World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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George "Fully" Fullwood

Artist. Reggae, dub

Active
1970s-present
Sunrise
October 30, 1950, Kingston, Jamaica

George Fullwood, known as Fully, was the bassist in the Soul Syndicate, one half, with the drummer Carlton "Santa" Davis, of what the Rough Guide calls its "propulsive bass and drums."

The Soul Syndicate, formed in Greenwich Farm in the late 1960s, was one of the leading session bands on the island, with Fullwood on bass, Davis on drums, Earl "Chinna" Smith on lead guitar, and Tony Chin on rhythm. They backed Burning Spear, the Wailing Souls, Big Youth, Johnny Clarke, and dozens of others, and worked for Bunny Lee, Niney the Observer, and most of the producers of the decade.

He is usually credited with the bass line on "Stalag 17," the Ansel Collins instrumental cut for Winston Riley in 1973 and named after the 1953 film. Davis, who drummed on the session, says Fullwood answered a pattern Davis had drawn from Nyabinghi drumming: "Fully came up with the bass line," he says, and "we are mimicking each other." The riddim turned out to be one of the most versioned in Jamaican music: Tenor Saw's "Ring the Alarm," Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam," and a very long list of others are built on it, and it is still being used.

He later worked with Peter Tosh and relocated to California, where he has continued to record and to play with reunited versions of the Soul Syndicate.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide describes Keith Hudson "hooking up with the young band from Greenwich Farm called Soul Syndicate, with George 'Fully' Fullwood and Carlton 'Santa' Davis providing the propulsive bass and drums." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 118.
  2. Wikipedia calls the band, originally the Rhythm Raiders, "one of the top reggae session bands in Jamaica from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s," names Fullwood as its founder, and gives this core lineup with the keyboard player Bernard "Touter" Harvey. "Soul Syndicate," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Syndicate. The Rough Guide repeatedly calls it "Earl 'Chinna' Smith's" band. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 188, 198.
  3. The Rough Guide names the band behind work for Keith Hudson, Niney (including Dennis Brown's "Westbound Train" and Freddie McGregor's Mr McGregor), Big Youth, Bertram Brown's Freedom Sounds, Yabby You, and Don Mais. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 118, 167, 188, 196, 198, 238, 250. Wikipedia says the band's nucleus also recorded for Bunny Lee as the Aggrovators. "Soul Syndicate." Discogs credits Fullwood on Johnny Clarke albums of 1975 and on Big Youth albums from 1978. "George Fullwood," Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/artist/379293-George-Fullwood.
  4. The Rough Guide calls "Stalag 17" "an instrumental by the Soul Syndicate band, featuring the organ of Ansell Collins," and Riley's "greatest legacy to Jamaican music," and dates it to 1973. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 117, 296. Wikipedia credits the bass line to Fullwood. "Soul Syndicate."
  5. "Santa Davis and the 'Stalag 17' Riddim," CounterPunch, August 12, 2020, https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/12/santa-davis-and-the-stalag-17-riddim/. Davis dates the session to 1973 or 1974 and places it at Harry J's.
  6. The Rough Guide says Tenor Saw's "Ring the Alarm" used "an overdubbed cut of 'Stalag 17'" and that the rhythm provided hits "over the next two decades" for Big Youth, Horace Andy, Augustus Pablo, Frankie Paul, General Echo, and others; it calls Riley's Stalag 17, 18 & 19 "the most popular one-rhythm album ever." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 117, 296.
  7. Playing for Change says he was a member of Tosh's band Word, Sound and Power, recording and touring with him "until the singer's untimely passing." "Fully Fullwood: A Bass Legend," Playing for Change, accessed October 1, 2026, https://playingforchange.com/articles/fully-fullwood-a-bass-legend. Discogs credits him on Tosh's Live (1984) and No Nuclear War (1987). "George Fullwood," Discogs.
  8. In 2018 OC Weekly reported the end of his seven-year residency, with the Soul Syndicate guitarist Tony Chin, at a Sunset Beach bar in Orange County. Nate Jackson, "Fully Fullwood Draws Massive Crowd for His Last Show at Don the Beachcomber," OC Weekly, March 26, 2018, https://www.ocweekly.com/fully-fullwood-draws-massive-crowd-for-last-show-at-don-the-beachcomber/. Wikipedia says the band reunited for a show at Huntington Beach, California, in 2015 with Fullwood, Chin, Chinna Smith, and Santa Davis. "Soul Syndicate."

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