| Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... |
In the late 1970s and through the mid-80s, British Reggae band Musical Youth topped the charts in several countries, yet they made only pennies from their record label.
Broke and destitute, one member of the band (Bassist Patrick Waite) died in February 1993, at age 24.
Patrick Waite joined the group when he was only 11. By the time he turned 17, they disbanded. He had no business or marketable skills.
He died from a broken heart.
However, the headlines read: Music Youth Patrick Waite suddenly died at the age of 24, having collapsed at home from a hereditary heart condition’
As a group, the band was preyed upon from the day they signed with the Music Corporation of America (MCA).
The group was literally getting paid pennies by their record label, MCR Records.
In a recent interview, one of the group’s two surviving members said they were initially paid five pence each per show.
After a while, they got paid two pounds each.
They were kids, and no one was looking out for their best interests.
In 1982, Musical Youth burst onto the scene with their number one hit record, “Pass the Dutchie.” The band had been around for only about three years.
In 1979, Frederick Waite Sr. and his friend George Washington Grant formed Musical Youth while living in Birmingham, England.
Frederick Waite Sr., former member of the Jamaican Reggae group The Techniques, paired his two sons, Frederick Jr. and Patrick, together with Grant’s sons, Kelvin and Michael Grant, as Musical Youth.
Grant taught his son Kelvin, born in 1971 in Birmingham, England, to play the electric guitar.
At seven, Kelvin auditioned to play guitar for the band. He got the job.
Initially, Frederick Waite Sr. sang lead vocals for the group.
On February 16, 1981, the legendary John Peel played their double A-side single, “Generals / Political,” on BBC Radio 1 on his evening show to great reviews; MCA Records came calling.
Imagine a seven-year-old kid auditioning for a band to be its guitarist, and getting the job. Imagine how proficient Kelvin was with the guitar at seven.
MCA didn’t like the lineup of an adult singing with the boy band, so the label asked them to find someone younger to front the band.
They acquiesced.
And 14-year-old Dennis Seaton auditioned and joined the group.
- By October 1982, Musical Youth had the number one hit on the UK Singles Chart and in several other countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
They became the first Black act/band to have “their music video played on the newly founded channel MTV.”
Their MTV music video debut came bout five months before Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” on March 10, 1983.
On July 20, 2022, bassist Frederick Waite Jr. died in Birmingham at age 55 after experiencing a mental health issue.
In tight circles, it has long been rumored that, as a teenager, someone slipped him a mickey before a performance in Jamaica.
Midway through the set, he forgot how to play the bass guitar.
His dad had to step in, take the guitar, and finish out the concert.
In 2001, the only two surviving members, Dennis Seaton (lead vocals and percussion) and Michel Grant (keyboard, have reconstructed the band and continue to delight audiences.
“Think globally, act locally.”
It is crucial to be forward-thinking but not a forward person. “Be kind to everyone you meet because each carries his heavy burden…” Plato.
Embrace the three Constants: change, justice, and rightness.
The thought police are busy at work trying to suppress free speech. If allowed their march to madness, they will arrest your very thoughts.
“Free speech, but not free reach.” — Social media titans.
Free speech is thy Lord.
