BY HOWARD CAMPBELL—
Observer senior writer—-
Members of Chalice: (from left) Wayne Armond; Keith Francis; Alla Lloyd; and Dean Stephens.—
This is the third in a series of stories commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1980 General Election in Jamaica.
WITH guns blazing and widespread food shortage in Jamaica in 1980, songwriters had plenty of material to call on 40 years ago. But that summer, it was a soothing ballad by a new band that ruled the charts.
I Still Love You by Chalice was number one for several weeks. It announced the talented seven-piece band which formed in April 1980 in Oracabessa, St Mary.
The song had been written three years earlier by guitarist Wayne Armond while he was with Byron Lee and The Dragonaires. He pitched it to Lee who was not impressed enough to record it, but his new bandmates thought differently.
“When we were recording our first album, one evening I was sitting with Mikey Wallace and Alla Lloyd and I guess the conversation turned to love ballads and I remembered the song and took the guitar and played it for them…they immediately went to the keyboards and the arrangement was born,” Armond recalled in a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer. “We always recorded our rehearsals, so we taped the song so as not to forget the arrangement and the next morning (drummer) Desi Jones pressed play and we all came out of our rooms kinda hypnotised by the song.”
In terms of recording, Armond said, “Desi and (bassist) Keith (Francis) decided they were not going to play until the bridge and that was it. We went to Tuff Gong and recorded it on the weekend. Trevor Roper played acoustic guitar…I played electric guitar and Robi Peart, Mikey, Allah and myself did backing vocals.
Ironically, I Still Love You was released by Dynamic Sounds, the distribution company owned by Lee. The decision to put it out as a single came from Gary Peart, younger brother of Robi, and Chalice’s manager.
The band was credited as producer.
With a general election in the air, a tender ballad by a Jamaican reggae band seemed improbable. Songs like Crucial by Bunny Wailer summed up the food scarcity and economic rot in Jamaica.
The dire situation put the socialist government of Prime Minister Michael Manley under pressure to call national polls. He came to power in early 1972 and was re-elected in December 1976.
I Still Love You’s success stunned Armond and his colleagues.
“I was surprised that people took to that song the way they did but the funny thing is many people thought it was The Commodores,” he said.
Chalice have enjoyed a solid career, especially throughout the 1980’s. Their hit songs included Stew Peas, Can’t Dub, A Song, Dangerous Disturbances, Good to be There and Revival Time.
Manley announced the general election for October 30. His People’s National Party lost heavily to the Jamaica Labour Party who took 51 of the 60 parliamentary seats.
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