Noddy mixes covers, original material

... 2005 runner-up says 'Rising Stars' watered down

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

It has been all of six years since Noddy Virtue's impassioned singing, million-watt grin and irrepressibly upbeat attitude helped create the peak of 'Digicel Rising Stars' frenzy. 

Since then, he has been one of the few graduates of the popular talent show to make inroads into the tough local stage-show and recording arena.

And now he has two albums in the making which reflect his 'Rising Stars' involvement, where emphasis was placed on cover versions of already-popular songs, and his subsequent forays into original material. Still, both are predominantly roots reggae.

Both are as yet untitled and, true to Virtue's 'Rising Stars' roots, the album of covers will be released before the full-length original set.

Among the 18 tracks on the cover set are Broken Arrow, the Rod Stewart song long a staple in Virtue's performances, Kris Kristoffer-son's Loving Her Was Easier, Concrete Jungle by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh's Glass House. Jimmy Cliff's Trapped (done Bruce Springsteen-rock style) and another Noddy staple, Bed of Roses, done with Jodi-Ann Pantry.

In 'Digicel Rising Stars', he said, it was important that the audience heard songs they were familiar with from the get-go.

"You have to sing songs that people can feel you from early and give you their vote," Virtue said. So the album of originals comes next, Jah Protect, Fragile and Easy Come, Easy Go on that 14-track set.

Passion

He is determined to do music "that the people feel. Right now, music loss it touch. You have to go back to what John Holt used to do back in the day". Virtue is supremely confident in his original material, saying "Imagine me a sing song that no release yet and people a cry. Is just you have to put the passion and the feel into it".

'Digicel Rising Stars' was one step in a musical involvement that goes back to Virtue playing Bass Odyssey, Black Kat and Bodyguard sound systems. He remembers playing Bass Odyssey in his home community of Comma Pen, St Elizabeth, and star selector Squingy (now deceased) arriving to take over after Virtue had completed the early segment of the dance.

"When them come, them say Noddy have the dance lock and them 'low me," he said.

However, getting a key to the music business after 'Rising Stars' is another matter. But Virtue reflects on advice from another deceased music-business standout.

"It's challenging. Anything you do, you have to believe in the Most High God. The road is not an easy road. You have to keep kick the door 'til it drop off. Alton Ellis tell me this, the last show he did at Arena," Virtue said. There was also Jimmy Cliff's encouragement that Virtue should record Trapped.

And he was clear from very early that the 'Digicel Rising Stars' frenzy is fleeting.

"'Rising Stars' look to the next talent, the next year. It is up to you to go on and show your talent after that," he said.

The show is yet to approach anything near the 2005 high, and Virtue opines that "it water down a way. Them need to go back to the drawing board". He tabs One Third's winning year (2006) as the last good one and acknowledges that "Romain Virgo year (2007) have a thing". His advice is to allow contestants to choose their own material.

The upcoming albums follow Virtue's full-length debut Just Believe and last year's six-track set for the 2010 football World Cup, those tracks evenly divided between originals and Luck Dube covers. The expected mileage from the latter did not materialise.

Virtue is slated for a show in Bermuda later this summer, and heads to England in August or September. There is also the possibility of a show in Kenya, which should have taken place earlier this year but was postponed.

In Jamaica, Virtue performs on the 'Green 4 Life' Eco-Music Festival in St Elizabeth on July 2, and is at The Deck, New Kingston, with The Heptones and Pantry on July 7.

Although he has done solo concerts up to 90 minutes and is confident that he can do up to an hour more than that, Virtue is yet to make the step of forming his own band.

"First, we have to put out the album and go across the world so we can pay them. It no make sense have a band today and tomorrow them leave you. You have to make sure them finance good," Noddy said.