Lloydyman: The Statesman

By Lloyd George Blake

Born and raised in Jamaica, schooled with Bob Marley, emigrated to Birmingham, club-owner and music promoter, father of twelve…what a life  and Lloyd George Blake describes it in wonderful bite-sized chunks, evoking the atmosphere of every decade from the '60s onwards, and justifiably name-checking so many along the way from Mohammed Ali and Bishop Desmond Tutu to reggae stars like Dennis Brown and Dennis Bovell, not to mention politicians and the movers and shakers who made Birmingham musical culture the seething hive of inspiration it still is today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: APS Books
• Release date: May 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224846320

Book preview

LLOYDYMAN

Dedicated to my beloved Mother Mama Urciline Brown, my beloved father Ivanhoe Sonny Blake.

My brothers Frank (my twin) Rudolph, Sylvester and Dennis (twins), Alvin, and my sisters Lilieth and Loveleth. Better known by their pet names as: Billy, Ruddyman, Syliner, Copperhead, Son Son, Shirley and Lovey.

My grandparents, my father and my mother, and all seven of my siblings, brothers and sisters, have all passed away. I am alone along that line. I often times wonder why I am still alive, and wonder if they and my African Ancestors are looking over me, guiding me along my life’s journey.

I also dedicate this to my children, grandchildren, great grand children and great great grandchildren.

To all my friends and associates, male and female, who have encouraged me over the years to write my life story. Thank you all.

Here, I will remember two special persons who have gone to sleep-they are:

The late Lee McDonald and the late Vince Shirley.

I further dedicate this to all the women that I have loved, and who have loved me back, both intimately and platonically, throughout the years along my journey in this life. Some I have lost forever, some are still my friends, and will be, even beyond the grave.

FOREWORD

It is said that, in every one of us, there is a Book. There is a journey through the years we travel the earth, when we encounter many challenges, many obstacles, temptations, trials and tribulations, battles won and lost, but, most of all, experiences of events worthy of chronicling in the form of a Life Story. Some Life Stories are told by someone else on your behalf, other stories are better told by the person himself or herself.

Whilst there are very good ghost writers, Lloyd Blake decided to write his Life Story himself. This is one of the reasons why it has taken so long to write. Illness, and not wanting to hurt anybody’s feeling with some of the things that he might write about, also factor in the delay. But, with time running out, and that this might be his only book, he finally decided to write it. There were also two specific moments when two of his very good lady friends did something and challenged him to stop talking and start writing.

Monica Coke is one of a few special friends of his. Just before the Covid pandemic, P.J.Patterson, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, was on a book tour in London, to launch his Autobiography called My Political Years, a book of over 400 pages, costing over £50 to buy. Monica Coke bought a signed copy of the book, gave to Lloyd Blake to read, and challenged him to be inspired by it.. She told him not to say anything more to her about his own book, until he wrote it. As Lloyd Blake had done some work with the People’s National Party (PNP) in Jamaica in his teenage years and knew the quality and political achievements of P.J., and knowing that P.J. was also a former Manager of the world famous Skatalites Band featuring the likes of Roland Alphonso, Lester Sterling and Tommy McCook, he knew that that book was no easy read, but took it as a relevant challenge. Lloyd Blake has read the book and took the challenge and urge to write.

Quite a few years before that, on the 4th of January, 2014, to be precise, another very good special friend, Marcia Bulgin, bought a book called Peter Tosh, the Stepping Razor, chronicling the life and work of Peter Tosh, the former member of the Jamaican famous group The Wailers, featuring Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh fronting the legendary Wailers Band. Marcia Bulgin gave the book to Lloyd Blake as a New Year’s present. Again, this book had well over 400 pages. In the front cover, she wrote: Ok, please use as the inspiration. Awaiting your book. Lots of love. Marcia .xx.

This was another urge, challenge and encouragement for Lloyd Blake to write his story. Like P.J. Patterson’s book, he has read this also.

Both books were hard covers, and Lloyd Blake intends to have his book published in hard cover too.

It is said that, if you want to understand someone, you have to be that someone. You have to imagine walking in that person’s shoes, and imagine how it was when that person was going through the experiences that have come to mould and develop that person into what they have become.

From an early age, Lloyd Blake had to learn to fight the hardships of life, because he wasn’t born into money. His parents had land in the country, but had moved to Kingston to start a new life, leaving what they had to family members. He had children in his young teenage years and had to start working to look after his children and also to help his siblings and his parents. He paid for two of his brothers to learn the jewellery trade, and for another to learn tailoring. He got married in his early twenties, and came to England to join his wife who had migrated three years before him, to join her mother.

Fast forward to when he arrived in England and found it hard to adjust to the cold and racist society that he encountered. When he looked for inspiration, he met Bishop Desmond Tu Tu, Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali.

He concepted an idea to own and develop a venue for the black community, to expose music and other cultural activities, to mimic a Black Theatre called The Apollo, that was in Harlem, New York, in the United States of America. That he was able to do so eventually, whilst serving his community in many community organisations, is a testament to the man called Lloyd Blake.

In this book, his Memoirs, he tells you about his journey from a young ambitious, determined black man from the ghetto of West Kingston, Jamaica, to become the Statesman that he undoubtedly is and I am honoured and privileged to write this short Foreword, and urge you to read his Life Story.

A Good Friend

1

I am the father of 12 children and a step son, Mark, and an adopted daughter-Ashley. Four of my children have passed away. Two sons in Jamaica, and two daughters here in England. I have, at last count, 37 grand children, 54 great grand children and 5 great great grand children.

I got my children at a young age, and so it continued with my children getting theirs when they, too, were young, and so on. As they say, it’s a Blake thing. I will explain later.

My children are: Veronica (Baby G), Leslie, Pearlina (Christine) Leonard, Michael, Dianne, Lorna (Dunna), Noel, Raymond (Chubby), Dwight, Joel and George. My step son is Mark, and my Adopted daughter is Ashley. Nine of my children were born in Jamaica. The other three plus my step son were born here in the UK. My adopted daughter Ashley was also born in Jamaica. My twelve children came from six mothers. I was married twice, and divorced twice. I had my first child when I was fourteen years of age. I had my last child when I was sixty-two years of age. It’s a long and interesting story.

I write all this, because, if you’re to understand an individual’s life, you need to understand where they were born, the life struggles they had, the country’s political situation, the general social norm and culture of their community and country, as practiced and lived, according to the level of education, employment and societal practice, and so on, in order to be as properly informed as possible, especially if they are constantly being asked and urged to write and tell their Life Story.

My first baby mother, Kathleen Simpson, was two years older than me. We lived in the same lane, and saw each other every day. We grew close to each other and liked each a lot. The fact that when she had my first child, Veronica-Baby G, I was only fourteen years and two months old and she was only sixteen years old herself, tells its own story. This was in 1955. She had two more children for me in 1957 and 1959, respectively. They were Leslie and Pearlina-(Christine). Life and love in the ghetto of West Kingston was challenging, and these things happened.

My second baby mother Pearly, had two sons for me, born in 1958 and 1960 respectively. They were Leonard and Michael Johnson-Blake. The optics of the situation and runnings that caused this to happen, needs a full understanding of life in the ghetto. Pearly and I lived in the same yard, room next to each other with just a rail separating us on the same verandah. We used to talk every day and night before going to bed. We often stole a kiss and a hug before going into our respective quarters. It seemed to be only a matter of time before we would make love.

My third baby mother of the time was Shirley Monica Bravo. In between all that was happening to me and my other baby mothers, she had a daughter, Lorna (Dunna) for me in 1959, also, and many years later, she had a second daughter, Dianne, for me in 1967.

This means that, due to various optics and reasons, I was involved with three baby mothers at the same and in between times. Pity I wasn’t a Prince in Africa. I felt like one from time to time back them. Nothing to boast about I know, but it’s the truth. We young people in those times didn’t like the idea of using condoms, or practicing birth control.

2

In the scheme of things, with none of my baby mothers and me staying together, in the flick of time, and being alone, I met and fell in love with the woman who was to become my first wife. That was Claire Doreen Dixon. In time, with my body functioning like it was, she had two sons for me, born in 1962 and 1964, respectively. Noel was born in 1962, and Raymond (Chubby) born in 1964. She later had a third son for me, Dwight, born in 1969, when I came to join her in England.

Instead of judging me from a religious or moralistic point of view for having/getting so many children so early in my life with so many different women, try and understand where we were, how it was, and why it happened. I was young, could read and write well, working and earning a good wage, could dance good, not bad looking, even if I say so myself, very popular, and being at the right place at the right time, women were naturally attracted to me, and I was also attracted to them.

3

As a young ambitious Jamaican, I started from a young age to consider what I wanted to do in life, and what I wanted for my family. My twin brother was born a few minutes before me, and although I was the second born, I was charged with the responsibility of looking out for my siblings, to help them get a trade that they could use to make a living for themselves and their families as they grew older.

My older sister started selling in the local market, and so she didn’t have to be looked after by me.

My twin brother was not so much interested in academics, and from his early teenage years, wanted to make bingo cards and bingo books to sell to bingo houses. I therefore bought all the tools and equipment that he needed and set him up to do that work/hustling. My sister Shirley was also into dress making and selling clothes, and again, I helped her on her way. She was a very good dancer from an early age.

Then, it was the turn of my brothers Ruddyman and Son, both of whom so wanted to learn jewellery. I searched and found a jeweller who took them on as apprentices, with me paying a weekly fee for them to learn with him. Eventually, I was proud to wear rings made by both of them, knowing that I was seeing the benefit of the help I had given them to start.

My big sister Lovey was a natural hustler, selling in the market, buying and selling goods as higglers do. She was doing good for herself. She also loved what was called Pocomania, an old African religious cultural pursuit that had members of a kind of cult chanting, dancing, falling into a kind of trance, with a Head Man called a Shepherd, leading and guiding them, and, as it was strongly believed and rumoured, it was the practice of the Shepherds and Head Men to take advantage of the women when in trance and talking in tongues, to have sexual intercourse with them. My brothers and I broke up the trance behaviour many times and got our sister out of that practice.

Finally, my other twin brothers Sylvester and Dennis were to be helped to find their way. I got a tailor to take Sylvester with me paying his apprentice fee on a weekly basis. Over time, he became a Master Tailor. The suit that I wore to come to England was made by brother Sylvester. I wore that suit with great pride.

Dennis found a job at the Caribbean Cement Company in Rockfort, outside of Kingston, going towards the Palisadoes Airport. I had done what I was charged to do by my mother and father, and it felt good. I thought that I did a good job by them, and felt proud.

4

The individual relationship between me and my father, my mother, and my siblings, were different in many ways, but had many similarities at the same time. My mother saw her muscular dystrophy weakness of both legs and arms in me, from an early age. It was an hereditary illness passed down from her father to her, and from her to me, which, in the course of time, I passed to two of my daughters.

The relationships between my siblings and me were all good. We looked out and cared for each other. We shared whatever little we had with one and other, and made sure that we all knew that we loved each other as our parents loved all of us.

As we all grew older and branched out to do what we could to make a better life, I started to work and earn more than the others. I made sure that none of my siblings experienced hunger nor any form of hardship, as long as I could help.

My father was a fisherman and a carpenter, and my mother sold fish and other sea food in the local market. They did the best they could for us, and made sure that we had a good early start in school.

5

There were days when my father didn’t do well at sea with his fishing, and my mother didn’t have much money left after paying her bills from selling her fish and shrimps down town in the Chinese quarters and in the market. My mother would send either my twin brother or me up the lane to my uncle’s wife to ask her to lend her my mother some money to buy food to cook for dinner. When she asked me to go, the pride in me caused me to go halfway and turn back, and told my mother that my uncle’s wife  wasn’t at home. Later she would send my twin brother again to go and see if she had come back home, and to ask her. When my mother found out that I hadn’t gone to ask in the first place, she would take me one side, cried with me and said that she knew that I was proud and didn’t want to do it. She would then said to me, that one day we would not have to ask anybody for help to buy food for our dinner, because things would not always be like that. That never happened again.

My father was a very proud and discreet man. He would not ask anyone for money to lend to him, nor would he beg anyone for anything. Whenever he wanted to smoke a spliff of ganga, he would go to the toilet, carrying  newspaper that he would read whilst smoking his spliff. Only his close friends and family knew that he smoked weed. You would never see him drunk. He knew when he had enough, to stop. He also was a smart dresser. He would wash and scrub up well every evening, putting on his white shirt and tie and standing tall at 6ft 2inches, hair well combed and neatly patted. He would always cut a short trouser for me from the same material that made his trouser. That is where I got my smart dress sense from. He loved talking politics, and often talked about David Lloyd George, the Welsh English Prime Minister. That is where he named me Lloyd George Blake. I have passed on the Lloyd George to some of my sons.

As I write, all of my  five brothers and two sisters and my mother and father and my grand parents have passed away, leaving me alone. I cry as I write, and often cried thinking about them. 

6

Along the way I have sat chatting with Muhammad Ali, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and many others and I’ve touched the fingers of Nelson Mandela.

I have been in the presence of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie as his motorcade stopped outside the gate of my son Noel’s mother, along Barry Street, Kingston, Jamaica, in 1966. I saw up close, his eyes and the outline of his cheek bones. Mortimo Planno, the Rastaman who, along with Brother Howell organised Selassie’s trip to Jamaica, was one of the mentors in my life’s journey.

7

I have been asked many times over the years why I haven’t written my Life Story and The Story of The Hummingbird, so that people can understand who I am, and what really happened at The Hummingbird to cause its closure back in 1993. I’ve been asked how The Hummingbird came into being. Where did the idea come from? Where did the money come from to open such an iconic and large venue here in racist Birmingham.

I have actually written many chapters, taped a quite a lot, and had about thirty hours video interview with a professional company, but did not get to the point of finishing to get it out in book form over the years, due to the video company folding and the owner leaving the country to live abroad.

Another reason why I have not written and publish my book all these years, is because I did not want to hurt anyone, especially some of the artistes with whom I interacted during The Hummingbird years, nor their family members, with what I would have written. Many of the artistes are dead, others are still alive, and their family and relatives are still around. So, now that I am finally writing, I will do my best to be careful in what I write. People can read between the lines to work out for themselves, who I am talking about when I mention certain things and at what period I am talking about.

What was The Hummingbird? How did it come about? What really happened at The Hummingbird to cause its demise, and who, both black and white, were really responsible for its closure? And, who am I? Who is the real Lloyd George Blake?

8

Some of the biggest names in Reggae, Rock and Pop, Hip Hop, Soul and Jazz, appeared at The Hummingbird. Over its lifetime from 1983 to 1993, The Hummingbird put more than three million pounds in the local economy, created many jobs, helped and revived the careers of many Reggae artistes, and even helped a local young man from Lozells in Birmingham, to become an airline pilot, by helping to pay part of his training fees to train for his pilot licence.

Back then, sometimes in ponder, I sat and I wondered, about my future and a better tomorrow. Sometimes it seemed to end in dreams, as if someone else’s fate I must have borrowed. But my determination and my commitment to my objective, drove me on, and I never gave in.

9

At The Hummingbird, I met Muhammad Ali, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Curtis Mayfield and others, who inspired me to fight on. In life and learning, and the love of reading biology, sociology, physiology, psychology, and, most of all, philosophy, politics and business and law. I read and studied business and law a lot, so that I would know how to function in the world of business and commerce. Note, I have not said much about religion. I have my own concept and questions and belief about the God issue. Science and evolution are subjects that I think deeply about. But, where did all this started from? Beliefs and knowledge are two different things, and I have my beliefs. I am still searching.

I will tell all about The Hummingbird and the artistes who appeared there, in detail, later.

10

I was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on the 23rd of April, 1941. My father was from St. Elizabeth, and my mother was from Old Harbour in St Catherine. They both worked in the fishing industry, with my father being a fisherman and a carpenter, and my mother sold fish in the market. They met along the way, came to Kingston, where seven of us were born to my mother and father. My eldest sister was born in Catherine to my mother before she met my father.

Those who study the signs, will immediately note that I was born under the sign of the bull, which makes me very stubborn-lol, determined and dexterous. I was one of eight children-six boys and two girls. I was a twin. Two of my brothers were also twins.  One them became a master tailor and a Rastaman.

Earlier, I explained much about my siblings, and mentioned what both my father and mother did for work.

I had two uncles, Uncle Pawford and Uncle Cleveland, and two aunts, Aunt Sally and Aunt Caroline. Uncle Paw was 6ft 7ins. And Uncle Cleveland was about 5ft 5ins. Aunt Caroline was about 5ft 5ins. Uncle Paw became a Government Rum Warehouse Manager and worked across the local waters at Port Royal, where my father would take me in his hired canoe every other week end, when he would take fresh clothing and special food from grandma to him, and bring back some rum and things so that my father could sell and earn some extra money. It was always a pleasure to be in my father’s company when he made those trips in a canoe that he would hire at the beach from friends who made canoes to hire out to fishermen. I felt safe with my father, and looked forward to the trips. For some reason, he always only ever take me with him, and not my twin brother. I was very close to my father who always dress neatly and smart. I took that from him.

My Uncle Cleveland became a butcher. I went to the abbatoir where he worked and regularly watched him working and saw the pride he took in his work. Because of where he worked, we quite oftentimes got free meat for dinner for the family. My Aunt Caroline also sold fish in the market like my mother. This meant that the family was hardly ever short of either fish or meat, due to the work of both my mother and her, plus Uncle Cleveland being a butcher.

My Aunt Caroline had three sons, and my Aunt Sally produced two sons, from which came a son down the line called Paul Blake aka Frankie Paul the singer. This means that Frankie Paul was my second cousin. He in time, came to sing at my venue, The Hummingbird in Birmingham, England during his career.

I met and knew my grand mothers, but never met nor knew my grand fathers. I only knew that my grand father was from St Elizabeth on my father’s side, and  my other grand father was from St Catherine, on my mother’s side.

We lived in West Kingston, in Salt Lane, down the road from the world famous Coronation Market. I attended Ebenezer Primary School at the corner of Spanish Town Road and Darling Street. The famous/infamous Tivoli Gardens was created behind my school.

11

Whilst at primary school, a young man called little Robert, and I, were both in fifth class and sixth class together for a while, being taught by the teacher Miss Doran in sixth class. That young man turned out to be none other than The Right Honourable Robert Nesta Marley OM. He had come to Kingston from St Ann, lived in Bull Bay St Thomas for a while, before moving to Kingston. Whilst attending Ebenezer Primary School, he lived just across the school near Spanish Town Road. This was before he moved to Trench Town.

My primary school was closed after a while, and was turned into a Social Welfare Centre called Operation Friendship Centre, offering child care, free dental care, youth work and other social developmental and medical facilities and services, where doctors and nurses would come and give free services to people in the local community. I ended up working there as a Voluntary Youth Worker assisting the paid Youth Worker, and later I became the paid Youth Worker, where I would have young people both boys and girls coming there to take part in football, cricket, personal development and work experience and training. Bob Marley attended there on Thursday evenings when an old man would bring a guitar to teach the boys to sing and play. This was before Bob went to Trench Town to develop and move on up in the music world, to become the Legend and Icon that is Bob Marley as the world now knows him to be.

Thursday night became the night when budding singers came to show off their singing talents. They included Bob Marley of course, Jimmy Cliff, Delroy Wilson, Ken Boothe and his sister Shirley, Alton Ellis and his sister Hortence, Tony Brevette from The Melodians, and Milo who became a drummer for Culture. This was the period before they all went up to Trench Town which became the birthplace of reggae, so to speak.

12

Life was tough growing up in West Kingston back in my early years. If you didn’t have a good education or a trade, you had to hustle in all kind of ways to make a decent living, if you didn’t want to join a gang or do bad things. As I mentioned earlier, my father was a fisherman and a carpenter, and my mother sold fish both in Coronation Market and in China Town along Barry Street, down town, as other higglers did. My father also made fish nets and also used the tails of cows after they were slaughtered at the abbatoir where Uncle Cleveland worked, to make brushes that he would sell outside his gate and in the market. He would sell the fish nets to other fishermen. He taught me how to make the nets, and I would help him sometimes.  My father also made twisted ropes that we would sell in the market to the higglers who came from the country with their ground products like yam and bananas and all those other field produced items to sell, and would buy the ropes to take back to the country to tie their cows and goats and donkeys with. I felt embarrassed and too proud to be seeing by my girlfriends selling those items in the market, but my twin brother didn’t mind, because he was more a hustler than me. I wanted to work in an office as a clerk or something like that. Although my father and his mother, my grand mother on his side had land in St Elizabeth, they had moved to Kingston and left what land they had with relatives to look after. That grand mother was very nimble with her hands, and made cakes to sell for a living. This meant that we had food most of the times, from both the fishing that my father did, the fish that my mother sold, and the cakes that grandma made.

My father was a very proud man, and would not beg or borrow from any one even if he didn’t have money in his pockets to meet his family needs like food and bills. There were times when he couldn’t go fishing when the weather was bad, and his carpentry trade was not bringing in any money regularly.

I didn’t like rough work, and so, from an early age, I took to books to learn, in order to be a Clerk or Civil Servant, Accountant or Lawyer, or a businessman when I grew up, because I saw myself working with paper, and wearing a suit and tie.

13

After leaving Ebenezer Primary School where I reached sixth class a year early than my sixteenth birthday, due to skipping classes by doing well, I started looking for work. I applied to the Gleaner Company and got a job as a Junior Clerk, working next to the Editor’s Stenographer, as his Assistant.