BY RICHARD JOHNSON—
Observer senior reporter—
JC Lodge—
In the 1980’s and 90’s, JC lodge was a household name. The singer’s tracks such as Someone Loves You Honey, More Than I Can Say, Selfish Lover, Home Is Where The Hurt Is and Telephone Love were on constant rotation on local airwaves.
In 2001 she took the decision to return to the United Kingdom where she was born to a British mother and Jamaican father and as a result she has lost footing in the local market.
However, Lodge is making moves to re-establish herself here in Jamaica with the release of some new music.
While on The Rock recently to attend the funeral of a family member, the Jamaica Observer caught up with Lodge, who explained that she has been recording and releasing music digitally, but she wants to make her presence felt.
“My stuff is available online so we haven’t got hard copies of it yet. So once I’m back in the UK and gotten over this period we will refocus and figure out ways of [getting] to my Jamaican family. This particular project was really kind of reggaeton/ dancehall flavored with all originals, but that was just one project. The next thing we are looking to work on will perhaps be looking at some of the older rhythms. Then a third project I’d want to work on would take me back to my roots, which is more R&B/ reggae-flavored material,” she explained.
Having been part of the music industry for some time, Lodge is cognizant that the fraternity has gone through changes; some of which suits her fancy, while others are not to her liking. What she remains pleased about is that there is still great music coming out of Jamaica.
Once she returned to live in the UK Lodge shifted her focus slightly, earned a degree in teaching and ventured into the classroom. She however explained that the music never left her.
“To become a teacher I had to focus on earning the degree, so the music was in the background for that period. The whole plan was so I could put music at the front again, but still have teaching as something I could turn to to keep things going financially. This music business is a very up and down thing in terms of your earnings until you get that next big hit. Right now I find the London quite dead for reggae at this time. However, there are UK acts who are well established. They have their circuit and they work pretty regularly. Other than that its quite a tough market,” Lodge shared.
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