Roots Archives Forum

I read in the Jamaica Observer that Lloyd Parks, Frankie Paul and the Fab Five will be honour at Sumfest.

I wonder who the Fab Five are? I have never heard of them and now they are going to be honoured. In R-A there is only one album; that does not sound like a big contribution, but as Jamaican music has taught me, that is not what really matters.

I hope someone could provide more info.

JAH BLESS

Spice Girls isn`t it ? I heard they are big in Jamaica with their deep roots and cultural sounds

Dave

The Fabulous Five Inc. were initially a showband supporting various singers in Jamaica. Lloyd Lovindeer and Glen Ricks both began their careers performing in the Fabulous Flames before enlisting in the group's line-up.The band formed in the late 60s and in the ensuing years received numerous awards in Jamaica, being voted the top band for three consecutive years by Swing magazine. They were the featured musicians on Johnny Nash's 'I can see clearly now', which introduced authentic reggae to a global audience...They were able to exhibit their musical talents when they toured the island backing performers in the 1975 Jamaican Song Festival...Through to the 90s, the group provided backing for a number of performers, often touring with the Jamaica Song Festival finalists; they also notched up a number of local awards and released sporadic output through their own Stage Records.

Excerpts taken from 'The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'

Congrats to Fab Five & Grub Cooper.

I like the Fab Five they have fun music like "Mini, Mini" & "More Wine", yeah rootsman its not hard roots but not all reggae is that way.

If you have heard Chalice, Lovindeer, Gem Myers, Byron Lee & the Dragonaires, or Eddie Lovette they have a similar vibe to the Fab Five.

Grub Cooper had a hand in the early Melody Makers albums and had a working relationshipwith Rita Marley.

They have two Jamaican party albums on VP you might want to check out:

http://www.answers.com/topic/live-the-u ... ertainment

http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/ ... 4645218320

K & K also has a "Best of Fab Five" album that you can usually find on Ernie B's but it is not in stock right now.

GRACIAS!!! (thanks)

For the rootsiest, check their "Arab Skank"..!!

A great band live they are wicked.
Also back Rita Marley in late 70 or/ early 80. on tour.

Lion

More exceprts from the book Reggae Routes:

"Another reggae substream was the ‘pop reggae’ of performers like Ernie Smith, Pluto Shervington, Zap Pow, Fab Five and Third World, which was primarily with the ‘uptown’ rich and middle class…

Fab Five incidentally was the first reggae band to play on an international hit LP. They backed-up six cuts on Johnny Nash’s gold album ‘I Can See Clearly Now’, which included the Bob Marley compositions ‘Stir It Up’, ‘Guava Jelly’, ‘More Questions than Answers’ and ‘Comma, Comma’. Even before that the Fab Five’s Frankie Campbell and Grub Cooper had been the first Jamaican group to play reggae in Europe: ‘We were called The Reggaes, so I guess you could say we were the world’s number one reggae band…

…But foreign blessings were decidedly mixed for reggae artists; many contracts were short-term, covering only one or two albums. Rumour had it that some performers were signed only after agreeing to become dreadlocked, and some who refused were not.

Frankie Campbell and Grub Cooper tell of their experience: ‘Chris Blackwell once wanted to sign us. But only under two conditions. One was that we change our name to ‘Grub’. That was no problem. But he also wanted us to grow locks and adopt a ‘roots’ image, but we couldn’t see with that. It didn’t seem right to pretend to be something we weren’t just to sell records…

1987/Jamaican Woman
Fabulous Five

Fab Five’s gift for catchy and witty tunes often gets lost in their party-hearty, touring machine image. It is often forgotten that their resident musical genius Grub Cooper has produced the majority of commercial jingles on Jamaican radio and television.

This may not seem significant at first glance. Yet the ‘stream of consciousness’ and ‘found object’ approach that the Jamaican dancehall artists take to song composition means that many of these jingles have crept into dancehall canon, both melodically and lyrically. Yellowman had more than one hit taking off Fab Five composed ads. Ninja Man has also been known to do the same thing in stage shows. So while few of their songs may stand as ‘art’, its undeniable that many of the catchiest hooks in Jamaican music have originated in the fertile minds of the Fab Five crew.

And incidentally ‘Jamaican Woman’ does show that at least some Jamaican men respect their woman as more than just sex objects.”

Fab Five is great at times, the Fabulous Five's 'Ooh Aah' on the Countryman soundtrack is a wicked track