{"id":2028,"date":"2018-12-21T20:42:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T20:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2028"},"modified":"2018-12-21T20:42:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T20:42:40","slug":"take-better-care-of-our-musicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2028","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Take better care of our musicians\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Rollo of Tropical Energy speaks up on injustice in the\nindustry <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Michael Nattoo<\/strong> \u2013 Staff Reporter<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The year was 1974. Montego Bay, Jamaica, had a void to be\nfilled on the entertainment scene, and Rollo and the Hurlock brothers knew\nthis. That\u2019s why when they joined forces, they would go on to become one of\nWestern Jamaica\u2019s more popular bands, cementing their names in the rich musical\nlegacy associated with the West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the summer of 1976, the newly formed band journeyed to\nNegril, and describing a scene that\u2019s not often seen these days, if any at all,\nRollo, who became the band manager, explained that 17 bands \u2013 to include\nlegendary names like Fab 5 and Third World, all branched off along a stretch of\nsandy beaches in the Negril area, and did what they did best \u2013 entertain. That\nday would become forever etched in the memories of all those who attended that\nunique gathering, and it was there that Rollo and company, being the only band\nfrom Western Jamaica at the time, decided to carry on that mantle for the West,\njust so until others could catch on. So began the journey of the band called\nFree Will, who later became known as Middle Earth, which ultimately became\nTropical Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rollo revealed that the gathering of the 17 bands, while for\nthe purpose of entertaining, was also a competition in and of itself, and to\nthe then newly formed band\u2019s credit, they placed second in that competition\nbehind the legendary Third World. Nothing to be ashamed of there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Free Will got a taste of the life they could have had with a\nfull-time pursuit of band entertainment, and before they knew it, their\nreputation had preceded them. They were pretty soon booked by the Negril Beach\nVillage hotel, today known as Hedonism, and for a creditable amount of time,\nthey played and flourished there. The band was gaining valuable experience, and\ndespite the challenges, they were handling business as they needed to. Not long\nafter, they relocated to Montego Bay, all in the interest of keeping the\nblossoming band together. Rollo revealed that a number of the band members were\nyoungsters, whose parents were never comfortable with them living too far from\nhome. The move to St. James was expected to dissolve those concerns, and\ndespite the band landing a gig at the Casa Montego Hotel \u2013 which went on for\nsix months, they unfortunately broke up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though that tumultuous period wasn\u2019t the only one\nexperienced by Rollo and the band, he had always maintained his love for the\nmusic, and in a climate now that is not as conducive to local band talents in\nthe hotel industry, the vet has his eyes set on a revival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, after years of experience in the field as a vocalist\nand manager, Rollo\u2019s revelation that he has since bought equipment for the\npurpose of re-energizing Middle Earth, has breathed life back into a dying\nindustry, but has equally reacquainted him with many of the challenges that\nbegan around the band\u2019s earlier years of prominence. While finances have always\nbeen a challenge for aspiring bands, Rollo has now found that almost\nsystematically, local talents are being pushed out of the tourism band\nentertainment industry, in favour of international bands which are which play a\nversion of reggae, that Rollo believes is not truly representative of the\nculture of reggae. This, he believes, is an injustice. That\u2019s why Middle\nEarth\u2019s revival stands, to Rollo, as a direct opposition to what he\u2019s coining\nas the \u2018Spanish Invasion\u2019. What this is, he explains, is the proliferation of\nSpanish talents in the hotel industry, brought on primarily by the increasing\nnumber of Spanish-owned hotels, which are excluding local talents from making a\nreasonable living in an industry that owes its popularity to the ingenuity of\nlocal acts. \u201cThere is no authentic Jamaican reggae music being played in these\nhotels, so win or lose, I\u2019m here to advocate for that \u2013 for authentic reggae\nmusic to be played for our tourists. What is happening now is just a hustling\nof the tourism dollars from tourists, and it\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The passionate Rollo explained that musicians today, local\nmusicians in fact, are getting pennies for their worth, and the first step to\naddressing the \u2018Spanish Invasion\u2019 is to ensure that we properly pay our\nmusicians, so they can better take care of their families, and take the music\nbusiness more seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Tropical Energy in full swing, Rollo aims to inject\nauthenticity back into the local entertainment industry, and he seems poised to\ndo just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rollo of Tropical Energy speaks up on injustice in the industry Michael Nattoo \u2013 Staff Reporter The year was 1974. Montego Bay, Jamaica, had a void to be filled on the entertainment scene, and Rollo and the Hurlock brothers knew this. That\u2019s why when they joined forces, they would go on to become one of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[628,1033,1036,627,1034,1035,1032,290,1031],"class_list":["post-2028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-edmund-bartlett","tag-fab-5","tag-middle-earth","tag-ministry-of-tourism","tag-musicians","tag-rollo","tag-third-world","tag-tourism","tag-tropical-energy"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2032,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2028\/revisions\/2032"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}