The Merrymen
The Merrymen ( English for "The happy men"; also Emile Straker & the Merrymen , spelling also The MerryMen ) are a calypso band from Barbados , which in the late 1960s in Europe, in particular through their recording of "Big Bamboo" , a Number two hit in the Netherlands .
history
The Merrymen were founded in Barbados in 1962 and initially played in schools and in a pub in Saint Lawrence Gap , a place on the south coast of the island known for its restaurants, bars and dance clubs. After the success of self-produced records on their home and other Caribbean islands - including the traditional “Big Bamboo” , which was also released by the Jamaican label WIRL in 1966 - they came to Great Britain in the mid-1960s, where they played as a live band in the summer season in the seaside resort of Blackpool performed and got a record deal with EMI. In 1969 “Big Bamboo” became a summer hit in the Netherlands and spent 19 weeks in the charts with second place as the highest position. The single "Soul Calypso" also reached the Dutch top 20 a year later. The Merrymen finally returned to Barbados, where they particularly campaigned for tourism - also with their music, especially the song Beautiful Barbados and the album of the same name from the year 2004.
“We wrote a lot of music ourselves that has become part of the island's traditional folk music. In many hotels the tourists want to hear our music because it is traditional Caribbean calypso music. "
Members
Founding members
- Robin Hunte - guitar and mandolin
- Stephen Fields - guitar and vocals
- Emile Straker - lead vocals, guitar and steel pan
Other members
- Chris Gibbs - bass guitar
- Robert Foster - Conga and Percussion
Web links
Notes and evidence
- ↑ Big Bamboo at Discogs.com
- ↑ Chart history ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Top40.nl
- ↑ Chart history ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at Top40.nl
- ^ "We have written a lot of our own music, which has become traditional folk music on the island. At a lot of the hotels, the tourists want to hear our music because it's traditional Calypso Caribbean music. "(Straker). Quoted from The Merrymen - 4 Talented Musicians , translation: Jo Atmon
