IF YOU MADE IT ON VERE JOHNS OPPORTUNITY HOUR, YOU COULD MAKE IT ANYWHERE. By Richard Hugh Blackford

KINGSTON'S GHETTO CRICIBLE

It is the late 1940s heading into the 1950s and the city of Kingston had started to creak under the weight of the urban drift as thousands of Jamaicans from deep rural parishes converged on the city in search of better economic opportunities. What they found instead were burgeoning ghettos where survival required ingenuity, resilience, and imagination. In those crowded lanes and zinc-fenced yards, young men and women searched for a way out. For many, music became that path as in parts of the city; particularly in Western Kingston the flames of a cultural furnace was beginning to rise.

AMATEUR HOUR CONTESTS

At a time when North American R&B vocal groups dominated the airwaves and local success stories were beginning to circulate, it seemed as though almost every youth in Kingston wanted to be a singer. Bands of youngsters formed harmonizing trios and quartets, inspired by American acts but equally by the possibility that someone from their own community could “buss.”

As more economically stable residents migrated uptown, entertainment spaces such as the Ambassador, Palace, Ward, and Majestic Theatres increasingly became stages for emerging ghetto talent. These venues began hosting regular “Amateur Hour” talent contests, often staged between movie screenings, as a way to identify local performers.

THE MAN BEHIND THE MICROPHONE

Out of this moment rose one of the most influential cultural architects in Jamaican music history: Vere Everette Johns. Born in Mandeville in 1893, Vere Johns was no ordinary show promoter. After serving in World War I, he found success in the United States during the 1920s as a newspaper columnist. When he returned to Jamaica in 1939, he continued writing and eventually launched the long-running “Vere Johns Says” column in the Jamaica Star in the late 1940s, frequently discussing music and popular culture.

But it was not merely through print that Johns would leave his mark.

VERE JOHNS TALENT CONTESTS

He created the Vere Johns Talent Contests, held mostly on Wednesday nights. These contests quickly became the social high point of the ghetto week. With admission costing less than a shilling, the shows were accessible to the masses. Crowds packed the theaters where the contests were being held. Winners were decided not by formal judges, but by the loudness of the audience’s applause. If you could move the crowd, you advanced, becoming immediate candidates for the Vere Johns Opportunity Knocks show on JBC radio.

THE GAUNTLET: SURVIVAL OF THE STRONGEST

The contests were not for the faint of heart, unfolding over weeks in a progressive elimination format. Winners and first runners-up moved through quarter-finals and semi-finals toward a grand conclusion. Contestants needed more than talent; they needed indomitable will. The audiences were notoriously tough. So tough, in fact, that aspiring performers often brought their own cheering sections—or paid supporters in advance. Meanwhile, rival contestants hired “jeerers” whose sole purpose was to rattle the opposition.

To survive Vere Johns’ stage was to prove you could withstand public trial by fire. It is perhaps here that Jamaicans developed their reputation as one of the hardest audiences in the world to please.

If you made it on Vere John’s Opportunity Hour, you truly could make it anywhere.

THE TALENT PIPELINE THAT BUILT AN INDUSTRY

These contests were more than entertainment. They were a talent incubator. Producers such as Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd, and Arthur “Duke” Reid also used these shows as part of their own pool for scouting talent, often taking singers to record at Stanley Motta’s recording studio to cut records to be played on their sound systems; laying the groundwork for what would later become Jamaica’s recording industry. Thus, the “Vere Johns Opportunity Knocks” program provided exposure that could launch a career overnight.

From the Vere Johns platform emerged an astonishing roster of pioneers:

Laurel Aitken, Bob Andy, Bunny & Skitter, The Blues Blasters, Alton Ellis, Hortense Ellis, Lascelles Perkins, Wilfred “Jackie” Edwards, Desmond Dekker, Derrick Morgan, Boris Gardner, Derrick Harriott, John Holt, James “Jimmy Cliff” Chambers, Roy Richards, Higgs & Wilson, Charlie Organaire, Dobby Dobson, The Wailers, and many more.

James "Jimmy Cliff" Chambers, OM

From these voices came the early recordings of Mento, Jamaican-influenced Blues and R&B, and the Shuffle—sounds that would soon crystallize into one of the greatest musical innovations of the 20th century- the Ska, which would in turn give birth to Nyabinghi, Rocksteady, Reggae, Dub, and Dancehall—genres that would carry Jamaica’s cultural identity to every corner of the globe.

THE FORGOTTEN ARCHITECT

And yet, after 17 years of celebrating Reggae Month each February, the name Vere Johns rarely receives amplification equal to his impact. Without a formal academy, without government grants, and without institutional infrastructure; Vere Johns built a proving ground for Jamaican music. He democratized opportunity. while creating a platform for the ghetto youth. He connected stage to studio and transformed applause into careers. In essence, Vere Everette Johns was one of the founding fathers of Jamaican popular music.

If we are serious about preserving our cultural history, we cannot continue celebrating only the stars while ignoring the architects who built the stage. Because before the records, and before the sound systems, before global acclaim— there was Wednesday nights; a packed theater, and a man named Vere Johns asking Jamaica to choose its next star. Author’s Note: Richard Hugh Blackford is a Jamaican fine artist, published author, and social and political commentator based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His work explores the intersections of culture, identity, and justice within the Caribbean experience.