The Gaylords (Dominican band)

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

Members

Members (during the lifetime of the group) included [Greg Breaker who is now the lead vocalist with Hot Chocolate, now using the sobriquet of Billy Brown), Clayton 'Baby Julie' Guiste (now with the New Serenaders Band), Crispin Seaman, Dennis Joseph, Tony 'Bingo' Henderson, Alwin 'Cocky' Polydore, Lionel Pinard, Fitzroy 'Fat Cap' Williams (later to be with Exile One),Starret Francois, Archie Francis, Walter Cooke and Julian Gibson] . They later changed their name to Gaylords Power Union.

Recordings

They recorded three albums, "Love, Peace and the Caribbean" (WIRL,1972), "Karybian Explosion"(Antillana, 1970) and "To Dominica with Love" (Antillana,1969), as well as several singles (45rpm), the most popular of which was "Hit Me With Music".

Tours

They toured the entire Caribbean, working the hotels in Barbados, St. Lucia and the Virgin Islands, sharing bills with Jimmy Cliff and the Mighty Sparrow, then the Caribbean's premiere calypsonian. Then in 1971, they played Brooklyn in New York (where they recently made a nostalgic comeback appearance in 2004), and Montreal in Canada.

In 1973, they toured the United Kingdom together with John Holt (the 1,000 volts of Holt tour 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 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.