INTERVIEW WITH... AUDREY HALL

Tell us about your earlies years. How did you start your musical career ?
Life for me began in London. Eight years in, the family moved to Jamaica and by my mid teens I was back to school in London. I indulged in many childhood imaginary concerts in both countries, with me holding an imaginary microphone and singing my heart out at home with my sister Pam and older brother Trevor. My brother Danny was not interested in music and my youngest brother Ray was a baby. Singing one on one to classmates who would plop down beside me and ask me to sing for them, was another fun thing to do.
I finally found myself a couple years later, singing for the first time with a band called The Firestones. The first show I ever did was in Whitehall, London and thereafter I was singing all over England and Wales.
One day while working on my day job with the Ministry of Health, I saw an advertisement in a newspaper. They were looking for a female singer to do recordings. I called immediately and made an appointment for an audition at a local studio with Dandy Livingston, a popular artist in his own right. He loved my voice and made arrangements for a band to come to the same spot a few days later and my version of "I Second That Emotion" was born. It was my first recording in 1968. I also got the opportunity to do the background harmonies too. It was a dream come true.

Then recordings were continuous ?
"Lovers Concerto", "Love Me Tonight", "Someday", "Don't let Her", "How Glad I Am" and many other recordings followed including a Dandy and Audrey album entitled "I Need You", released in 1969. Some of these songs made the local reggae charts around London and other parts of the UK. I got lots of local radio play on reggae music shows. My name was circulating in the Caribbean community and my parents and I were thrilled !
In the meantime the live shows were ongoing, but my fellow singers Roy G, his wife Yvonne and I made the leap from The Firestone band to a band called The Coloured Raisins. We found ourselves doing much more shows on a weekly basis and did a tour of Germany and a residency in Switzerland. We then leaped from The Coloured Raisins to a band called The Black Scene. With this band we did a three month residency in sunny Majorca, Spain. Those were great days with all three bands, no regrets and lots of great memories.
About a couple years later I found myself in a situation where three companies were vying for my signature on recording contracts. One was Trojan/Island Records, one was Trend Records/Class International and the other was Eastern Music Group. It was a great situation to be in but confusing. I chose to go with Trend Records. I recorded a pop song called "Getting Ready For a Heartache" which was released and got some air play on mainstream radio. After that song the company didn't have any material and so far the only song I had written in that time period was the B side of that record, a song called "MYOB Leave Me Alone".
In the meantime my Mom officially invited me to go to New York which was very exciting so I requested a release from Trend Records and left London for New York.



How was your life in New York ?
I arrived in New York City in February 1972. I spent the rest of the 1970s working with a civil rights organization and getting to know my new country, the people and the culture.
I joined a musical society run by Charles Ward a former member of a popular US group called the Ink Spots. This society did serious opera concerts and also popular music concerts.
I formed a girl group called Rare Spice with two American girls. We did shows in the NYC area and quite a few recordings with Al Taylor an aspiring songwriter/producer who put on a show at the Apollo theatre. We parted ways with him due to personality clashes before any of the recordings could blossom.
A friend of mine, Bobby Sarkie, introduced me to Bob Marley, "she can sing" he told Bob whereupon Bob asked me to sing for him while he accompanied me on his guitar. This I did and Bob loved my voice. He wanted me to go with the band to a studio in Canada to do some recordings. I couldn't go. That was a missed opportunity.
I also made inroads into the Jamaican music scene. I met Ken Williams and Gill Bailey, two of the most popular Jamaican radio personalities of the time and some of my British recordings were played on their radio shows. Later came radio personalities like Carl Anthony, Jeff Barnes, Jeff Sarge and many others who definitely helped to expose my music to the listening NYC public. My first recording in NYC in my name was "Go On With The Festival" a song I wrote and entered into the first Jamaica Reggae Festival Song Competition organized by Ken Williams. My song got the third prize. Keith Rowe got the first prize with "Out Of Many We Are One".
By mid 1976 Life events like relocating and starting families caused the breakup of Rare Spice.

About Keith Rowe, best known as one half of the rocksteady duo Keith & Tex, his song "Groove Situation", was recorded at the Black Ark with Lee Perry. You recorded your own version in 1976 in New York. A big tune ! Who recorded the original cut ?
So Keith Row and I were in the Festival Song Competition along with a number of contestants. We were among the twelve contestants selected to compete, however I remember Keith and his wife from primary school in Jamaica (laughs). That was such a coincidence. He produced "Groove Situation" with me in 1976 which was much loved by many. It may have been the first version of the song because he did his version with Lee Perry in 1977. It's not the same musical background as mine. Mine is quite different, faster with a different base line and different key. Anyway Keith, Rare Spice and I did shows with his band The Realistics until he left NYC.



You did also a lot of background vocals.
Late in 1981 I received a call from my sister Pam Hall offering me a chance to tour Europe with Toots and the Maytals doing background vocals. The last time I toured Europe had been in the late 60s and we had traveled in our little band van, all packed in and uncomfortable with all the instruments and amplifiers in the back, but I was ready for an adventure and a change of scenery. I was in a musical rut, tired of the boredom of my day job and ready to go. The only joy in my life was my daughter who kept me from feeling sad. Early 1982 found Pam and I in London. We spent the night in a luxury hotel and the next morning a luxury bus came to pick us up to take us to the dock and I thought "how nice, I wonder when the little band van is gonna show up" but the luxury bus drove us onto the ship. I started to ask questions. Is this bus what we're touring in ? Yes! Wow! I toured a few times after that but that first tour was an unforgettable eye opener and a wonderful experience. Toots was a very nice guy and so were the band members. The shows were great, Toots had some very enthusiastic fans in Europe. We played to nothing but packed venues. A few weeks later we were on a tour of the USA and the following year New Zealand and Australia. In between were a couple trips to Jamaica to work on Toots next album for Island Records. That was an awesome two years. Oh, I still had my job (laughs). Yes I was lucky, I always had lots of vacation and sick days and they allowed me to use them along with time off without pay.
I also met Peter Tosh (RIP) in Jamaica. Pam, and I along with other singers, did background vocals on his album "Mama Africa". We worked on "Maga Dog" Glass House" and the hit song "Johnny B. Good". During breaks Peter regaled us with stories of his past. He was a great communicator, we had great laughs. Months later I was invited to appear with Peter on the David Letterman show with his band "Word Sound and Power". It was awesome!

You made a come back as a solo artist in 1985 with "One Dance Won't Do", produced by Donovan Germain, which took you into the UK top 20. How and when did you get connected with him ?
Some time before the New Zealand tour I was introduced to Donovan Germain because I was looking for a producer. Our first recording was a reggae version of "Angel of the Morning". The song was released in 1982 and got some modest air play. The real effort was put behind another artist named Happy Love (Hugh Porter), plus Germain got busy with other things and I didn't see or hear from him for a year.
In the meantime I met a singer/songwriter/producer named Don Evans formerly of the Paragons. He wanted to work with me. He had written four songs that he wanted me to sing and he wanted to see how I would work out. He decided to start off with demos before going big with the production so he chose a little basement studio somewhere in Queens, NYC. I did all four songs that night and he was very pleased. He said he would call me when he was ready to do the final recording. He never called, so I called and left a message asking if the recordings were still on. No response ! The album "The Dynamic Duo" was finally released a few years later.



"Angel of the Morning" was the first recording of many.
Germain was back in town. I thought he had forgotten about me but no, here he was ready to jump back into music and get going. He said it was a toss up between a popular artist named Dobby Dobson (RIP) and I. I thought "damn, I'm taking second place again". Germains' music industry associates were sure Dobby should be the one but Germain seemed to have a premonition and he decided to work with me first.
Our second song was "I Wanna Know What Love Is". I absolutely loved that song but I had a terrible cold when Germain was ready to record it so he gave me a week to recover. After a week I still wasn't ready but Germain said I needed to do the best I could because there was another artist about to come out with the same song and he wanted to release ours first. We went to Philip Smarts studio (RIP) in Long Island. My Sister Pam was there along with Sly Dunbar, Robbie Shakespeare and Sidney Mills, three great musicians out of Jamaica. We laid that song that night and I did the best I could with my scratchy throat and my dear sister helped out. We did the background vocals together and she joined in at the end too. That song did very well. Now we were in full tilt towards an album and I spent some time in Jamaica. I spent a lot of time at a studio called Music Mountain and lots of family time with Mom, Dad and siblings.


"One Dance Won't Do" was an answer record to Beres Hammond's "What One Dance Can Do". Who decided to write this song ?
While "I Wanna Know What Love Is" was still doing it's thing Germain came by one day with a riddim/track and asked me if I could write an answer to the Beres Hammond song "What One Dance Can Do". We had done all the tracks for the album which was being mastered and pressed etc. and we were back in New York. I listened to the song and said I'd give it a shot. He also left me with the empty track so I could work with it and record whatever I came up with on a cassette tape. As usual Germain had a backup (laughs). He also gave the song to another artist to write something also, a pretty smart thing to do because it made both of us artists a bit anxious. That night I worked on it hard, crushing up and throwing away many pages till I was satisfied. A couple days later Germain came back for a listen. He liked what he heard and chose to record my song and the rest is history. That song worked it's way into the British top 20 when I flew in to London to help promote it. Thanks to the hard work of Germain and his team on the London scene and elsewhere it did very well as a single on its own and not on the album which was remastered to include it.



Tell us about this first album for Donovan Germain "Eight Little Notes" released in 1985 for Revolutionary Sounds.
It was while we were still promoting this album that we got a surprise ! Guess who shows up in London with his four demo tracks under his arm to capitalize on our chart success ? Tyrone Don Evans ! Don and his cohorts thought it would be a good idea to 'fix up' the four demos we had previously recorded and make an album with me on one side and him on the other. This could have been mistaken as the follow up to "One Dance Won't Do" which would have disrupted our official follow up. An injunction was filed in court to stop the release which Don and company later overturned.
I spoke about "I Want To Know What Love Is" and "One Dance Won't Do" at length so I'll move on to "Anyone Who Had a Heart". This was one of my favorite Dionne Warwick songs and Germain released it as a single from the album "Eight Little Notes", I have no knowledge of how well that single did.
The song "Eight Little Notes" which seems to be the favorite song on the album for many people, was written by me while riding the NYC subway on my way home one evening. The bass line and arrangements came along at the same time and I had much to do with the arrangement of it in the studio because that's what I heard in my head, eg asking Sly Dunbar to please do a drum solo in the middle of the song. That song ended up in a Columbia Pictures movie, "Someone to Watch Over Me".
My youngest brother Raymond was no longer a baby and had also inherited the gift of harmony, he joined me on the song "Eight Little Notes" and is part of the trio on the song "Oh What A Fool I've Been" on this album.



Your second album for Germain "Just You Just Me" was released two years after in 1987 for Germain Records including songs like "The Best Thing For Me" or « Smile » (another hit, UK #14).
I know "Smile" was done in 1986 because by the summer of that year I was back in London to promote it ! "Smile" is a nice warm song which I also wrote. It made it to the British top 20 charts and did quite well in other European countries too.
That same year November/December I was back again to promote "The Best Thing For Me" written by Carl Estick Junior. This was the first song to have a video which played quite a bit on Jamaican TV and elsewhere. The song went into the top 100 but didn't get very far.
The album "Just You Just Me" showed I was coming along as a song writer, I wrote three songs on it compared to one on "Eight Little Notes". Before I left Penthouse, Germain was getting more used to asking me to write songs for tracks with a shorter and shorter time span e.g. "see if you can write it and have it ready by tomorrow." Oh man, that was so challenging ! I can come up with melodies in seconds but lyrics, that's more of a struggle for me.
I like this album a lot though, it should have done better.



You are one of the few along with Little John, Peter Metro and The Mighty Diamonds having recorded for Donovan Germain' successive labels : Revolutionary Sounds, Germain Records and Penthouse Records. What were the differences between these labels ?
Yes, my music was released on three of Germains' labels but Germain was the common denominator, so it made no difference to me which of his labels carried my music. Maybe as the owner it made a difference to Germain. When the Penthouse Label came along I was pleased to be on it because it seemed to be more prestigious than the others! It seemed more geared for business, branding and greatness. It was treated with more respect and got more attention ! That's how it seemed to me (laughs).

One of my favorite songs is your version of Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville "I Don't Know Much" with Beres Hammond (also called "All I Need To Know"). Tell us about this song.
I was in love with the song "I Don't Know Much" by Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville, both artists have exceptionally sweet voices and great style. I wanted to do the song just like Linda did it. Germain said "Naw, do it your own way" and I'm glad I did. I'm stoked it's one of your favorites. It got good airplay in Jamaica.

Along with "I Don't Know Much", you recorded many covers for Penthouse : "I Want To Know What Love Is", "Anyone Who Had A Heart", "Hello Stranger", "Woman In Love" and many more. Was it a personal choice ?
At that time the reggae music genre was still in love with covers. Jamaicans wanted to hear everything done over in reggae, that's how much we love our music while appreciating the music of other genres. I'm big time guilty of this (laughs). If I suggested a song to Germain and he liked it, we did it and vice versa so they were favorites of both of us. On the other hand, I don't get offended or have a problem with other genres doing reggae music.
In the last 15 years or so, Jamaican artists have been doing more originals than ever. We are more cognizant of the business side of things and also the satisfaction one gains from creating ones own music !



You recorded for many producers. What is Donovan Germain's singularity comparing to other producers ?
Dandy Livingston, Sam Forbes, Keith Row, Donovan Germain, Don Evans, Courtney Panton, Chris Scott, Anthony Barrett, Keith Seivright, I worked with these producers in roughly this order. Some are not very well known in the business and did only one song with me but the thing they all had in common was, they saw potential in me.
Germain was a very positive guy, I remember him telling me "next year this time you'll be driving a much better car than that one" (my old Volkswagen Dasher, laughs). The more I saw him interact with music industry people the more I felt I was in the right hands. He was a people person and well connected to the right sources.
Dandy Livingston was not far behind in this respect too but all these men were very respectful of me and as far as I know, decent men.

When you recorded for Penthouse, the engineers Dave and Tony Kelly were recording and mixing most of Penthouse songs. Can you tell us a little more on their way of working ?
Most of my work was done before the Penthouse brand came on the scene but I recall working with Dave Kelly the most when Germain got his own studio. He was very professional and did a good job. I have my own way of working and never really came across an engineer who gave me a hard time. I know Tony Kelly but usually saw him when visiting Tuff Gong studio, I'm guessing by the time him and the others got over to Penthouse I was long gone. I can however tell you that for me, the best music studio engineers are the ones who don't just know all the buttons on the board but also have sharp musical ears too. They can catch mistakes and know if a guitar is properly tuned etc. They're not just recording, they're paying attention to quality too.

Your last singles for Penthouse were released in 1990. Why didn't you record any more for Germain since ?
Why I stopped recording for Germain ? I'm sure he has answers for that too. However, I cannot say he no longer wanted to work with me because we were in the middle of recording the third album. Also, a few years later on a visit to Jamaica, I dropped by the studio to say hello and he gave me two tracks to write songs on saying "you've been gone a long time but come to the table pull up a chair and eat food." In other words come do some more music. As I was saying, we were in the middle of recording the third album. Germain had arranged the airline ticket from New York, so I was in Jamaica working on the album but there was a scheduling conflict. I had a show to do in NYC, the promoter was already advertising on radio shows. I was also going to promote the new album on the show and Germain had made some backing tracks to use on the show with some of the new music we had recorded. I didn't want to call and cancel the show, that's always a bad thing to do to a promoter, so, even though the album was not done yet, I left Jamaica to do the show and I never heard from Germain again about coming back to finish the album.
He started working with other artists, maybe he got really busy and we never had a discussion about coming back. Maybe I wasn't aggressive and pushy enough to get back but if I knew then what I know now I would have suggested waiting till after the show so that there would not have been pressure to finish before the show. It seems like such a small problem but there you have it. Like they say "stuff happens."



Among all your singles for Donovan Germain, which one is your favorite ?
I have lots of favorites. "Eight Little Notes", "One Dance Won't Do", "Smile", "Nobody Else But Me", "Someday", "I Will Think of You", "Falling In Love Again", are among them.

Tell us about your career after the Penthouse years.
As I mentioned above, after the Penthouse years Germain gave me two tracks to compose songs on, I don't know what happened to those songs, I never heard anything from him about them. Another thing he accomplished was to release in 1999 a compilation of some of my past releases entitled "Audrey Hall Collectors Series" a beautiful collection of songs indeed.
In the meantime I continued to write and record music with Courtney Panton, a producer out of Brooklyn, NYC. The result of this effort was "Reggae Zones" in 2000,an album with many songs written by me plus some covers. My Daughter Maritza helped me very much with the background vocals on this project. The songs were divided into three zones, message music, love songs and covers of popular old songs. Somewhere along the line other producers approached me to record with them which I did but encouraged them to join the "Reggae Zones" project which they did, these producers were Scott Iphree Patterson, Anthony "Barry U" Barrett and Chris Scott. Their productions were included on the "Reggae Zones" album. We are at present working on revamping and re-releasing this album.
In addition to Reggae Zones, I also did singles : "Don't Touch" for C. Cameron on the Studio One label, "Husband and Wife" for Keith Sevwright and "Moving Up Again" for Charlie Cross on the CKMG label.
I love music very much and hope to work on new projects in the future because I feel the wellspring of new songs stirring in me and waiting for me to get over present problems and tap into them again.



DISCOGRAPHY FOR D. GERMAIN'S LABELS :

Revolutionary Sounds :
Angel Of The Morning (1982)
Hello Stranger (1985)
Eight Little Notes (1985)
Oh What A Fool I've Been (1985)
Nobody Wants To Be Alone (1985)
I Want To Know What Love Is (1985)
Anyone Who Had A Heart (1985)
Holding Hands (1985)
No Honourary Whiteship (1985)
Imagine (1985)
One Dance Won't Do (1985)

Germain Records :
The Best Thing For Me (1986)
Smile (1986)
Dance Hall Happening (1986)
Woman In Love (1987)
Just You Just Me (1987)
Make This Day A Holiday / Let's Celebrate (1987)
Unexpected Places (1987)
Inspiration Won't Come / Head Thick Skull Numb (1987)
I Will Think Of You (1987)
Someday (1987)
Don't Want To Sleep Alone (1987)
Misery (1987)
Make It Right Tonight (1987)
Nobody Else But Me (1988)

Penthouse Records :
Falling In Love Again (1988)
Tell Nobody I'm Your Man feat. Tony Rebel (1989)
Bad Bargain (1990)
Don't Know Much feat. Beres Hammond (1990)