Official Gemini Sound System ft Welton Irie, Johnny Ringo, Squiddly Ranks at Stoke Newington 1983
The Gemini sound system can be traced back to around 1967 when two men Papa Gemini (b. Gerwin Dinnall) and Papa Kenneth started a small disco that mainly catered for the sound of soul music. As with most sound systems of the day, Gemini’s set initially consisted of a single turntable, and theirs was powered by a Dynaco amplifier. Papa Gemini was the main selector in those early days and with reggae gaining in popularity in the seventies the set started to grow in size.
In 1974 Archie (b. Archibald Cummings) was recruited as the main selector and as Gemini’s rise continued they started to attract some of the top deejays of the day. Welton Irie (b. Welton Dobson) first began deejaying the set around 1978. He then had a short spell with Virgo before returning Gemini and linked up with another deejay Ringo (b. Bradley Miller), who was originally a selector on Soul Express, and their working partnership was crucial to the sound progress.
This was the dawning of the dancehall era and their mixture of reality and slackness lyrics quickly become all the rage. According to Welton Irie, Gemini was one of the very first sounds to cut their own custom-made “specials”. In particular, he remembers a series of “specials” that ruling deejay Ranking Trevor cut for the sound so they could champion themselves when no entertainers were around.
Around the turn of the next decade, the owner of the sound Papa Gemini decided to open his own club and he took over the La Exotica Club located at 39 Half Way Tree Road, Kingston 5 and he renamed it the Gemini Club. The club was ideally placed midway between uptown and downtown and its Wednesday night dances soon began to attract the crowds through the door and the entertainers to the set.
Among the deejays who got their break on Gemini were Squiddly Ranking (b. Michael Clarke), younger brother to Peter Metro, and Burro Banton (b. Donovan Spalding) who became a regular after impressing the owner one Wednesday night. Others likely to be found on Gemini in the early eighties were deejays Dicky Ranking (b. Norman Suppria), Lee Van Cleef (b. Devon Perkins), Ranking Toyon (b. Byron Letts), Lui Lepke, Michael Irie and singers such as Hugh Griffiths and Michael Palmer.
The Gemini equipment was also one of the best, producing a heavy, crystal-clear sound. Welton Irie had no doubts, “It sounded damn good, nothing sounded like Gemini”. Unsurprisingly with all this talent around Gemini was crowned Jamaican champion sound for 1981.
