Reggae Heritage

When I started this project to write an account of Jamaica's Reggae Heritage, I first wrote a preface, I now suggest you once again turn to this preface and read it one more time. A little slower, this time, before you continue to read any further. After the book was completed during February 2003, I was shocked to have read a part of a book that was being sold on the market by a Jamaican writer. I will quote a part of that book as I have read it where the word Sebastian was repeatedly spell wrong. The next two paragraphs are from this mistake of a book. As the only survivor of that early period, Clement Coxsone Dodd is often said to have invented the sound system concept. But according to the late Count Matchukie, the first real Dance-hall sound system was Tom The Great Sebastian, the ?nom de record? of the Chinese hardware merchant Thomas Wong: ?There were other sets playing about the place, but Tom was the first sound with an amplifier properly balanced for the Dance-hall. Tom The Great Sebastian started getting competition from Sir Coxsone Downbeat, Duke Reid ?The Trojan, ? and Lloyd (The Matador) Daley. Tom was turned off by the violent rivalry among systems downtown and opened The Silver Slipper Club at Cross Roads. One night he committed suicide by gassing himself in his car, supposedly over financial troubles. Shortly after the Silver Slipper Club burnt to the ground? [End of excerpt from a bad mistake of a book] Tom (The Great) Sebastian did not own The Silver Slipper Club. Mr. Ho, who also ran the "Esquire Restaurant" on the same premises that now is called Silver Slipper Plaza, owned the club. He employed Tom on a gate percentage basis. The club did not burn to the ground, but was closed to make way for the Silver Slipper Plaza. Finally, Tom did not commit suicide over financial troubles, but over domestic problems. There are a large number of people who would like to associate themselves with the early history of Jamaica's music industry. They believe that you had to be standing on the corner of Luke Lane and Charles Street in downtown Kingston. Listening and sometimes dance to the sound of Tom The Great Sebastian (Sound System) Most of these so-called want-to-be were not old enough to realize what was happening concerning the new rising sound systems. I was under parent control at that time and will not lie to prove that I was there at the beginning. I was a part of the early building of Jamaica's Music Heritage, I contributed much more than most of these want- to- be's. I lived it then, not later. I was always a disc jockey, starting with my mother's RCA (His Master's Voice) table model gramophone. When I started high school I realize my dreams when I was introduced to Mr. Thomas Wong (Tom The Great Sebastian) and was taught the finer points of being a Sound system disc jockey. The lesson I retained the most was, as he told me. "You should not let the dance crowd lead you, you have to be the leader, what you play is what they have to enjoy" I was the third Disc Jockey for the Great Sebastian Sound System and remained with Tom (The Great Sebastian), playing at the Silver Slipper Club, Bournemouth Beach Club and many places where we always performed to pack dance halls. During this period, I met many Record producers, Artists and other Sound system operators. It was after Mr. Thomas Wong (Tom The Great Sebastian) untimely death that I decided to go it alone as a disc jockey. The Silver Slipper Club closed to make way for the Silver Plaza, during the late 1960s. I continued to operate The Great Sebastian Sound System with the help of Mr. Thomas Wong's son. The Great Sebastian Sound System played at the following nightclubs, The Blue Mist, Champion House, The Baby Grand, Johnson's Drive Inn and a number of other dance halls throughout Kingston and the countryside. The Great Sebastian sound system ended when Mr. Thomas Wong's son decided to close the Sound system business.
About the Author: Lou Gooden is a renowned Jamaican author and radio disc jockey; who attended Crescent College, which was located at 1E North Street, in Kingston Jamaica. Long before he graduated he had the opportunity of being the youngest sound system disc jockey for Jamaica's first known sound system "Tom (The Great Sebastian). Since 1968 Lou Gooden educated himself by working within the music business. He started working with West Indies Recording Company during 1968 and moved on to Studio One Records with Mr. Clement (Coxson) Dodd. During 1971 he launched "The Metromedia Sound System" from the Baby Grand Club that was located in Cross Roads. After a number of years working with the Epiphany nightclub in New Kingston and Hedonism 2 in Negril, he migrated to the U.S.A where he attended four different radio broadcasting colleges. During 1996 he embarked upon a broadcasting career at New York's W.N.W.K. 105.9 FM and later moved on to W.R.T.N. 93.5 FM. During 1992 he rejoined Studio One Record from their then home-base located in Brooklyn New York....When Lou returned to Jamaica During 2002 to complete the book "REGGAE HERITAGE" which he started during 1993 he once again hooked up with Mr. Dodd and Studio One Record where he performed as Administrative Director until Dodd's untimely passing during April 2004..he continued to work in the administrative position until 2007 at which time he joined the new radio station Bess100FM. Lou Gooden returned to Jamaica with a wealth of knowledge of the entertainment business during 2002 to complete his first non fiction book titled "Reggae Heritage". Lou have completed his second book (536) pages titled "DANCE HALL SOUND SYSTEM...THE GOOD...THE BAD AND THE UGLIEST"