BY DUBMATIX
Some musicians are famous for what they play. Others are famous because everyone else sounds better with them underneath. Errol “Flabba” Holt belongs to the second group. He has played bass on hundreds of Jamaican records, led one of the most in-demand session bands in Kingston, and co-produced one of the best-loved reggae albums of the 1980s. If you own roots or early dancehall records, you have almost certainly heard him without knowing his name. This mix follows the bass.
Kingston Beginnings
Errol Holt, also known as Errol Carter, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on 19 July 1950. His own website gives 1954, but most sources point to 1950, and a 2023 newspaper profile described him as seventy-three. He began in the early 1970s as a session musician, backing artists including Don Carlos and Prince Far I. At various points, he was also a dancer, a deejay, a singer and a producer. After stints with Rupie Edwards’ crew, he joined The Morwells in 1976, the same year he had a sound system hit under his own name with “A You Lick Me First.”
The Radics
In 1978, Holt formed the Roots Radics with guitarist Eric “Bingy Bunny” Lamont and drummer Lincoln “Style” Scott, growing out of the Morwells band. They became the unofficial house band at Channel One studio, with Holt as musical director, working around the clock for producers Henry “Junjo” Lawes and Linval Thompson. Accounts differ on who named them. Holt has credited a Kingston associate known as Leggo Beast, while another account says Gregory Isaacs gave them the name because their sound was so radically different.
Their first big breakthrough came in 1979, when the band recorded the riddims for Barrington Levy’s first songs for Lawes, credited at the time as the Channel One Stars. “Collie Weed” and “Shine Eye Gal” helped set the stage for dancehall.
The Sound
The Roots Radics sound is slow, sparse and heavy. Style Scott’s spacious drumming left plenty of room for Holt’s heavy basslines and dub effects, giving the rhythms a weight that was both massive and crisp. Scientist mixed many of the dubs from these sessions, and they became the template for much of what followed.
The Classics
The list of records built on that foundation is long. Johnny Osbourne’s “Ice Cream Love” (1980) is one of the transitional records that marked the shift toward dancehall. Eek-A-Mouse’s Wa-Do-Dem (1981) collected the best of his early work with the Radics, and Bunny Wailer’s “Cool Runnings” (1981) found the band giving a roots legend a suitably vital riddim for his move into dancehall. Scientist’s 1981 album Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires is considered one of the most important dub albums ever made, built on some of the Radics’ hardest rhythms.
In 1982, Barrington Levy released “Minibus (On the Telephone),” a shining example of the partnership, and Freddie McGregor cut Big Ship with the Radics backing him on the entire album. Sugar Minott’s “No Vacancy” (1983), from With Lots of Extra, was a sharp commentary on Jamaican social status. The Wailing Souls went back to Channel One with the Radics for Junjo Lawes, and the resulting singles became the album Firehouse Rock.
Add Yellowman (“Zungguzungguguzungguzeng”), Frankie Paul (“Kushumpeng”), Michael Prophet (“Gun Man”) and John Holt (“Police in Helicopter”), and you have a good part of the early dancehall songbook. Holt played every song on Barrington Levy’s Englishman album and most of Israel Vibration’s albums.
Night Nurse
In 1982, Gregory Isaacs released Night Nurse, his best-known album, with Errol Holt credited as co-producer and the Roots Radics as the band. Holt played bass. The title track became Isaacs’ biggest hit and a reggae standard. In 1997, Sly and Robbie recorded a version with Simply Red that reached number 13 on the UK singles chart. It helped their album Friends win the Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 1999.
Night Nurse was only one of Holt’s production credits. He also produced records for Dennis Brown (Blood Brothers and Milk and Honey), Delroy Wilson (Which Way Is Up), Beres Hammond and Jah Stitch.
The Bass: Gear and Technique
Holt’s rig has never been documented in detail, so what follows is only what has actually been reported. LargeUp described his sound as round, low and rock solid, and noted that, like Robbie Shakespeare, he has often played hollow-body Hofner basses alongside solid-body instruments. A 2008 concert review of Israel Vibration with the Roots Radics described him playing a Hofner violin bass held nearly chest high, alternating between thumbing the strings and fingerstyle with his index and ring fingers. Fans on bass forums have also noted a Steinberger in his hands on stage.
As for effects, bassists have long debated the gurgling, filtered bass heard on Scientist’s dub albums. The most likely explanation is that it comes from the mixing desk and Scientist’s dub treatments, not from a pedal. I couldn’t find a documented studio signal chain, whether direct, miked amp or a combination, for the Channel One sessions.
Losses and Continuity
In October 2014, Style Scott was found dead at his home in Manchester, Jamaica, a loss that Holt, who had seen his friend only days earlier, felt deeply. As of the latest coverage I found, Holt is the only surviving member of the original lineup, alongside the late Bingy Bunny, Noel “Sowell” Bailey and others.
He kept working. The Radics have backed Israel Vibration since the late 1980s, and they toured together for close to thirty years. He played bass on Beres Hammond’s Never Ending (2018) and on Earl “Chinna” Smith’s Maroon Songs (2022). In 2019, the Roots Radics earned their first Grammy nomination for The Final Battle: Sly and Robbie vs Roots Radics.
Great bass playing is hard to describe because the best of it disappears into the groove. You don’t notice it until it’s gone. Put this mix on, turn the low end up, and listen to what Flabba Holt has been holding up for fifty years.
PLAYLIST
1 Errol “Flabba” Holt — A You Lick Me First (1976)
2 Barrington Levy — Collie Weed (1979, Roots Radics as the Channel One Stars)
3 Johnny Osbourne — Ice Cream Love (1980)
4 Eek-A-Mouse — Wa-Do-Dem (1981)
5 Bunny Wailer — Cool Runnings (1981)
6 Scientist — The Voodoo Curse (1981)
7 Wailing Souls — Fire House Rock
8 Gregory Isaacs — Night Nurse (1982, produced by Gregory Isaacs and Flabba Holt)
9 Freddie McGregor — Big Ship (1982)
10 Sugar Minott — No Vacancy (1983)
11 Yellowman — Zungguzungguguzungguzeng
12 Frankie Paul — Kushumpeng
13 Michael Prophet — Gun Man
14 John Holt — Police in Helicopter
15 Israel Vibration — Mr. Consular Man
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