Wild Bunch marks 47 years

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Gladstone ‘Gladdy’ Parker has already tried twice to celebrate the 47th anniversary of his Wild Bunch Disco. The first time, on June 6, it was put off by the clampdown on disruptive elements in the society, as the limited state of emergency was in its early days. “I was abroad and came back on the fifth, but it had to be put off,” Parker said.

Then there was last weekend, when the 2010 Post-Gemini Birthday Bash was again slated for Wickie Wackie, Eight Miles, Bull Bay. This time, it was a prediction of disruptive weather elements which stopped the party. A prediction which turned out to be incorrect.

“When I see rain on Saturday, I call the Met Office and they said the rain would be right through till Sunday and Monday. But I never ask where,” Parker said, laughing, because Sunday was a beautiful day on the beach at Wickie Wackie. “I know the Father disappointed in me. Look on the good good Sunday,” he said.

The Wild Bunch has never been one to stop the party, though, so the celebration is now slated for August 15, the players remaining the same – Gladdy, Michael Barnett, Errol and Señor Daley.

Birthday celebration

Parker, whose birthday was June 6, says the party is “a birthday celebration and anniversary celebration”.

Parker’s actual birth and his incarnation behind the turntables are not that far apart. He lived on Myrrh Villa Road, off Rosseau Road in Kingston, and “Coxson, Duke Reid, all of them big sound system used to play in front of my yard”. He would play along with his turntables and records made out of cardboard, miming the songs.

As he grew older, Parker graduated to the real thing and he laughs at the memory of playing a “Ferguson radio and one turntable”. He also played on Murray’s Hi-Fi, where he made his name as a selector. “The first time me play at a wedding him leave me and gone. When I done with the session the people lift me up and put me on the house top,” Parker said.

Gladdy’s partners in the beginning of his own disco were George Philpots, who died two years ago, and Charles Kennedy, both of whom migrated to the United States in the early 1970s. Vincent ‘Little D’ Davids then teamed up with Parker.

Changing times

The name ‘Wild Bunch’ came from the 1969 western, starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan and Edmond O’Brien. Not that Parker adopted it all on his own. “People used to ask us, ‘How you so wild?’,” he said.

Operating Wild Bunch has kept Parker out at odd hours of the night and exposed him to changing times in Jamaica. In the 1960s, after playing at a party, the Wild Bunch walked freely with their equipment back to their base. In the 1980s, when the vehicle transporting the equipment broke down on Sullivan Avenue, they were robbed. “Some guys come with long gun and black jacket and drive away the van with all the records,” Parker said.

He was then into playing music full-time, leaving his job at Western Electric Auto Supplies in 1980. There were, of course, concerns about income, but Parker chuckles and says, “We never get much money down there neither.” And the dates for Wild Bunch were increasing.

Even before that, the disco had carved out its niche in the 1970s. “I play out one year straight, to make my name,” he said, numerous gigs for nurses’ quarters at the University Hospital of the West Indies, among them.

The honours came in later years. In 1989 Parker received the Desnoes & Geddes & The Club (New Kingston) Award in recognition of his ‘dedication and service to the Jamaican entertainment industry’. The following year he was the recipient of the Binns Entertainment Award in appreciation of his outstanding contribution, and in 1997 the Purple Masters presented him with an award in appreciation of his sterling contribution to the Jamaican music scene.

And, in 2000, Merritone Music honoured Parker with an award “in appreciation of Merritone’s 50th Anniversary and 10th Annual Family Reunion”.

Parker has given out awards himself, celebrating Wild Bunch’s 25th anniversary in 1988 and 26th the following year with The Wild Bunch Awards and Miss Wild Bunch Competition, along with ‘Little D’. Bridgette McDonald was the first ‘Miss Wild Bunch’ and Donna Montaque the second.

At one point, Norman Murray played on Wild Bunch and now Junior Phillips selects when Parker is not around. However, spanning generations, Parker partners with Ryan ‘ZJ Steel’ Solomon from Zip FM, dubbed Wild Bunch Disco’s ‘Ambassador for Youth’. “They usually want it mixed. When you have young people you can’t play only oldies, they will throw you out of the place,” he said. “We have the right mix.”

On Sunday, August 15, the reminiscence will be in the music, not speeches. “Me just play for people to enjoy themself. Me is a party man,” Parker said.

And, looking back at 47 years of Wild Bunch Disco, Parker said “is a good little journey, has its up and down. Most of it was good, ups, y’know”.