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Lord Antics

 

Last revised: 12/17/11

 

Jump to:

    Background information        Discographies        LPs        Singles     


Background Information

The gruff voiced Montego Bay-based Lord Antics (St. Clair Powell) recorded a string of LPs and singles from the mid 1960s thru the early 1970s, on various Studio One imprint, most typically on the namesake  Antics Disc label. As such, these records tend to attract the attention of both Studio One and mento collectors. Many were re-released in the late 1970s. In 2007, I hard from Antic's niece, Almarie Maduro, who clarifies that "Antics is originally from St. Kitts (St. Christopher) not Trinidad as stated in some articles". In 2004, Dan Neely provided some information on this artist:

The bands on these records were Jamaican. Apparently Antics still lives in Montego Bay. He released several albums and there was a lot of re-releasing going on with these.

Discographies

Below is an LP discography courtesy of Olivier Albot of France with additional information from Dan Neely:

Lord Antics and The Montegonians Band - Lucy's Garden  Antics Disc 1968
Lord Antics and The Montegonians Band - Laziest Man (there may be two volumes)  Antics Disc 1969
Lord Antics & the Lyons Band - Hotter Than Hot  Antics Disc 1970
Lord Antics & the Lyons Band - Hotter Than Hot 2 (this may also be known as "Cool Lava")  Antics Disc 1970
Lord Antics and The Merry Boys - Calypsos Too Hot To Hold  Antics Disc  ??

Re-releases:
Lord Antics and The Montegonians Band - Lucy's Garden (re-release)
 Antics Disc 1978
Lord Antics -  Calypsoes (Lucy's Garden) (re-release)  Antics Disc 1978
Lord Antics and The Merry Boys - Too Hot To Hold (re-release)  Z.W .Disc  ??
Lord Antics - Hotter Than Hot (re-release)  Antics Disc 1978

Additionally, Jaron Childs contacted me about a Lord Antics LP he has that is not listed above. "Harder Than You" by Lord Antics and The Boys is seen below.

Several Lord Antics 45s can be seen below. Again, courtesy of Olivier Albot, with additional information from the publication Roots Knotty Roots, as well as other sources, here are Lord Antic's 45 RPM singles:

    Released Re-Released
 One Kiss In The Morning Studio One 1964 --  
 You May Stray Coxsone 1964 --  
 You May Stray Muzik City 1965 --  
 Sell The Pussy Hotter Than Hot 1970 --  
 Fork She Garden" /"Spit Me In Two Hotter Than Hot 1970 --  
 Shame & Scandal / Doctor Kitch  Antics Disc 1965 1973
 Sandra / Sauce Pan Antics Disc 1965 1974
 Soul Chicks / Work So Date Disc 1965 1974
 Keep The City Clean / Bang Bang Lulu Antics Disc 1965 1972

As you will see below, Lord Antics LPs have been released in different sleeves and labels. Nick Johansen of Brooklyn, New York has provided the fourth edition of a picture-filled Microsoft Word document that exhaustively catalogs these variations.

Lord Antics LPs
 

   

Lord Antics
first LP, "Lucy's Garden" consists mostly of familiar songs with The Montegonians Band  providing a full, adroit rural mento backing of banjo, acoustic guitar, rumba box, hand drums, maracas and, on some tracks, the addition of a fiddle. As is the case with most Lord Antics LP jackets, this one is constructed of thin cardboard and tape with the printed photo and text box pasted on. But the sound of the disc is great, with, at least on the disc I bought used, no surface noise. The track "Candy Man" is not the same song as the one by the same name popularized by Sammy Davis Jr.

          

Here is
"Harder Than You" by Lord Antics and The Boys . It has the same front cover as "Lucy's Garden", though some copies (but not the one above) have an additional strip of paper that says "Harder Than You" glued onto the picture. It's released on the Antics Disc label and was recorded in Montego Bay by Dynamic Sounds Studio. Though I have not heard this LP, the track listing is as follows: Marjorie and Harry, Ah Got To Have You, November Wife, I Remember Every Night, Come We Go Lu-Lu, Mathilda, Montego Ma-ma, Everything I Own, Black and White.

   

Though the front cover seems to title this LP "Lord Antics, Volume 2, Calypso Star", the back cover and label have it as "Laziest Man" by Lord Antics and The Montegonians Band. The jacket lists the rural mento instruments that are played, as if to offset any expectation of psychedelic soul that Antic's wardrobe might create. And although the repertoire is primarily from Antic's native island of Trinidad, the music is indeed rural mento, with a dominant fiddle assuring a strong country feel.  

   

Lord Antics and The Merry Boys,
 "Calypsos Too Hot To Hold" is similar in sound (sans fiddle), jacket construction and pressing to "Lucy's Garden". Familiar songs from mento and calypso, including "Woop Wap Man", a calypso and a rural version of "Belly Lick", a mento originally recorded by Cecile Knot and the Joy Bell Orchestra. "Obeah Version" is an instrumental mix of "Obeah Wedding".   

 

Above is a variation of the same LP with the front cover graphic in red, and a hand written list as the back cover appliqué. The label of this variation is Z. W. Disc, as seen in the LP below.

Below, courtesy Olivier Albot (with an assist from Laurent Pfeiffer) is the same LP, re-released on the Z. W. Disc label. A few of the songs are re-titled on this version.

   

Below is yet another cover variation for the "Too Hot To Hold" LP. This one is quite nice, as it features two band photos on the front. (One of these provides the photo at the top of this page.)

The cover is autographed by St. Clair Powell, Antics real name, or at least that of one of the band members. The back cover has the song listings written by the same hand as the autograph.        


 
Still another
cover variation for the
Lord Antics and The Merry Boys
"Calypsos Too Hot To Hold" LP, bringing the count to five.
   

   

The Lord Antics and The Lyons Band  LP, "Hotter Than Hot" is on the Antics Disc, label, a Studio One imprint. Rob Chapman's,  excellent Studio One site, Downbeat Special, has information on this confusing double release. (The above jacket scan comes from Rob's site, with permission. The label scans come courtesy of Jurjen Borregaard of Amsterdam. Jurjen's label scans fill in the unknown song titles on Rob's site. )

A few additional observations: both versions of this release are rural mento with rumba box, acoustic guitar, maracas and hand drum. As Rob points out, one version features banjo, and the other, instead, a rustic fiddle, which adds a very country feel to the music.

A few mid period mento standards join a cover of Do-Rey-Mi. A number of the remaining songs are not familiar and their lyrics are often on the raunchier side of ribald. Not that they are explicit. It's still suggestive, but what's being suggested is often a bit stronger than the norm. These songs may have been written by Antics, or perhaps are Trinidadian calypsos from his island of birth.

Thanks again to Rob for a recording of these LPs. Because these LPs are not in print, here is a song clip of track with an unknown title from the second (fiddle-based) "Hotter Than Hot" LP. [Click here for notes About the Audio Clips On this Site.]

   
 
This just adds to the confusion: The Lord Antics and The Lyons Band  LP, "Hotter Than Hot" on the Antics Disc label, but not one of the two editions described by Rob Chapman above. Once again, a cut and paste jacket holds a collection of Antics' mentos and calypsos, all played with banjo, rumba box, acoustic guitar and hand percussion.

 

Also on Antics Disc label is the Lord Antics LP, "Cool Lava", along with an alternate jacket.

Although I have not heard this LP, the hand written song list reveals a large number of familiar mento songs, the requisite review of Harry Belafonte hits and other tracks.

Courtesy of Alex of the German mail order house call Copasetic, (http://www.copasetic.de) here is an LP not listed in Olivier's list: "People Will Talk" by Lord Antics & the Boys . It features the same sleeve as "Calypsos", but with title sticker.
 

Side One:
Jean and  Dinah
Monica Doo-Doo
Julie
We Will Be Lovers
Everything I Own
 
 
Side Two:
You Can't Get
Sa-Sa Yea
People Will Talk
Things
Land Of The Sea And Sun
 

 

Courtesy again of Nick
Johansen, here is his 2011 discovery of the rarest of all Lord Antics LPs, "Rake and Scrape":

   

Nick explains,

This is the long-lost VOLUME ONE cover of Calypso Star that has puzzled everyone. It was used for the album “Mr. Rake & Scrape” which I have classified as number3a on my new, revised word document, which I shall send you soon.

 This Calypso Star cover has now been used for     
    VOLUME ONE Mr. Rake & Scrape
    VOLUME TWO Laziest Man
    VOLUME TWO Lucy’s Garden

I have all three LPs with the corresponding black song lists pasted on the backs.

Two of the songs Dr. Beckles and One Arm Man are featured on other albums and two songs (No No) Stella and The Milk Man make up a 45rpm on the Calypso Star label. Six other songs are undocumented anywhere.

The cover picture is brown, not with the green color as on VOLUME TWO.

Lord Antics Singles

Lord Antics recorded a number of singles, some taken from the LPs above and some consisting of non-LP tracks. First, here are three singles, scans courtesy of Matthias Münchow of Hamburg, Germany.

 

"Fork She Garden" backed with "Split Me In Two" is a single drawn from the "Hotter Than Hot" LP and appears on the label of the same name. This may be a harder to find single, as it does not initially appear in Olivier's discography or in Roots Knotty Roots.

 

"Big Bamboo" backed with "Sixty Nine" is  a another single drawn from the "Hotter Than Hot" LP. Like the single above, it is not listed in Olivier's discography or in Roots Knotty Roots, so may be harder to find.

 

"Sell The Pussy" is  the third single pictured on this site that is drawn from Lord Antic's 1970 LP, "Hotter Than Hot".

Sorry, a larger version of this image is not available.

 

 

On the previously unseen Soul More Soul label a Lord Antics 45 consisting of "Everything I Own" backed with "Julie". Neither track appears on any Lord Antics LP that I am aware of, nor are they documented in Olivier's discography or in Roots Knotty Roots.

Matthias points out that "Everything I Own" was originally recorded by US soft-rockers Bread  and that Horace Andy did his reggae version around the same time. He adds that Ken Booth later recorded a well remembered version of this song.

 

"You May Stray" was released in 1964 on the Coxsone label and again in 1965 on Muzik City and (courtesy of Ed Turk of the UK),  Island in the UK. This recording is flat out ska, not mento. The A-side was "Coolie Boy" by Don Drummond.

Here is another Antics/Skatalites pairing on the C&N label (perhaps in 1963), when the Lord Antics track, "One Kiss In The Morning" appears as the b-side of the Skatalites track "Ska Laparisine". Surprisingly, the Antics track is a departure from mento, as its a ska recording. Both sides are produced by Coxsone Dodd.

 

"Sauce Pan" b/w "Sandra" was released in 1964 and again in 1974 on the Antics Disc label. These tracks are drawn from the "Too Hot To Hold" LP. The scans come from two different discs.

Sorry, a larger version of these images are not available.


 
 

"Woop Wap Man" b/w "Doctor Kitch" does not have a documented release date, but it is probably drawn from the "Too Hot To Hold" LP.

(Sorry, a larger version of "Doctor Kitch" is not available.)

 


 
 

From 1965, on the Antics Disc label "Bang Bang Lulu" backed "Keep The City Clean". Both tracks are drawn from the "Too Hot To Hold" LP.  The labels come from two different discs. One is stamped with the additional legend, "Zodiac Pub, 3A Church Lane, Montego Bay, Prop. Tomas Thompson",

perhaps giving us an indication of where Antics performed and who paid him. This specimen also includes a lot of what collectors refer to as "WOL", or "writing on label". The other is stamped "<?> Mart, 64 Barnett St, Montego Bay".

 

On the Date Disc label is the Lord Antics single, "Soul Chick". The flip is "Work So Version". These tracks do not appear to be drawn from an LP.  Sorry, there is no larger version of this label.

 

On the Calypso Star label is the Lord Antics single, "The Milk Man".  The flip is "Stella". These tracks do not appear to be drawn from an LP.  Sorry, there is no larger version of this label.

 

"Shame and Scandal". The b-side is "Lulu"

 

 

One more for the road, on the Laziest Man label, is Queen's Canary.

 

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