By Andrew Clunis, Freelance Writer
Admiral Bailey
DESPITE HIS sweeping successes as a football coach, Admiral Bailey is not about to relinquish his musical roots.
The man who dominated 1980s' dancehall has been parading his skills in the dressing rooms and on the field with several top football clubs, but he's not willing to trade his microphone for boots.
He has not been active on the local entertainment scene for a while, but he has been juggling his schedule with touring.
"I am constantly on the road. I have had to manage my time well because despite the great love I have for football, my real passion is entertainment and I have to take it out there to the people of the world," he said. Admiral Bailey recently returned from a tour of Japan and England.
The DJ, who is a level two coach presently working with St. Catherine team, Rivoli, was big in the 1980s with hits such as Jump Up, Big Belly Man, Two-Year-Old and God Pickney among others.
"I plan to regain that level of popularity in Jamaica. I am working at it right now, being in the studio with King Jammys, Bobby Digital and Bulby," he told The Gleaner.
Admiral Bailey is not pleased with the standards of today's dancehall. He contends that creativity is lacking and the artistes are borrowing too much from hip hop artistes.
"As a hip hop man come with a style everybody jump pon it. Them people deh suppose to follow we. The artistes need to sit down and examine the whole business of creativity," he said.
When The Gleaner caught up with Admiral, he was in discussions with Byron Lee about the upcoming Carnival season. For the past few years, he has been a key element to the Dragon's musical efforts, using his hard-core dancehall style to blend with soca producing what has now been branded Ragga Soca.
He has had detractors, who feel like he's watering down his image by performing soca. Is Admiral Bailey a soca artiste?
"All over the world there are changes in lifestyles. All the top artistes do it. They always find another method of expressing themselves and that is just what I am doing.
"Soca music has taken me into a different field, a different dimension. It is only in Jamaica that I see people discriminate against music. As we venture out of one and go into another, people start labelling you. What they should realise is that I am also taking Jamaican music out there to people. When I go on those shows I don't do just soca," he said.
