Dambala

[Alvin Christie]

Hi roms77, you are right, it is Jimmy Lindsay, but as stated he was never a "member" of Dambala, he was a "Guest vocalist" he sang lead for us as a favour basically. He was a friend of a friend and was introduced to us as he needed a "backing group" and we were available, unknown and different, so for us it was good to have a "name" on our first single, it helped to establish the name Dambala. We did one more track with Jimmy "Ain't No Sunshine" but that was it, I can't recall him singing on any Dambala releases after that.

[bwoyrough]

lets hope one day the other band members may find eachother via this thread, hopefully this thread will be on search engines for years to come so who knows, i hope u get back in touch with eachother alvin, but i see how much of a logistical nightmare it would be so looks unlikely but who knows what the future may bring.
thanks for all the great info u have provided here.

[Alvin Christie]

One thing I find a bit strange is that, all the time that this thread has been open not one of the other members of Dambala has shown up!!!. This is one of (if the not THE) premier Reggae websites on the net. I've tried for many years to find any "net presence" of the original members, whithout any success at all. I'm not quite sure what this means, either they don't have internet or are not concerened with Reggae anymore, or don't use their own names on the net...draw your own conclusions......I am here...

peace

[bwoyrough]

I'm sure some of them will try a search one day for the band or maybe one of there family members so hopefully they will post up sometime.

By the way, Horace Mckenzie is living in Islington,Kondon someone posted up a link to some info about him a while back, not sure if u saw this, i did save a copy, also has a recent picture of him, he appeared in a housing association magazine and it interviewed him and talked about how he owns a bit of land in Guyana where there grows coconuts and citrus trees, he plans to build his own house there and retire there. It also mentions his time with Dambala and he mentions the tour in holland and how he played with aswad once. It does also mention the place he lives if u need to find him, not the house number but would be pretty easy to get in contact with him i think if u needed to. It also mentions he is a black belt in a martial art called gojukai.
Be nice to hear u linked back up.

[Alvin Christie]

bwoyrough, yes I did see that article about Horace (likkee, as we called him). He, at least did come to visit me just before I moved to Norway about 10 years ago. I aggree with his sentiments in the article he appeared in, he says that "why is it that just when it was possible to break through, the whole thing fell apart!!!". I have his address, but thanks for the information. Maybe he knows were the other guys are...

peace

[collieman]

Hi Alvin
Sthg i wonder

Tell me, your inspiration on zimbabwe 's tune was extract from Twinkle Brothers 1975 s tune "Barabas" ? melody is very closer

It was also one of their most beautiful track

[Alvin Christie]

Hi collieman, you are correct, the lyrics were written by Gus Anyia, and the tune was similar to "Barabas". It was written in my flat in West Hampstead late in 1977...
I remember at a Racism protest march in Brixton in 78 (I think) people had banners with "Crucify Smith" written on it, and were singing the melody from Zimbabwe. So it was amazing to go from my bedroom to the streets of Brixton with a voice of thousands...

peace

[fadel diagne]

hi there and high again alvin christie.i may be wrong but something tells me that the bad blood or the acrimony betwen has been diffused or dissipated over time.as i said in one of my previous contributions in this email,the whole is always greater than the some of its parts."puss and dog they get together,what's wrong with loving one another".i really believe that something is on the way.maybe a reunion gig as part of a musical or cultural event and a little advertisement will expose you fire the interest of some indie on you.iam definetely sure that some groups reunion would be a nice investment for record company today,the more so as roots revival are at the order of the day;to it add the fact that thr untimely demise of certain bands have always been a source of great regret for lovers of great music.people always ask me about cimarons,black slate tribesman,regulars,matumbi and it gives me the inspiration to livicate a whole reggae program(since i have started guesting on some local reggae programs).starting from the days adfter the second world war wth the docking of ss empire windrush at tillbury on june 23th,1948,the 50's with the first racial clashes especially the notting hill race riots in 1958 ,the first blues dance and dance parties,the cue ,the likes of sonny robertss with planetone,emil shallit with melodisc,joe mansano, up to the 70's.i think that would be a good isight for ppeople to understand a little bit about the origin of reggae in the uk.
as for non appearance or lack of contribution from former dambala band members;maybe there are not that much into the internet stuff.i haven't any talisman band members(apart from brendan whitmore),black slate,matumbi or cimarons or even delroy washington?or maybe time is against them
fadel

[Alvin Christie]

Hi Guys,just for information purposes, I would like to inform those that are interested that my own site is now up and running. In the "Discography" section is some info on Dambala as well as several tracks and some "unreleased" material, unfortunately I can't make all these tracks available for download for obvious reasons.
The address is as follows. http://www.toxteth.com/history.html

The Inner Force section is not yet functional, but will be soon...
regards, Alvin

[bwoyrough]

thanks for that alvin, much apreciated.......