Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

[SistahD]

The legendary Jamaican backing band, Fab 5, officially launched their website on Wednesday March 31, 2004. The website features comprehensive biographical and historical information on the band, complete discography, tour dates and schedules and a collection of photos that cronicle the Band's history. The site is located at: http://www.fab5inc.com/


However... through many months' efforts (((iches [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] ))) and a renewed burst of energetic assistance (((evan))) and in spite of a heavy tour schedule....Members of ja.com can interact with the band members to learn more about their history, their music and what their plans for the future are.

[Sharleen]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

I had been hearing about this band for many many years and just had my first opportunity to see them perform this year at the West Indian Social Club in Hartford. They performed their own set & then performed with the Mighty Diamonds. I go to every stage show I can and they are the best band that I have ever heard!

[SistahD]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Come one come All!!

Join us next Tuesday May 18th at 2 pm... Frankie Campbell will be on line with the Members of the TOP JA Website!!!




FAB 5 BIO

Fab 5, formed in 1970, is Jamaica's pre-eminent popular band, whether measured by record sales at home, hits on the charts, frequency of engagements or major awards won over the years.

Their first recording, "Come Back And Stay", was number one in Jamaica, and in their first year on the road, and for the following two years, they won the only available awards, the Swing Awards for best band of 1971-72, 1972-73 and 1973-74. They also took the El Suzie Award as Joint Top Road and Dance Band for 1975-76 and the RJR Listeners' Award for Best Band in 1980.

They backed Johnny Nash on all the reggae cuts comprising most of his platinum album "I Can See Clearly Now". Two singles from that album, "Guava Jelly" and "Stir It Up", established Bob Marley as a major songwriter on the international scene.

Fab 5 have enjoyed an endless succession of hits in Jamaica and the "ethnic" markets of North America. In their early years such songs as "Chirpy Cheep", "Shaving Cream", "Oh, Dad" and "Love Me For A Reason", and their musicality and showmanship made Fab 5 the rage on the dance and show circuits.

More recently, they have been kept on top by the likes of "Yu Safe", "Ring Road Jam", "Feeling Horny", "Computer Mad", "What The Police High Command Can Do", "Jamaican Woman", "Psalms", "All Night Party", "Mini", "Sweat", "Don't Wear None", "Freeze", "Good Buddy", and "Mango".

Their twenty-one albums have been as successful as their singles, and their multi-award winning soca album "Yu Safe" was probably the most popular album produced in Jamaica in the decade of the '80s. Their recent album “Fab 5 Greatest Hits” is selling well along with the compilation CD - “Back to Back 1” a combination of the two previous albums “Yu Safe” and “All Night Party.” In the past decade Fab 5 scored with three big sellers - "Good Buddy," the massively successful "Fab 5 Live - The Ultimate Vintage Jamaican Party Mix ... Part 1," and their soca smash "Shape". Their most recent original reggae CD “Dugu-Dugu” once more proves the band’s versatility, while the follow-up to “Fab 5 Live… Part 2” has been outselling the original. A ska album “Fab 5 - Ska Time” (the bands 21st album) is newly released and has been getting great reviews.

The busiest band in Jamaica, Fab 5 are in great demand not only for concerts and dances but also in the studio where they are the leading creators of commercial jingles for radio and television, dominating the airwaves and earning a string of prestigious awards, including four golden microphones. They have been the chosen band for almost every national and state occasion since the mid-1970s.

They have taken their authoritative brand of Jamaican music all over the world. They have shared bandstands with many of the great and famous names of modern popular music, including: Ray Charles; Dizzy Gillespie; the Grateful Dead; Rick James; Linda Ronstadt; the Neville Brothers; Roberta Flack; Fats Domino; Peter, Paul & Mary; Joe Jackson; The Chi-Lites; Skeeter Davis (with whom they are currently working on a recording project); the Drifters; Miriam Makeba; Bob Marley; Jimmy Cliff; Marcia Griffiths; John Holt; Freddie McGregor; Judy Mowatt; Ken Booth; Chuck Jackson; The Mighty Sparrow; Aretha Franklin; Gladys Knight; Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes; Jerry Butler; the Manhattans; Ray Goodman & Brown; and the Delphonics.

They have performed at the Kool Jazz Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Festival and for Japansplash and have entertained a live audience of one million at an anti-nuclear concert in New York's Central Park.

They have triumphed not only with the music of Jamaica but also with their own compositions of soca, the music of the Eastern Caribbean. At different times and in diverse settings, they have enchanted audiences with soul, funky, rock, jazz, disco and classical music.

They have dominated the Jamaican awards for show and dance bands and demonstrated their supremacy at the Jamaica Band Festival at the Wyndham New Kingston in December 1987.

Their collection of major awards, by far the greatest of any entity in Jamaican music, includes twenty-nine between 1986 and 1996, from all principal sources - the JBC, RJR, the Daily Gleaner, the Star, Rockers, the Jamaica Music Industry (JAMI) and the Jamaica Federation of Musicians (JFM), the most recent being the 1995 Rockers Award for Best Band, the 1996 award for Best Group (Instrumental) at the renamed Jamaica Music Awards (now defunct), a 1999 Tamika Award and the 2000 and 2001 JFM Best Show Band Awards.


The group has also won several international awards, including the 1996 awards for Best Album and Best Single (both won for "Good Buddy") at the Miami Reggae/Soca Awards and the 1999 "Best International Reggae Album" award at the Canadian Reggae Music Awards for "Fab 5 Live - The Ultimate Vintage Jamaican Party Mix ... Part 1." Fab 5 have also won the "Best Soca Album" award at the Reggae Soca Awards in Miami for their 1999 album "Shape," thus making them the first group in history to win best album awards for reggae and soca in the same year.

In addition, the band's musical director Grub Cooper, OD has won numerous awards in his own right, including the Order of Distinction (OD), a national award of the Government of Jamaica and a special honour award from the JFM (1988) for his outstanding contribution to the development of Jamaican music. He has also been Jamaica's leading theatre musician for more than a decade, having won a special “Actor Boy” award for his services to Jamaican theatre in 2002. The band’s Bassist and Manager - Frankie Campbell - has also received the prestigeous OD making Fab 5 the only current Jamaican band with two such awardees.

Over the past Holiday season the band released their second Christmas offering “A Jamaican Christmas Gift” and the CD was the biggest Jamaican seller for December following up on the massive “Christmas In The Sun” released in 1990.

Musicianship, dedication, integrity and discipline are the hallmarks of Fab 5, who have earned and retained the respect of the music industry, critics and general public over the past thirty-one years. They are more in-demand today than ever before and are all set for continued success in the future.

The band comprises three 1970 foundation members - manager Frankie Campbell (bass); Harold (Jr) Bailey (guitar, flute and saxophone now part-time) and; musical director Grub Cooper (drums and lead vocals), as well as - Sidney Thorpe (keyboards), 1979; Donovan Lee Palmer (Keyboards), 1991; Samuel Grant (trumpet); Romeo Gray (trombone); and Glenroy Samuels (guitar) all 1995.

August 26, 2003

[evanovitch]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Originally posted by Sharleen:
[qb] I had been hearing about this band for many many years and just had my first opportunity to see them perform this year at the West Indian Social Club in Hartford. They performed their own set & then performed with the Mighty Diamonds. I go to every stage show I can and they are the best band that I have ever heard! [/qb]

may i recommend fab 5 live, the ultimate vintage Jamaican PARTY MIX Pt. 1 and 2 put out by VP...they start way back and come up to date wid some favourites from the different stages of Reggae's evolution....Grub is the ultimate mimic in covering voices of the original artists

[SistahD]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

May 15 New York, N.Y K.T.H.S. Past Students

May 22 Davie, Florida Signature Grand
900 State Rd, 84, Davie St. G. C. Old Boys

June 12 Ft. Lauderdale The Broward Center for The Performing Arts Island Music / Hi-Class Promotions / WAVS Radio

July 24 Davie, Florida Signature Grand
900 State Rd, 84, Davie Jamaica United Relief Assoc., Members Only Social Club Of Miami

July 30 Toronto, Canada St. G.C. Old Boys

July 31 Toronto, Canada Plaza Hotel
655 Dixon Road Fab 5

[SistahD]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Don't forget! Only a few hours left!

[Reggae plus]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

I'm ready. It'll be Fab. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[evanovitch]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

i am here wid di fuss question and dis is it...after allllllllll these years of playing all ova di place, oonoo muss rich...any bachelors in di band and which one is di cutest and which one have di most money....enquiring minds need to know [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

sarry SIstaD...mi promise mi won't misbehave later.....psst, bandmemba....... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[mountaingal]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Gosh, this is a boss week for guest appearances! Fab 5 was big when I was in JA in the 80s.

What's the name of the girl who used to sing with them again? The one who almost became part of Boy George's group but couldn't handle the decadence? Vanny, you know?

[BND1999]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Man..i hope i get back from picking someone up from the city..... i would love to be here...

I have heard of them for a long time... and have yet to see them.... wonderful that you got them on here...

big up to those that made it happen....

[BND1999]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Originally posted by evanovitch:
[qb] may i recommend fab 5 live, the ultimate vintage Jamaican PARTY MIX Pt. 1 and 2 put out by VP...they start way back and come up to date wid some favourites from the different stages of Reggae's evolution....Grub is the ultimate mimic in covering voices of the original artists [/qb]

Thanks E.. going to go order that right now... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[evanovitch]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Originally posted by mountaingal:
[qb] Gosh, this is a boss week for guest appearances! Fab 5 was big when I was in JA in the 80s.

What's the name of the girl who used to sing with them again? The one who almost became part of Boy George's group but couldn't handle the decadence? Vanny, you know? [/qb]

r u thinking of Gem Myers?

[FrankieC]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Thanks for all the nice words on Fab 5. We apprecite it a lot. Great to see that we still have fans out there, and yes it is "Gem Myers" that you are think of, the original "One Man Woman."

[evanovitch]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

Originally posted by Frankie_Campbell Fab5:
[qb] Thanks for all the nice words on Fab 5. We apprecite it a lot. Great to see that we still have fans out there, and yes it is "Gem Myers" that you are think of, the original "One Man Woman." [/qb]

so Frankie, so u ever look around and wonder why ur band has weathered the passage of time...new generations, new evolutions in the music, but Fab5 still prevails...how is that u all continue to do wat u do wid such success

[FrankieC]

Re: Fab5 -Right HERE Tues May 18th 2pm

What we'd like to know is... what is your favorite Fab 5 song and or which is your favourite Fab 5 performance (if you have seen the band play).