Roots Radics
Jamaican session band centred around a nucleus of Errol Flabba Holt (bass), Lincoln Valentine Style Scott (drums) and Eric Bingy Bunny Lamont (guitar). Other members at various times included Roy Hamilton (lead guitar), Noel Sowell Bailey (lead guitar), Dwight Pinkney (formerly of the Sharks and Zap Pow, on lead guitar), Carlton Santz Davis (drums), Fish Clarke (drums) and Steely Johnson (later of Steely & Clevie fame, on keyboards). Flabba and Bingy Bunny were previously active as part of Morris Blacker Wellington's Morwells set up, recording such popular tunes as Swing & Dine (1974), They Hold Us Down (1978) and Kingston Twelve Tuffy (1979). Before this Bunny had been teamed with bongo player Bongo Herman, the pair enjoying a big hit, Know Far I, in 1971 for producer/singer Derrick Harriott. He had also produced Peter Broggs' PROGRESSIVE YOUTH LP, and played in the crack Channel One session band the Revolutionaries, whose demise at the end of the '70s was due to Sly & Robbie's production for their Taxi label and live work with Peter Tosh, which had left a vacuum the Radics were only too pleased to fill. Errol Holt was previously noted for his many fine singles during the mid-70s including A You Lick Me First, Gimme Gimme and Who Have Eyes To See. 
Their initial impact was to slow the beat down a notch from the militant rockers sound of the Revolutionaries. This is perhaps best showcased on an album they worked on for producer Henry Junjo Lawes, the hottest producer of the early '80s. BOUNTY HUNTER (1979) was Barrington Levy's debut, as it was for the Radics, and it revolutionised reggae music in the same way that the Mighty Diamond's RIGHT TIME did five years earlier. The similarities include the revival of old Studio One rhythms central to the success of both groups. The Radics worked on innumerable sessions for as many different producers, including Linval Thompson—it was with their rhythms that Scientist destroyed space invaders and won the World Cup, as the titles of his LPs suggest—and worked for a while as Gregory Isaacs' backing band on tour and record, responsible for the rhythms on his classic NIGHT NURSE (1982). They also did sessions for Bunny Wailer and Israel Vibration among many others. Whilst in the UK on tour with Prince Far I (for whom they recorded under the name the Arabs), the group forged a social and musical friendship with maverick reggae/rock producer Adrian Sherwood, for whom they worked on many sessions as part of the loose conglomerates Creation Rebel and Singers & Players. The Roots Radics came in at the birth of, and were partly responsible for, the dancehall style that dominated in the first half of the '80s. But as their commitments to live work grew, particularly in the States, they were eventually usurped by other outfits. The digital/ ragga revolution sparked off by Prince Jammy's production of Wayne Smith's massive hit, Under Me Sleng Teng, virtually eradicated the need for live musicians overnight, and the Radics lost their position as Jamaica's number one session band, though they remain in demand for stage shows. Eric Lamont died of prostrate cancer in January 1994.