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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Soul Syndicate

Band. Reggae, dub

Active
1974-1985

Soul Syndicate were a session band from Greenwich Farm in west Kingston, and one of the two or three most heavily used in Jamaica between the early 1970s and the mid-1980s.

They began in the late 1960s as the Rhythm Raiders, a street corner group formed by the bass player George "Fully" Fullwood and the guitarist Tony "Valentine" Chin, who had met singing Paragons and Melodians songs in the neighborhood. Fullwood at first played bass lines on an ordinary guitar. Carlton "Santa" Davis joined on drums in 1969 and the name later changed to Soul Syndicate. The settled lineup was Fullwood, Chin, Davis, Earl "Chinna" Smith on lead guitar and Bernard "Touter" Harvey, later Keith Sterling, on keyboards. Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Cleon Douglas, Earl "Wya" Lindo, Tyrone Downie and Newsville "Fuzzy" Foster passed through. Donovan Carless was the original vocalist and Freddie McGregor was for a time the band's featured singer.

They recorded for Keith Hudson, for Winston "Niney" Holness, who billed them as the Observers, for Duke Reid, and for Bunny Lee, on whose sessions several of them appeared as the Aggrovators. The billing followed the producer, as it did at Channel One and Randy's, and the same shared-personnel problem applies here as to the Aggrovators, the Revolutionaries and the Impact All-Stars.

The "Stalag 17" riddim came out of this band: Fullwood's bass line under Ansel Collins's organ, cut for Winston Riley, and one of the most versioned pieces of music in Jamaica, carrying later hits for Tenor Saw, General Echo, Sister Nancy and others. Their albums under their own name include Harvest Uptown (1976).

The band scattered into other people's groups without ever quite dissolving. Fullwood and Santa Davis took the bass and drum chairs in Peter Tosh's Word, Sound and Power when Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare left to tour with Black Uhuru; Touter Harvey and Tyrone Downie went to the Wailers. Fullwood settled in California, and versions of the band have reunited to perform, including at Rototom Sunsplash in 2024.

Last updated October 21, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide calls them "the young band from Greenwich Farm called Soul Syndicate." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 118. Wikipedia calls them "one of the top reggae session bands in Jamaica from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s." "Soul Syndicate," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Syndicate.
  2. Chin recalls that he and Fullwood "used to sing on the street corner in a group," singing "rocksteady music and 'tings. Like The Paragons. The Melodians." Stephen Cooper, "Interview with Tony Chin," Sound System Culture, July 19, 2019, https://soundsystemculture.org/interview-with-tony-chin/. In a conversation recorded at Fullwood's home in 2000, the two men describe the Riddim Raiders as a backyard band that grew up around two older players, Megan Allen on guitar and Algon on drums, whom Chin introduced to Fullwood, rather than as a street corner group. "May 2000 - Interview with Fully Fullwood," fullyfullwood.com, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.fullyfullwood.com/may2002interview.html.
  3. Fullwood: "I would play bass on the low octaves on the guitar." "Interview with Fully Fullwood." Chin: "he was playing bass on a guitar not a bass." Cooper, "Interview with Tony Chin."
  4. Wikipedia dates Davis's joining to 1969. "Carlton 'Santa' Davis," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlton_%22Santa%22_Davis. Fullwood says Horsemouth Wallace brought Davis to the band and taught him to play, and that the new name came from his own brother: "How 'bout the Soul Syndicate?" "Interview with Fully Fullwood."
  5. "Soul Syndicate." The Rough Guide repeatedly calls it "Earl 'Chinna' Smith's" band, and lists Harvey, Sterling, Chin and Smith among Bunny Lee's Aggrovators. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 153, 188, 198.
  6. "Soul Syndicate." Chin says Cleon Douglas "came in as our singer" and learned rhythm guitar in the band. Cooper, "Interview with Tony Chin."
  7. Wikipedia calls Carless the band's "original vocalist." "Soul Syndicate." Fullwood, asked how Donovan "first come in the band," answered "Long after," and names Dennis Brown as the band's vocalist before McGregor, with Michael Rose after him. "Interview with Fully Fullwood." The Rough Guide says McGregor cut several 45s with Smith's Soul Syndicate band, "with whom he performed live." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 198.
  8. The Rough Guide describes Hudson "hooking up" with the band and credits it with the rhythm of Dennis Brown's "Westbound Train" for Niney. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 118, 196. Chin names Bunny Lee, Niney, Duke Reid and others among the producers he played for, and says of Niney: "he called us 'the Observers.'" Cooper, "Interview with Tony Chin."
  9. Chin: the Aggrovators were a "studio band because sometimes it's not all of Soul Syndicate," but "the Observers was strictly (Soul) Syndicate with some horn players." Cooper, "Interview with Tony Chin."
  10. 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."
  11. The Rough Guide names Big Youth, Horace Andy, Augustus Pablo, Frankie Paul, General Echo and Tenor Saw among those who had hits on the rhythm, and says Tenor Saw's "Ring the Alarm" used "an overdubbed cut." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 117, 296. Sister Nancy says Riley "lay out the Stalag riddim" for her "Bam Bam." Frosty, "Beyond 'Bam Bam': Dancehall Icon Sister Nancy on Her Improbable Career," Red Bull Music Academy Daily, March 21, 2017, https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/03/sister-nancy-interview.
  12. Discogs and Wikipedia date the first issue of Harvest Uptown / Famine Downtown, on Epiphany, to 1977. "Soul Syndicate - Harvest Uptown / Famine Downtown," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/288619-Soul-Syndicate-Harvest-Uptown-Famine-Downtown; "Soul Syndicate." Chin calls it the band's first album, recorded in Ocho Rios with the producer Warren Smith. "Interview with Fully Fullwood."
  13. Wikipedia says Davis and Fullwood replaced Sly and Robbie "when they began touring with Black Uhuru," and dates the change to 1981. "Word, Sound and Power," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word,_Sound_and_Power. Tosh's No Nuclear War (1987) credits Davis and Fullwood. "Peter Tosh - No Nuclear War," Discogs, accessed October 5, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/release/894136.
  14. "Soul Syndicate." Wikipedia says Downie joined the Wailers in the mid-1970s and made his recording debut with them on Rastaman Vibration. "Tyrone Downie," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrone_Downie.
  15. In 2018 OC Weekly reported the end of Fullwood's seven-year residency, with Chin, at a bar in Sunset Beach, 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 records reunions at Huntington Beach in 2015 and Reggae on the River in 2016. "Soul Syndicate." The festival's 2024 schedule lists a "Peter Tosh 80 Tribute" by Andrew Tosh and Soul Syndicate on the main stage. 2024 music schedule (PDF), Rototom Sunsplash, accessed October 5, 2026, https://rototomsunsplash.com/download/pdf/SUN24_MUSIC_SCHEDULE.pdf.

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