By Yasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer—-
Members of the Ruff Kutt Band in action.—
Ricardo ‘Drummie’ Davis, drummer for award-winning band Ruff Kutt, is feeling relieved that keyboard player Nigel Staff has been reacting favourably to treatment following a stroke last Saturday.
“He is improving,” Davis told The Gleaner. “If you text him, he will respond. I choose not to go there [University Hospital of the West Indies] and bother him, but I have been getting the good reports. His kids’ mother has been doing all the running up and down. She said that Monday was the best he looked since Saturday, and I woke up to an update from him himself this morning.”
Staff and Davis, who are the youngest members of Ruff Kutt, also happen to be the longest serving, and they share a close bond. Davis admitted that he cried when he arrived at the keyboardist’s house on Saturday after being informed of the incident.
“I was heading downtown on Saturday when I got the call, and I rushed to the house. I reached same time as the ambulance, and Nigel was lying on the floor and they were attending to him, fanning him, and I just burst into tears,” he said honestly, adding that it was a comment from Staff’s son that subsequently galvanized him into action.
“He said, ‘Uncle Drummie, don’t cry.’ And that’s when I sprang into action and decided that I had to be strong for them. I helped to put Nigel in the ambulance, and I felt a little better because he had responded to the attendants by telling them his name and date of birth when they asked. And he was talking to me, giving me instructions to do things for him. He said he wasn’t getting any feeling in his right side, but I heard that by the time he reached the hospital, that had improved,” he said.
ADMITTED IN HOSPITAL
Staff, up to press time, was a patient at the Tony Thwaites wing, where he was admitted after doing a COVID-19 test.
“Nigel took both his COVID shots, so he is fully vaccinated, but it is part of the hospital requirement for him to do the COVID test. The medical team at the hospital has been doing a wonderful job, and I really have to commend them for their first-class service and treatment,” he added.
Davis said that he and band leader Donovan ‘Benjy’ Belnavis have been fielding calls from all over the world, and they are thanking all the people who have been sending prayers and get good wishes.
Ruff Kut, a band that has played for and toured with most of the top artistes in reggae and dancehall for three decades, has been doing a lot of local, online gigs since the pandemic. Their most recent engagement saw them backing the artistes in the just-concluded Jamaica Festival Song competition. However, they have been contracted for an overseas gig at the end of August and have been in rehearsals.
“We are in process of looking about documents to head to England with Beenie Man at the end of this month, but right now, we just want to make sure that Nigel is going to be all right,” Davis said.
Beenie Man is billed to perform at the inaugural staging of the Afrobeats festival, Yam Carnival in Clapham Common, London, on August 28.
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