She’s heard them countless times, but Patsy Holt never tires of her brother John Holt’s songs. Last Saturday, at the launch of the ‘1000 Volts Of Holt’ show at Eden Gardens in St Andrew, she danced up a storm.
The inaugural event is tentatively scheduled for July 2017 in either Kingston or London. Proceeds will assist a student at the Edna Manley College of The Visual And Performing Arts.
“This means the world to me; we all know how John started in music early. We might keep it (1000 Volts Of Holt) in London because there played a big part in his career,” Patsy Holt told the Jamaica Observer.
Holt, who died in London in October 2014, would have turned 71 this month. One of reggae’s great and prolific singers, 1000 Volts Of Holt, a 1973 album, is his signature work.
Patsy, who is a year older than her famous sibling, lives in the United Kingdom. She was accompanied to the event by her eldest brother Oswald, who is also a UK resident.
John Holt was raised in the Greenwich Farm area of Kingston and attended Calabar High School. While there he first entered the Vere Johns Opportunity Hour, a talent contest he won multiple times.
His career took off with rocksteady group The Paragons in the 1960’s. He maintained his popularity as a balladeer until his death from cancer.
Many of his songs, such as Stick By Me, Love I Can Feel and Stealing Stealing, are reggae standards.
A number of Holt’s colleagues attended Saturday’s function, including Ken Boothe, bandleader Lloyd Parks, June Isaacs (widow of Gregory Isaacs), and Ibo Cooper, head of music at the Edna Manley College of The Visual And Performing Arts.
— By Howard Campbell
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