very popular in the area that I lived, it seemed that everyone that I knew was either in a band or was part of a sound system. I joined a system called ‘Dub Nyah’ and we played mostly at house parties in Birmingham. Later on, I moved on to a bigger sound called ‘King Iwah’ owned by two brothers: Ricki and Paul Oakley.



I then imigrated to New York to join my family and almost immediately got into the sound system scene because of my knowledge and UK experience. I was working at ‘Brads Record Den’ in the Bronx on Saturdays, the home of ‘Clock Tower Records’. Not surprisingly, what little I earned was ploughed back into ‘Brads’ for all the records I could not resist buying! It was also at ‘Brads’ that I was fortunate to meet Earl Sinclair. We quickly became very good friends and between us we built a sound system which was initially known as ‘Black Pearl’, this was later changed to ‘Omari International’ .We were popularly known to attract many females because of the records we played and had as a result a very large female following. Our success also had something to do with the fact that we were a group of six unmarried men! We grew rapidly in size and reached a stage where a number of girls became part of the sound, they were keen to learn how to mix and wire up sound system. Soon, we were being invited to play at large venues in New York. It was here that I met ‘King Tubby’s’ right hand man Phillip Smart popularly known as ‘Prince Phillip’



Prince Phillip had a regular Friday night radio show in New York where I was invited to play during his slot, having thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I eventually became a regular contributor working alongside Stan Smith newsreader and Val Saunders. Together, Val and I brought the English style and influence to the airwaves of New York. We introduced the listeners to artists such as Peter Hunnigale, Slim Batson, Lloyd Brown, Peter Spence and Carol Thompson to name a few.



Still pursuing my love of music, I began to devote my weekends at Phillip Smart’s studio in Long Island. I was involved in cutting dubplates and remixing. It was at this time that I met musician Ricki Myrie and together ‘hold on’ rhythm was born. This had all the elements that I loved, a wicked bass line and a steady English tempo which Phillip loved. Another well known artist Mikey Spice was also working out of these studios and so as luck would have it, I was fortunate to meet and work with other artists: Shellene Thomas, Peter Spence, Sammi Levi and last but not least the great Dean Frasier all on the ‘hold on’ rhythm influence. The style was well received in the British reggae charts and as they say , the rest is history!



Tony English