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Welton Irie

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 4 months ago

Biography

Welton Irie was born Welton Dobson, 1960, Jamaica. When he started deejaying he was simply known as Welton. He was then deejaying for Sir John the President and Big John's Stereophonic Sound, that was later to be known as Echo Tone. He deejayed for the sounds up to 1981. The first payment he ever got for his deejaying was $2.00. His initial style was copying Ranking Trevor who was an idol and major influence. Welton did the imitation so good that on tapes people often couldn't tell who it was of the two. Welton managed to build up a group of fans and he also introduced the ground breaking deejay General Echo. Even though Echo is regarded to have initiated the renaissance of slackness it was also with the help of Welton. Welton later moved on to Gemini sound in 1978, at the time one of the most known and biggest sound systems. In 1980 he moved on to the Virgo sound where he was performing with Lone Ranger - when the latter also joined the sound moving from Soul 2 Soul. Welton also deejayed for Lee's Unlimited sometime during these years.

 

Weltons first recording was a dubplate for Stereophonic. Welton and Lone Ranger began their recording careers as a duo for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One performing in a similar style to Michigan and Smiley. It was Coxsone who recommended Welton to add Irie to his name and thus he was from now on known as Welton Irie (not much to Weltons liking at first) - the first Irie in reggae. Together with Lone Ranger they recorded a few songs in '77 to '78 such as »Chase dem Crazy« but their partnership was short-lived.

 

 

Producer Glen Brown heard Welton chatting "Wicked Haffe Run Away" over the Greenbay rhythm and was impressed by his style so he told him that he wanted to record him. His first album, Ghettoman Corner, was for Glen Brown and used rhythms from Sylford Walkers Lamb's Bread International. It was re-released paired with the latter in a reissue done by Blood and Fire. His second album, Reprobate, was entirely different in style as the dancehall era had begun. It was released on Hitbound, one of the most important labels of the time, with productions by Niney. In 1982 he cut his biggest hit to date, »Army Life«. The humorous commenting on the disappointments of the army life made the single a classic which sold approximately 30,000 copies in three months. There was also an album with the same name released on the Dynamite imprint for producer Clive Jarrett.

 

In 1983 Welton returned to Gemini for an international tour alongside Johnny Ringo and Squiddly Ranking. During the three months long tour they played in towns such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. Gemini clashed Saxon in this tour with Saxon ending up as the winners. By the mid 80's Welton would stop deejaying for Gemini and instead select for the sound.

 

Sources

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