‘Yuh don’t destroy history’: Wailing Souls’ Bread laments demolition of legendary Channel One studio

Whenever Lloyd “Bread” McDonald of The Wailing Souls visits Jamaica, he usually drives by Channel One, where the group made its name in the 1970s. The legendary studio’s deterioration shocked him. When he saw scenes of Channel One’s demolition on social media last week, the singer was even more disturbed.

Yuh don’t destroy history,” Bread told Observer Online from his home in California. The demolition of the building, located at 29 Maxfield Avenue, took place on September 5. The Hoo Kim family, which owns the property, told Observer Online that they were unaware that the structure would be demolished.

The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) which grants permission for demolitions, issued a statement saying the action was uncertified. It has issued a stop order preventing further action at the site. When The Wailing Souls went to Channel One in 1976, the studio was in its prime.

It was launched four years earlier by the Hoo Kim brothers — Joseph, aka Jo Jo; Kenneth; Paul; and Ernest. Because of its state-of-the-art API console, it quickly became the hot spot for artistes and musicians. Channel One’s house band, The Revolutionaries, played on countless hit songs that defined the most turbulent decade in independent Jamaica.

Some of those songs included Things And Time, Jah Jah Give us Life and War by The Wailing Souls, which formed in Trench Town in 1966. The quartet had recorded for producer Lloyd "Matador" Daley and at Studio One prior to Channel One. “Di place had a great atmosphere, yuh had to be quiet an’ if you weren’t an established artiste dem wouldn’t let you in.

It was di usual studio scene; man a come an’ man a guh,” Bread recalled. The Revolutionaries’ ranks included drummer Sly Dunbar, bass guitarists Ranchie McLean and Robbie Shakespeare, saxophonist Tommy McCook, trumpeter Bobby Ellis, guitarist Rad “Dougie” Bryan, and percussionists Uziah “Sticky” Thompson and Noel “Scully” Simms. Their militant rhythms drove songs like I Need A Roof and Africa by The Mighty Diamonds; Woman Is Like A Shadow (The Meditations); Ya Ho (The Viceroys); In Time To Come (Earth And Stone) and Ballistic Affair by Leroy Smart.