Canadian Reggae Summit # 2 March 2003

Another stepping stone is achieved within the Canadian reggae community. The second of quarterly reggae Summits was held @ The Silver Dollar Room on Thursday night, March 27^th, 2003. A night where legends, icons, current stars and Juno nominees came together to share and grow. Juno nominees Snow, Leroy Brown and Belinda Brady showed up adding inspiration to present reggae hopefuls. The Legend 'Deadly' Hedley Jones imparted his mastery at the turntables alongside rising stars superheavyREGGAE (DJ Jerms & Friendliness) bringing their very stylish and unique vibes with High Sax dropping wicked solos.


Deadly Hedley & Daddy Snow	Juno Nominee Leroy Brown, Ray Hammond The Legend Deadly Hedley and Leroy Jr.	Leroy & Junior


SuperheavyREGGAE firing on all cylinders, DJ Jerms, Friendly and High Sax

A live performance by LeeJahn was another step to showing off the amazing talents that Toronto / Canadian reggae stars are able to provide on any given night. The versatile group put the audience through their repertoire bringing up the 'Emperor' Mikey Chin from behind the drums relaying his lyrical DJ stylings and sound vocals, Andy Lee coming off the bass, handing it to John Barkie the wicked lead vocalist, to sing a tune or two and the 'Golden Child' Stephen Lee bussin' DJ lyrics, lead and backing vocals and beating the drums. A show to behold!


Mickey Lee 'The Emperor' displaying the stylee along with wicked vocalist John Barkie.


Ron Dawson on the case	bassie and vocalist Andy Lee	'Golden Child' Stephen Lee

The gist of this Summit was for the Reggae community to concentrate on the financial aspects of the industry. Apply to Factor www.factor.ca to get financing for demos, albums, marketing, loans and grants. The more that is done the more music that is created, the more the industry will have to offer. Instead of being limited to the reggae category in the Juno nominations we may cross over producing popular singles, new artists or album of the year votes.

Join SOCAN www.socan.ca! As members of Socan there are opportunities to earn from your own work either through royalties from radio airplay or from live performances. Reggae is currently limited only to college and community radio stations who have maybe one reggae show per day, playing tunes for a couple of artists. We need more tunes to be played, encouraging sales opportunities, improving royalty payment opportunities as well as the artists producing more work.

One way to achieve more notoriety, is to have the radio DJs submitting a Weekly TOP 20 List on a consistent basis. This will encourage,

The artists writing more material to give to the radio personalities.
Have more interest on radio from family members and friends tuning in to hear and to request tunes.
Added listenership to the community radio shows.
Better publicity for artists performing regularly.

Sure it will take time to develop, but a Top 20 List may garner more interest in the industry in the long term.

Canadian Reggae World is willing to host the Top 20 List if the information is submitted in a timely fashion.

IT IS THE ARTISTS RESPONSIBILITY TO GET THEIR PRODUCT TO THE RESPECTIVE RADIO HOSTS.

It is the artists' responsibility to get their gigging information to the radio hosts. It is the artists' responsibility to schedule interviews for CD / album releases. It is the artists' responsibility to get their show information to Canadian Reggae World in a timely fashion.

Other interesting moments of the night included………

Daddy Snow sharing a moment Andy, Mike and John of LeeJahn

Derek Brin, Ju Lion, Snow, Belinda and Burna from IBADAN

Burna from IBADAN and Snow


De 'Emperor' keeping time!	Friendly a chant!

SuperheavyREGGAE @ de controls

Special thanks to Steam Whistle Breweries for sponsoring the event, Ms. Christina Gilligan for great support, The Silver Dollar Room for their hospitality and professionalism and Ms. Christine Hampson for following through and making the night go off without a hitch.