Merritone retraces footprints through St Thomas

Monte Blake, owner of Merritone, the sound system that is one year older than THE STAR, along with a group of friends, took a footprints journey through their parish of origin, St Thomas, last week.

Places teeming with history, such as the Copacabana, Springfield Club and Rozelle outside Whitehorses, made the list of stops as Blake and his Morant Bay pals, Peter George Jograj and Arthur Teddy Phidd, were chauffered around by "a lovely lady", Ingrid Rattery.

Blake has fond memories of Copacabana, where a certain class was first exposed to the sound-system culture seven decades ago.

"Copacabana is the seminal venue where the middle class started to come to sound-system dances, breaking down the social barriers, as they fell in love with Merritone," Blake said, as he favourably compared THE STAR with the legendary sound system.

" THE STAR is the people's paper. Everybody reads THE STAR. On a given night, you can buck up everybody at Merritone, from the prime minister to the university lecturer, to the higgler. Once you come through the doors, it doesn't matter who you are," he said.

JOURNEY

Over the decades, Merritone has had several articles in both THE STAR and The Gleaner, and he even recalled being accompanied by a reporter 21 years ago on a similar footprints journey.

"Unfortunately, he found the assignment too hectic and said 'You old folks don't sleep at all,'" Blake said with laughter.

An important stop for Blake on his St Thomas journey was the tomb of his father, Val Blake, the man who founded Merritone sound system back in 1950. He ruefully admitted that he had been neglectful.

"To think that Merritone raised funds to tomb the Blues Busters, Lloyd and Phillp James in the Pye River Cemetry and neglected Merritone's founder really hit me like a brick. Soon we will right that wrong," he said.

Springfield Club, which was Merritone's home base, boasts graffiti on the wall portraying Winston Blake, Monte's older brother, who also passed away. "The picture of Winston is fading. We will also work on that," he said.

After leaving St Thomas, the Blake brothers eventually opened the Turntable Club in Kingston in 1972, and it was the headquarters of the 'Merritone sound'. The album Live at the Turntable Club, featuring Dennis Brown, Delroy Wilson and Big Youth, was recorded there in 1974 and is regarded as the first live album produced in Jamaica.