|
|
Winsford 'Joker' Devine Speaks
< Prev | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Next >
TriniSoca.com Reporters
Recorded: on July 19, 2007
Posted: September 12, 2007
MR. DOUGLAS: When did you first become aware of that? Was it from Bradley himself?
WINSFORD: A day when I was on Nelson Street I saw Bradley talking to some fellas. He had a band and two fellas from on Nelson Street used to play in the band; so he was there in the Pan yard that day.
When he saw me he said, "Joker, ah hear yuh does write dem songs for 'Sparrow'. Yuh know anything about copyright?" I said, "Copyright? What is dat?" He said, "When your song plays on the radio you're supposed to get pay." I said "True? They must be owe me plenty money boy." He said, "There is an organization called the PRS. You have to join that and they will collect the money from on the radio and pay you."
I told my partner and he took me to Agard and Hudson Phillip. They had an office in Port of Spain. I went to see them and they drafted all the letters and so on. They wrote to the PRS and got me registered about forty days after. The PRS wrote to inform me that I was an associate member. That was how I got to know about copyright and then I started to get money. I am one of the oldest members in that copyright organization. In the old days, it was called PRS and was administered by a kind of Spanish guy by the name of Hernandez. I do not think he was from Trinidad. I knew all those fellas.
PRS sent a lady from England to administer the Performing Rights in the Caribbean but she was based in Trinidad. She was the one who formed COTT. She decided that it was better for us to have our own company. She begged me to join COTT. I didn't join COTT originally because I told myself I would stay with the PRS. She kept on begging me to join COTT and eventually I did. There are fellas who joined COTT before me but I am the oldest member in the company.
WINSFORD: The first song that I registered in the PRS was called "Rope". I think that was around 1972. But I go way back in this thing.
Another thing was the writing. 'Merchant' started to follow me and I used to show him things. There were other people who used to write before me. I am not the first.
Rocky Mc Collins used to write for fellas and he used to kind of counsel me on that. He used to work in Radio Trinidad. He gave me my first television. A day he came and asked me, "Yuh have television?" and I said, "No." He rented me my first Black-and-White television. Back then they used to rent television sets at Radiofusion. I brought the television home and rain wet it and it spoil. I didn't know how to carry it back. When I spoke with him he said, "Doh dig nothing. Just bring back the television."
I knew Rocky very well. He was a fella I liked a lot. I remember him as being jovial and always laughing. People cannot remember him because he has already gone out of their memory.
MR. DOUGLAS: He had one of the biggest collections of Calypso records in Trinidad.
WINSFORD: Yes, before Phil, and Phil also used to work there. Both Phil and Holly T. have the biggest collection right now. I had a collection also. Holly T. had a record store in New York where he was selling Calypso and all kinds of records.
MR. DOUGLAS: The very first time that I became seriously aware of you was when I heard you on an interview a Friday night with Holly T. That was on 105FM or 100FM.
WINSFORD: I cannot remember but I know I had a series of interviews. One of them was with Sookram Ali. I still have those tapes upstairs. I know I had one with Holly T.
I met Holly T. in New York. When I went into his record shop I remember he said, "Your name is 'Joker'?" I said, "Yes." We sat down in his office at the back of the record shop and we talked. That is how I got to know him. He left and he came back to Trinidad and started to work on the radio. I do not know what he is doing now. The last time I saw him he told me he was living somewhere down on St. Lucien Road.
MR. DOUGLAS: I thought he had gone back to the States.
WINSFORD: I haven't heard about him for a little while. I know he used to be on one of the radio stations. I know Phil is on some other radio station now. They call me regularly.
MR. DOUGLAS: Yes. 94.7FM.
WINSFORD: Phil is there. I thought Holly T. was there too.
MR. DOUGLAS: No. Holly T. is not there.
WINSFORD: Who is there?
MR. DOUGLAS: They have a few of them there. A few artistes work there.
WINSFORD: The guy who used to sing with Cliff Harris and them band. I met him at Panorama and he told me he was working by 94.7FM. He sang a famous song but I cannot remember the name of the song. He hardly sings these days. He only sings a Pan tune.
TYEHIMBA: You lived for some time on Nelson Street. I am interested in hearing some more about that experience.
WINSFORD: I lived on Nelson Street for a few years until I moved out from there and I went up to Morvant to live. In those days, Nelson Street and Basilon Street was where the whole drug culture started. My partner was involved with that. They also had Dr. Rat and all of them on Basilor Street. The band started to get a kind of stigma so I moved from there. Right where I lived on Nelson Street those fellas used to come and hide weed and so on. One night, police came in there and I ran and never went back inside there. I rented a little room in Morvant and I never went back. I still lime around now and then for a while. It is not only that I do not pass around there anymore but it has gotten really bad now. All the famous drug men from in town used to hang out on Nelson Street right on the corner. From Queen Street to Prince Street all of them used to be there.
MR. DOUGLAS: They had a one-handed fella called Teddy Mice.
WINSFORD: He moved. His family is still living on the corner of Prince and Queen Streets. His family lives on the first planning. He is from right there. His brother died there too. But I think Teddy lives somewhere in Belmont now. It was them who started that drug thing right there.
TYEHIMBA: Nelson Street seems to be buzzing with creativity in terms of Pan, Mas and Calypso.
WINSFORD: That is the area. When I say that is the area, I do not know if it is, because some say it is because of the drug thing. But that area used to be buzzing with Calypso too. That is a famous area for Calypso, but fellas do not know that. Read the Calypso history. They used to have a club called Spike Club. It used to be on Nelson Street upstairs in the Plannings. All the Calypsonians like 'Sparrow' and so on used to hang out there a certain time.
Continue...
< Prev | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Next >
|
|
