About Me
..The Biography of Lindel Lewis..Lindel Vincent Lewis, one of the un-sung innovators of Reggae music as we know and love it today. A very quiet person who believes that interviews are for the artists and not for him. He will turn away from a microphone if approached for an interview and always feel better behind his recording console and his camera than in front of it. Lindel was born in Roseau Dominica West Indies, on the 5-4-1954. Migrated to the UK at the age of 11years together with his 9-year-old sister Shirley to meet their Parents Irvin and Noelise together with their sister Brenda and brother James who they also met for the first time. He says he arrived in the UK on Monday the 11th of May, started school on the Tuesday the 12th and his father started teaching him to play the guitar the very next day. The Steel drums or steel pans as some would call it, came later. Because of his age he went to Shackwell Primary School for about two months till the end of term. At the beginning of the next term he was then sent to Clissold Park Secondary School until the age of 17 years old. It was while at Clissold Park School, he accompanied his best friend Roosevelt Joseph (who was taking piano lessons) to evening classes. It was one evening while waiting for Roosevelt after classes, he sat at the piano and tinkled with the keys, before he knew it, the piano teacher was at the back of him listening, when he realise she was there he stopped and apologised, she then asked him where did he learn to read music and play the piano, he said he had never played the piano before but could read music and play the guitar, she (Miss Michelle) immediately asked him if he would consider coming to evening classes, he answered by saying he would love too, but his parents could not afford it. She then gave him a note to his parents stating that Lindel will be taking piano lessons after school for free.. By the time Lindel reached the forth year, through no choice of his, piano lessons became part of his subjects at school. While all of his friends played Football and Cricket and all other sports as part of their games subject, Lindel had to study music which at first he resented, but soon got accustomed too. He taught his friend to play the Bass guitar found a girl who could sing by the name of Lorna, and entered the school competition with a song called ..How Long.. originally sung by Pat Kelly. The first prize went to a solo rock guitarist (who everyone knew as the Teacher's pet) Lindel's band won the second prize. The whole school was in an uproar because they believed his band had won. At 17, Lindel left school and played with his dad's Steelband.. The Nite Blues Steelband played at The World Music Awards in Monte Carlo, in the presence of Prince Ranier, Prince Albert and Princess Caroline and a host of Hollywood stars and musicians like George Benson and Donna summers. He performed live on stage with ("that crazy lady") Grace Jones. The steelband went to places like Bahrain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany and the Caribbean. Lindel also did numerous jobs including Electronics working in the Leather trade, the furnishing trade before deciding that, "this early morning thing was not for me". While doing these jobs he started his own band with his best friend (Roosevelt) on piano, he taught another friend Horace Tapper to play the guitar and taught Roosevelt's brother Blundell Joseph to play the bass with himself on lead guitar. Blundell had a friend called Peter Martin who played drums, a female vocalist called Gloria, and they called themselves, The Challengers.. The Challengers played in local pubs and clubs on weekends all over London. While the members of the band had their daytime jobs, Lindel would go into the rehearsal room and practice his guitar and organ. In 1972 at the age of 18 he decided music had to be a full time affair. In 1973 he took the band to Germany for a six-week tour. The contract he signed with the agent in London showed an agreement with the Challengers as a reggae band, but when he got to Germany the agent over there had a contract stating the Challengers should be a Soul/Funk band. The band at that time had a one-way ticket to Germany, so they quickly became a soul/funk band, this is where all the music lessons started paying off. Lindel searched the jukeboxes and found all of the current soul hits, scored the music and taught them to the band. Two of their best was "Sex Machine and Hot Pants" by James Brown. They toured all over Germany playing along side artists like Irma Franklin (Aretha's sister) Rufus (Funky Chicken) Thomas, Arthur Connelly and many others. They sometimes slept in their van on their day off because travelling to the next gig was so far it was not worth stopping in a hotel. At the end of their fourth week in Germany, all the music agents got together to showcase their best bands. The Challengers were included, (and wait for it) The Challengers won the Best Of The Bands showcase. The agent was overjoyed, within the following two weeks there were bookings upon bookings for the band, but the boys got homesick and wanted to go back to England at the end of the agreement. Lindel and his drummer Peter were offered jobs by other bands in Germany, Lindel was also asked to train kids and start up the first Steel band in the country, but due to loyalty to his friends he declined, a decision he has regretted all his life. On returning to the Uk. The Challengers became one of the most sort out dance bands in London, backing up most of the artists coming from Jamaica and the other Caribbean Islands. The band also played along side bands like The In Brackets, The Express, Greyhound (who later became The Cimmerons) and Zabandis. At the age of 19 he decided to turn pro, meeting and recording with all of the best reggae musicians at that time. He met up with Sonny Roberts and together they produced an album by Tim Chandell titled " The Loving Moods Of Tim Chandell". which was his first major hit without entering the National Uk Charts. The album sold in excess of 176,000 copies. He and Sonny went on to record a series of albums with Tim, Roy Alton, The Marvels, Rocky Campbell as well as his first Steel pan album titled "Jump With Me".At the age of 24 he decided he was too old and would never make it as a pop star in this prejudicial society, and turned his mind to arranging music, while still doing recording sessions. He was never happy with the sounds he got from recording engineers, so he would patiently watch, listen and see what they were doing until he got confident enough to ask them to move over and let him try because the sound was not right. Lindel's career as a sound engineer started when he boldly walked into an eight-track studio in Manor Park London and claimed he was a sound engineer looking for work, luck was on his side. The office phone rang the owner went to answer it and by the time he got back, Lindel had the studio all worked out. He got the job. He stayed there for six months. During that time one of his first recordings on vinyl was a song called ..Without You.. which went to number 8 in the then reggae charts. For his next recording he knew a friend (Jeffrey Zipper) who had a new mobile recording studio and was not quite used to it, so together they experimented using his basement flat as a studio. His bathroom became the drum booth, his kitchen the vocal booth and his bedroom the guitar booth. The result from that recording he got his first hit, a song called ..Phone Line.. by Mystic Harmony which went to number 3 in the reggae charts. Nobody in the business took him that serious as a sound engineer because they all knew him as a Guitar, keyboard and bass player. He worked at (Eddie Williams studio) Easy Street and Mark Angelo Recording Studios, recording small up and coming bands, but it wasn't until Mark Angelo himself fell ill one day and couldn't do a session that Lindel stepped in to work with Junior Boothe from JB International that his career really took off as a sound engineer. The artists were Claudia Fountaine and Raymond Simpson with a song titled, "Is It Always Gonna Be Like This", which rocketed to the number one slot in the reggae charts. From then on there was not enough of Lindel to go around. He worked between Mark Angelo and Easy Street Recording Studios. For months upon months if you checked out the Black Echoes reggae charts, you would find that eight out of every ten songs, he either recorded, played on, arranged or mixed, every song he touched seemed to turn to gold. He met up with Jimmy (Easy like sunday morning) Lindsay and arranged and played on both of his albums. He also toured with Jimmy supporting Steel Pulse and Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces. He worked with the likes of Sugar Minot, Tapper Zukie, Louie Lepke, Jackie Mitto, he was the first engineer to record Musical Youth. Leroy Smart, the Chosen Few, Laurel Aitkens, Castro Brown, Brown Sugar, Carroll Thompson, the Instigators, Fatman, Prince Jammy (now known as King Jammys) recorded a hit for Janet Kay titled, "You Bring The Sun Out", (a song he loves to this day) Trevor Walters, recorded Jean Adibambo's debut album, "Spiral Stairway". Recorded and played keyboards on the Investigators second album, mixed Picture on the wall by the Naturalites, also mixed Barrington Levy's, "Under me Sensi and Here I Come". In 1986 Lindel arranged and played most of the instruments except the guitar and recorded an album titled, "Can't Be With You Tonight" by Judy Boucher. The title track of that album was released as a single, and in 1987 the single rocketed to the Number 2 position in the British National charts. That single remained in the charts at the number 2 spot for a record breaking 8 weeks, 16 weeks in the charts in total. Lindel was awarded Best Sound Engineer that year as a result of that hit. He also arranged, played keyboards, programmed the drums and recorded the song "Hello Darling" by Tipper Ire which hit the No; 21 spot in the National charts, resulting in he's appearance on Top of the Pops. The follow up to Can't be with you tonight was a song titled "You Caught My Eye". That went to the no; 22 spot in the national charts. He also turn his attention to Pop and R+B. He arranged play on and produced the song by Shara Nelson titled "Can't Get Over You", which entered the charts top 100. He believes he may be the first engineer to record Omar. In 1990 while recording and co producing an album with Drummie Zeb from Aswad, for the artist Pato Banton titled "Wise Up" (which sold over 100,000 copies in the USA, and was not released in the UK for unknown reasons) Lindel was invited to Jamaica. He recorded albums with Barbara Jones, Pam Hall with Sly Dunbar on drums and Dwight Pickney on guitar, an album with Eric Donaldson and a few tracks for Jimmy London. All of this was done amazingly in two weeks. On his arrival back to the UK, he did albums with the Heptones, Bob Andy, John Holt, B B Seaton, Ken Boothe, Delroy Wilson, Earl Sixteen, Derede Williams, Owen Gray, Viscount Oliver, Winston Francis, Dobby Dobson, Pat Kelly, Benjiman Zepheniah, Gaspaw Lawall, Musa Kalamullah, Sonny Okosun, African Dawn, African Connection, Natural Touch, Lascelles James, the SUS band who he is currently playing keyboards with. In 1991 Lindel went to South Africa with Judy Boucher, and was totally bowled over by the reception Judy received from the Nation. (Blacks, Whites and the Asians) They were both awarded Quadruple platinum discs for the album "Can't be with you tonight", a Double Gold discs for the album "Almost Certainly" (which was released in Africa only) Judy was given the Keys to the city of Johannesburg. It was in South Africa that Lindel recorded Judy's third album titled "Tears On My Pillow", (an album which has also received Gold status) On returning to the UK, he carried on where he left off by working with the likes of The Pioneers, Dawn Peng, Desmond Dekker, Lloyd Charmers, Sylvia Tella, Dennis Alcapone, Derrick Morgan, The Black stones, Natural Mystic. A soca version of the gospel song "One Day At A Time" by Pamela Maynard, which no home seems to be without. Jia (new R+B signing) 7HQ (new indie signing) Sly Augustus and Serena B. A new album from Dave and Ansel Collin titled ..All The Hits And More... The list seems to be endless. In October 2006 celebrating Black History Month at the Oceans music hall, Lindel was given an award by the community for his contribution to the British Black Music Industry. Once again in 2006 at the Palace Pavilion, he was given a Caribbean Entertainment Achievement Award. Lindel is still turning out the hits, whether it's Garage, Dance hall, Ragga, Jungle or Soca, yet he still finds the time to train the kids Sound Engineering in the community.. Lindel has finished his own personal Steelband album titled "Sounds From The Caribbean", in which he played all of the instruments (steel pans). He is now working on a reggae album of classical songs (Mozart and his peers may be turning in their graves) as well as a reggae instrumental album with a few friends. (Ciyo, Errol Shorter and Remmi on guitars, Ray Carless and Lascelles James on saxes, The Blackstones, The Chosen Few, Valerie Harrison on vocals Wow!!!!! How much more energy is there?????????
