It seems that the angels are calling home members of the older entertainment fraternity with a frequency that makes the rest of us wonder which of us will be the next one to fly away.
After a spate of three in just as many weeks, I was entering the supermarket at Sunset Crest on Friday when I heard a very familiar voice whispering: “Old boy.” It was Tony Grazette, the only person who has called me that from even when I was a young boy. As I turned to greet him at the spot where he daily helps to raise funds for a well known charity, he asked me in the very sombre tone, “You heard the Banditt gone?”
I hadn’t heard but anybody who would have been involved in the industry in that period just before Independence that is indisputably dubbed the golden age of Barbadian entertainment, would have known without a second thought that Tony was referring to Rudolph Waithe, whose deeper than deep baritone voice made him “Mr Bassman” in the best secular vocal group Barbados has ever known, The Opels.
Regrettably, that group now has three of its most distinctive voices together again with Rudolph joining Hubert “Angel” Grant and Lionel “Midge” Springer, who predeceased him.
If I ever get around to writing the multi layered story of my own life, The Opels will be one of two names that will feature prominently for the year 1973, the other being the Nation.
For it was in that year that, with my journalism hand, I wrote my name among those on the foundation stone of this newspaper; and, with my entertainment promotions hand, I opened the gates for the first show held at the National Stadium, the sold-out Original Opels In Concert.
Only a few short days ago, I sat in the chapel at Coral Ridge among his relatives and friends, many from the entertainment fraternity, to say a final farewell to another well known Barbadian entertainer/musician, Robin Hunte. He was a founder member of undoubtedly the best-known group, locally, regionally and internationally from that era, the Merrymen.
As a then musician (drummer) myself, as well as the first of three journalists to cover the entertainment scene, the others being Gabby Ah Don’t Want No Young Girls Scott, now of the Barbados Workers’ Union, and former Government Senator and diplomat Glyne Murray, I knew Robin from the day he opened the doors of the popular K.R. Hunte Record Shop on Lower Broad Street.
I got to know him even better as I subsequently recorded the meteoric rise to international acclaim of him and his fellow original Merrymen – Emile Straker, Stephen Fields and Chris Gibbs.
I even accompanied them on trips for performance across the Caribbean, and one such trip will also be included in my memoires because of its uniqueness. With the Merrymen as drummer was no other than Antonio “Boo” Rudder, well known at the time for his role in one of the top bands in he land, the Blue Rhythm Combo. But “Boo” not only distinguished himself before the packed crowds on drums but also by being the first and only person I have known to become air sick (on the LIAT flight), car sick (from the airport to the hotel) and sea sick (sitting on a barge after taking a swim).
My own memorable Merrymen moment came during one of their performances, when “Boo” got up from the drums, handed me his sticks and told me, “Play a few”. And I did.
It’s goodbye for now but, in the words of Diana Ross and the Supremes, someday we’ll be together again.