The Merrymen

• country:Barbados
• style(s):Calypso
• label:Merrymen Barbados
• gender:male
• instrumentation:vocal
• artist posted by:CRS Music & Media

Line up

• The Merrymen (guitars)

In the early 1960s, Barbados was a quiet beauty whose fame had somewhat faded. Still a colony of England, it was no longer the most prosperous one. Tourism was still in its early stages. Except to its neighbours, some elite travellers, and of course its residents, the tiny Caribbean island was a mere speck on the map—but oh, what a lovely one! And life had the sweetness of a simpler time.

Out of this emerged the Merrymen, a group of fun-loving guys who created a unique and instantly recognizable sound. How did they rise from obscurity to top the charts at home and abroad? You could say they were fuelled by dreams, and by love—for life, music, performing, and good times. Their joy was contagious, and as their music caught on, it carried the light heart of island life far and wide.

This is their story.

In 1961, a young man named Emile Straker was studying commercial art in Canada and working part time. On the side, he was also a member of a trio called The Calypso Bandits, which made a record. Later that year, Emile returned home to Barbados and took a job as a salesman for Geddes Grant, a manufacturers’ representative.

Emile could have stayed in commerce, but he couldn’t stop dreaming about making music. He took his Calypso Bandits album to Robin Hunte at K. R. Hunte's Record, Radio, TV and Music Store. “It was rough around the edges, but had something,” Robin recalled. “I was already sourcing records of Caribbean origin for the visitor market, and I thought it just might appeal to the rapidly expanding tourist industry.”

It was the start of a valuable friendship. Emile started spending lunch hours at the record shop listening to all the new music. Emile suggested fooling around with guitars, and even though Robin hadn’t played for years, they did. Stephen Fields, an old school friend of Emile’s, joined in, and soon a trio was formed.

Around this time the late Alfred Pragnell of the Rediffusion radio station (now Voice of Barbados) persuaded Emile to do a weekly radio show advertising The Necchi Sewing Machine Company. What did that exposure lead to? “I got calls to repair the machines,” said Emile with a laugh.

Still with no official name, Emile, Stephen and Robin’s trio began playing at charity variety shows for fun. In between these casual performances, Emile played a regular solo gig at the Driftwood Cellar Bar in St. Lawrence Gap. Meanwhile, the trio’s upbeat, happy music was gaining popularity, so the Driftwood decided to engage the whole group every Friday for the princely sum of about Bds $40.00 a night. By now they were calling themselves The Merrymen.

Then they started to experiment with instruments. Robin remembered, from his pre-teen years, the banjo he had played and the sound it gave. Emile and Stephen approved it for the group. Robin ditched his regular guitar, bought an instructional book on banjo chords and that was it. The tenor guitar followed shortly after, with the same tuning as the banjo but a smoother sound.

Soon the trio would expand. Realising the need for some heavier bass, Emile contacted Chris Gibbs, who had been playing with the Pete Jones Combo since his school days. “Chris would arrive at the Driftwood after playing with Pete and fit right in like it was meant to be. The bass just completed our sound,” he said.

“We wanted Chris to join us, but we did not want to cause bad feelings with the members of Pete Jones. All these young groups started out as school friends. The other members of Pete Jones were in it for fun as they had chosen other career paths. In the end Chris opted to join us and we were very happy. We would spend a couple of evenings a week going to each other's houses, listening to successful groups, practicing and, most of all, dreaming.”

Said Robin: “Emile and I were at my home fooling around with guitars, trying songs. I brought a tape recorder home from the record store and we recorded Brother Neddy on it. After Emile went home, I listened to it over and over and over again until my wife came out and said to me ‘Are you going crazy? You've listened to that a hundred times!’”

Robin adds: “I always told people my work in the record store, among other things, was always looking to find hits to sell and get them out before the competition. I said to myself, ‘This is a hit—right before my eyes, a hit! This song is tailor-made for Emile’s voice. The song must be recorded.’ So said, so done.” As for writing, Robin said: “I never saw myself as a writer. A song would come to me, and I didn’t know where from.”

The band set about to record a mini album with four songs: Brother Neddy, for The Barbados market; Yellow Bird and Limbo, for tourists; and the untried Beautiful Barbados. “Push come to shove, if we had a failure, the album could be sold through the record shop,” thought Robin. The band had no reason to worry. The little record became a hit, with Brother Neddy becoming a big tune in Trinidad and the wider Caribbean.

Emile says that everything is a matter of timing and circumstances, and that at this time, they were favourable. Emile was working for West Indies Records, the first record plant in Barbados, a job he loved dearly. All day long I listened to records and drove around getting information on local folk music. And I sold these records, as well as our own, throughout the islands. I discovered that nobody in this region was playing the type of music that we started to play.

Robin’s position in the business helped too. At the record store, manufacturers visited quite often offering new releases. Robin connected with George Benson of West Indies records in Jamaica and got to know George quite well as he visited often to promote his new catalogue of songs and albums.

While all this was going on, the Merrymen were now playing twice a week and dreaming, always dreaming, about producing a full-fledged album. But there were practical matters to consider. Robin recalls: “I would love to play music, but where was it going? Was I going to give up business for music? I am a dreamer, and I believe that if you love what you do, you are going to achieve. Still, you have to sit down and study how to make this thing from the heart become a reality that puts money in your pocket, to replace a job that you have. It was something we all had to consider.”

The media didn’t always give the group due exposure, so they cultivated a fan base on their own. You have to earn your audience, and that is what we did. When people want a product, they will find it. At the time, the group’s only products were a mini-album and live shows. They needed a real, full-length album.

Robin had developed a knack for predicting which American songs would appeal to the Caribbean taste, and was sure the Merrymen would do well. With his focus honed and steady, he watched for an opportunity. Robin asked George Benson if he would help record and manufacture an album which the group would finance. He agreed, and brought his microphones from Jamaica. By the time George came, the group were ready and rehearsed. They recorded the album at Rediffusion, and called it Caribbean Treasure Chest.

This do-it-yourself way of making records became the way the band always operated. Though they were asked, they never signed with an agent, nor did they turn themselves over to a label.

The recording produced about three hits but none as big as The Big Bamboo, the first of the Merrymen songs that was not a cover. When the recordings were finished, George grinned from ear to ear and exclaimed that The Big Bamboo would be a monster hit. And it was. It went to number one in every Caribbean territory, as well as in Holland, Germany, and Belgium.

Never mind that the industry’s accounting wasn’t what it is today, that the band often learned of their success by hearsay, and didn’t always reap financial rewards. It was still a big deal. This one song put these “play for fun” amateur musicians on the map overnight, and is still popular today.

Our dreams were coming true but we still kept on dreaming. The dreams were getting bigger now. In early 1965 the Barbados Tourist Board and the Hotel Association were getting ready for their yearly promotional tour to Canada. They travelled all across Canada promoting Barbados with music, slide shows, and special offers. The Merrymen offered their services and Mr. Frank Odle of the Tourist Board invited us to join the tour. We were overjoyed.

To play Canada, where they already had fans, was a big break. The Canadian tourists coming to Barbados at that time were already buying our record. We did not know it at the time, but this promotional tour to Canada was the beginning of a love affair with Canadians that grew stronger and stronger and endured through the years until today. We embarked on countless tours in the years that followed, both with the Tourism Board and on our own.

Back in Barbados in May 1965, the Merrymen recorded another album with George Benson which spun off the song Diddly Bops. In that same year, they also recorded Archie, which to this day is one of their most popular songs.

In the summer of that year, the band found out that there was going to be a Commonwealth Arts Festival in London, England. Again the band contacted Mr. Odle. We told him we would like to go and were prepared to pay all our expenses if he would make the contacts and hopefully get the government’s blessing. Thanks to Mr. Odle, this was done, and we were on our way to London.

At that time, The Beatles were exploding on the music scene in England and worldwide. Mr. George Martin was their musical producer, and was receiving great kudos for his work with them. Said Robin: “My father, Mr. Kenneth Hunte, was a great fan of The Merrymen, always wanting to know what ‘the boys’ were up to and coming to our shows in Barbados at least once a month. He was also the most positive thinking person I have ever met. He wrote a letter, out of the blue, to Mr. Martin, telling him a group of musicians from Barbados were coming to England to perform at the Arts Festival and asked if he could find the time to meet them and give a listen to their music.

“We thought it would be a futile effort, as Mr. Martin was such a busy and sought-after producer. Surprise, surprise! Mr. George Martin replied that he would love to meet with us and hear our music! We were overjoyed and in awe. This was, we are sure, the art of positive thinking and belief at work. We not only met with Mr. Martin, we recorded two songs with him— Wings of a Dove and The Legend of Sam Lord. Mr. Martin was a very kind and charismatic person and gave us good advice. We shall never forget our meetings with him.”

While all this was happening, The Merrymen were appearing at the Royal Festival Hall, in Trafalgar Square, and on TV shows with other Commonwealth acts and English stars of the day. Another famous producer, Norman Newell of EMI, showed interest in The Merrymen and offered to produce an album. The catch was, they would have to come back to England in 1966 and to work in order to promote the album. They agreed, and were soon being introduced and taken to do auditions for booking agents.

The Merrymen were offered a six-month contract in the northern holiday resort town of Blackpool as a support act to Ken Dodd, an extremely popular singer/comedian with many recordings on the English charts. After accepting this engagement, the band started working on the album at the famous Abbey Road Studios, recording two or three days a week. The other days were spent rehearsing the other tunes.

We now had major decisions to make. We were in a position to give up our jobs in Barbados and go into music full time. This we did. But first, The Merrymen came back to tour the Caribbean—including the French, Dutch and Spanish speaking islands—all the way from Guyana to Jamaica. All the people of these islands were very kind to us. They loved our music and we loved them back.

The island of Bermuda to the North was also very special to The Merrymen. Mr. Eddy DeMello a record retailer and producer, brought us to perform at various spots. About six weeks after we left Bermuda, we were invited back to play at the posh Forty Thieves Night Club for ten days. We returned to this club several times over the years. With Eddy DeMello we developed a friendship that we have kept alive to this day.

In 1966, The Merrymen made the big move to England to work for six months. We had to rent houses, arrange for cars, and put children to school. It was a big undertaking. Upon arrival we had to report to the Blackpool Opera House for a long series of rehearsals with all the other artists that were on the show. Our part lasted about twelve minutes. We were rolled on and off stage like clockwork. If ever anyone of us suffered from stage fright, this certainly cured it. Playing for six thousand seated people six nights a week was truly an experience that served the band for things to come.

While in England they were advised to add a drummer. Robert Foster joined the band and they were elated. Robert stayed with The Merrymen for ten years before venturing into the commercial world.

Blackpool was a learning experience that allof the group valued highly. However, something was missing. Because we were not accustomed to playing the same songs night after night, it was sometimes boring for us. Our success before playing Blackpool was based on having fun for a couple hours on stage, feeling the audience out, seeing what songs they wanted, and giving it to them. After a couple of months at the Opera House, we longed to get back to what we did without the strict set of rules and time limitations of a variety show. But we were locked into it.

The solution? Make a new record. With time on their hands, they could rehearse it during the day in the dressing room at the Opera House. Knowing the ropes of recording in London, they booked an engineer and the Abbey Road Studio, where they had made the recording for EMI the year before. These bookings were two Sundays, about two weeks apart.

Suddenly the Merrymen were scrambling for time. To make these recordings we had to leave after the last show on those Saturday nights, take a cab with overnight bag and guitars, and catch a late night train for London, arriving at around 6 A.M. Then it was taxi to a hotel, check in, take a bath, have some breakfast and arrive at the studio for 10 A.M. for two three-hour recording sessions.

When the recordings were over Sunday evening, we would rush to catch the night train to Blackpool, arrive on Monday morning, catch up on some sleep, and get to the Opera House by 5 P.M. that day. It was hectic, but we were happy with what we achieved. We were so well rehearsed that we knocked the songs off like clockwork, and after all the hard work we had a record.

This album, Introducing the Merrymen, became one of The Merrymen’s most successful records and contained You Sweeten Me, Ring Ting Ting, The Fugitive and God Bless Bim, among others.

When the show closed in Blackpool, we made the long trek back to Barbados. The record preceded us and was on sale and getting airplay on the radio stations. The record was also doing well in the other Caribbean islands. We had a big hit in Jamaica with the song You Sweeten Me. Ring Ting Ting and The Fugitive were hits in Barbados and the other islands. On the 30th of November, 1966 Barbados was being granted independence. We were back for the celebrations and were really happy to be home. God Bless Bim was the hit.

The offers to tour the islands, Canada, and the US were coming fast and furious. We also got an offer from a US promoter to tour with the famous calypso singers, Sparrow and Lord Kitchener, and a host of others, to Boston and New York. The highlight of this tour was Carnegie Hall. We would never have dreamed that from the little Driftwood Cellar Bar in St. Lawrence Gap we would be on stage at Carnegie Hall! Dreams do come true. A few years later we went back with the same group to play Madison Square Garden, and to tour six cities in England. In Miami, we were asked to perform with a lot of Caribbean performers at the halftime show of the Superbowl, the big yearly American football final. What a thrill for us!

The touring life is rough on musicians and their families. Now it seemed that The Merrymen were constantly on the move. To maintain some balance, they never accepted offers that took them away for more than two weekends. Meanwhile the Barbados tourist scene was heating up. This development allowed them to stay at home from November to April, when they performed at the Caribbean Pepper Pot and the Jolly Roger, among other venues. They also continued to play for charities. From our inception to this day we like to help where we can, especially with cases of serious illness.

Their Canada fan base remained strong. From the 1970s on, Canada became our biggest market. We went up about three times a year, and played at the Massey Hall, the O’Keefe Centre, various hotels, and a host of other venues from Montreal right across the country in cities both big and small. For about ten years, the Ontario Place Forum became the stomping ground for The Merrymen, always the first Saturday in July. What a wonderful place to perform. We made a live album there, which is included in this boxed set.

Since their offers to perform were mainly from North America and the Caribbean, they switched their sights to recording in New York. We booked the recording studio at RCA and did two albums in quick time: From Dusk 'Till Dawn and Beautiful Barbados. As an album, Beautiful Barbados became our biggest-selling record. The local Barbadians bought their fill of this album, with its lavish presentation and fold-out pictures of Barbadian scenes. The huge tourist market kept buying this recording as a souvenir, too.

This was the last record that founding member Stephen Fields made with The Merrymen. He had made his mark with his own unique guitar style in all the recordings until 1970, but now it was time to follow other interests. Willie Kerr from a band called The Silhouettes took his place. Willie fitted right in and continues up until today. Willie brought his own exciting style of lead guitar playing.

In the early seventies we decided to open our own studio at Searles Plantation in Barbados to record ourselves and other artists. The studio was called REC Records (for Robin, Emile and Chris.) Chris Gibbs was very interested in recording and he became the principal engineer, in great demand. The recordings we produced for other acts, we promoted under the Coral Island Label; the Merrymen label was Merry Disc. The studio was going well. In 1976 we went to England to play two shows and took advantage of the time to look for equipment to upgrade the studio. We found a major component that greatly improved the sound. After this was installed, we recorded exclusively in Barbados, as the sound was up to international standards.

In 1975, the band’s drummer, Robert Foster, left to pursue a life in business. Victor Chapman, an accomplished drummer on the local scene with many well known bands, was at the time one of the producers and recording engineers at the studio and we asked him to come play drums. Victor played with us for about a year. We were all thankful for the time he spent with us. Then Robert Foster came back for one more year. Afterwards, we are happy to say, he became very successful in his business career. Peter Roett joined us in 1976. He came from the popular band, The Brothers. Peter is an excellent drummer and has an infectious laugh. Again we were blessed. He is still with The Merrymen today.

In the beginning, for the occasional show, we had yet another drummer, who in the early 60s was the leader and drummer of the very popular band, The Blue Rhythm Combo. His name is Antonio “Boo” Rudder. Boo would come the odd time when his commitments to the Blue Rhythm Combo would allow. We were thankful for his time. What an excellent musician.

As the years passed, the Merrymen settled into a pattern—play in Barbados July to August and December to April, and then record in May. Tours to Canada and the north were mostly around the spring and fall, but they often went on two-week tours in the dead of winter, bringing some island warmth with them, and always having fun.

On tour with The Merrymen became a very special time. From the very first tour in 1965 until today, when the plane door closed in Barbados it was almost as if the band were in a special zone. It was like being transported back in time to school days—no worries, jokes all the time, and laughter, lots of laughter. Just put the band on stage in Barbados or overseas and they did what they did best with a big smile—play music and entertain. These periods were truly a work of love, and it showed. The audiences sent the love right back to the stage in one continuous circle. This was not work; it was fun, and to think we got paid for it was incredible!

To all those fantastic people from the Caribbean and around the world who attended our concerts and bought our music, we hope we brought some happiness to your lives. Yes, dreams do come true, you just have to dream hard enough and live your dream every day. We thank you all for listening.