The Gaylords (Dominican band)


The Gay Lords of Dominica were a popular Carnival band from Dominica from 1966 to 1974.

Members

Members, Clayton 'Baby Julie' Guiste, Crispin Seaman, Dennis Joseph and Tony 'Bingo' Henderson, and later, Alwin 'Cocky' Polydore, Lionel Pinard, Eden 'Presley' Richardson, Lewis 'Double L' Lestrade, Fitzroy 'Fat Cap' Williams, the blind keyboardist Starret Francois, Archie Francis, Walter Cooke and Julian Gibson. They later changed their name to Gaylords Power Union. Starret Francois1 died in February, 2008, of renal failure and MRSA, in the UK.

Recordings

They recorded three albums, Love, Peace and the Caribbean, Karybian Explosion and To Dominica with Love, as well as several singles, the most popular of which was "Hit Me With Music".
With the exception of four 'covers' and the modification of two Dominican traditional 'street songs', all their material was original, written predominantly by Dennis Joseph and Clayton Guiste with contributions from Walter Cooke, Greg 'Breaker' Bannis, Crispin Seaman and Fitzroy Williams and collaboration on "Femme Marie", "Ma John", "Lovely Dominica" and "I'm Going Home" with Chris Seraphine.

Tours

They toured the entire Caribbean, working the hotels in Barbados, Antigua, St. Lucia and the Virgin Islands, sharing bills with Jimmy Cliff and the Mighty Sparrow, then the Caribbean's premiere calypsonian, and Blind American singer, Clarence Carter. Then in 1971, they played Brooklyn in New York City, and Montreal in Canada.
In 1973, they toured the United Kingdom together with John Holt and appeared in Edmonton, with Bob Marley, when they re-recorded Hit Me With Music on the Spark label, produced by Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five. They returned to the UK in 1974 for another tour, and split up in September 1974, when founder member and lead singer, Greg 'Breaker' Bannis decided to go solo. The Gaylords re-united in 2003, to make a one-off nostalgic appearance at Dominica's world-renowned Creole Festival, in October.