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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The Hippy Boys

Band. Rocksteady, reggae

Active
1968-1971

The Hippy Boys were a young session band who backed Max Romeo, cut instrumentals for Sonia Pottinger, and then became Lee Perry's Upsetters more or less by accident.

They came together around Max Romeo in the second half of the 1960s, and settled into a lineup of Alva "Reggie" Lewis on guitar, Glen Adams on organ, and the brothers Aston and Carlton Barrett on bass and drums, with Ranny "Bop" Williams also passing through. The Barretts got in, Romeo recalled, when the regular rhythm players failed to show for a live date and the brothers were allowed to sit in "after much reluctance." They recorded constantly: for Pottinger, where "Dr. No Go" was a hit, for Bunny Lee, and for Perry.

"Return of Django" reached number five in Britain in 1969 and Perry was offered a British tour. The musicians who had actually played on it, the earlier Upsetters lineup built around Gladstone Anderson's regular session group, were unavailable, so the Hippy Boys went instead, billed as the Upsetters. They kept the name afterward and played the Perry sessions with the Wailers that produced "Duppy Conqueror," "Small Axe," and "400 Years." The two bands have been confused ever since.

The Barretts left for Bob Marley, taking the rhythm section that would define the Wailers' sound. Adams moved to New York, and Lewis, who also recorded vocal sides with Adams as the Reggae Boys, worked in Kingston through the 1970s and later in Toronto.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says Perry's Upsetters "were in fact Max Romeo's old band the Hippy Boys." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 128.
  2. Romeo recalled: "So I formed a band called the Hippy Boys. That was the great Family Man and his brother Carlton Barrett ... and Alva Lewis and Glen Adams." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105. The Rough Guide says they were based in Greenwich Farm. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105. Katz gives two accounts: Aston Barrett "joined the club act the Hippy Boys in the mid-1960s, backing the singer Max Romeo," and the band took shape from a 1968 Bunny Lee session with Glen Adams and the Barretts that produced Stranger Cole's "Bangarang": David Katz, "Aston 'Family Man' Barrett Obituary," Guardian, February 4, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/04/aston-family-man-barrett; David Katz, "Glen Adams Obituary," Guardian, January 6, 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jan/06/glen-adams-obituary. The 2006 High Court judgment has the Barretts forming the band in 1967: Barrett v. Universal-Island Records Ltd. and Others, [2006] EWHC 1009 (Ch), May 15, 2006, https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/ch/2006/1009, para. 18.
  3. Bradley describes the Hippy Boys as "an instrumental quartet" of "the Barrett brothers, Glen Adams and Reggie Lewis." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 226.
  4. "The Hippy Boys," Reggae Record, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.reggaerecord.com/en/content/featured_artist.php?id=710.
  5. Romeo says the band's first record was "Dr No Go." The Rough Guide says Sonia Pottinger's instrumentals were "often credited to the Hippy Boys" and that the band had recorded for Bunny Lee, Pottinger, and Lloyd Daley before working with Perry. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 105, 128. Bradley also lists them among Joe Gibbs's acts. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 226.
  6. Bradley says "Return of Django" stood at number 5 on the British chart of November 15, 1969. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 242. Dave Barker recalled that Perry came home from a tour of England, "I think it was about four weeks," with a new Rover. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 340.
  7. Bradley says Perry's session pool "settled down from the group pianist Gladstone Anderson used to organize for him," with Winston Wright, Clifton Jackson, and Lloyd Adams, "to what became the Upsetters." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 227. Sleeper says the original Upsetters "were unable to commit to the tour," so Perry took the Hippy Boys, who appeared on Top of the Pops. Mick Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams," United Reggae, January 4, 2011, https://unitedreggae.com/articles/n543/010411/tribute-to-glen-adams. Katz confirms that the Barretts toured Britain with the Upsetters in November 1969 "despite not having played on the record itself": Katz, "Barrett Obituary."
  8. Sleeper names "Small Axe," "Duppy Conqueror," and "400 Years" among the Perry-Wailers sessions. Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams." Barker, who sang at those sessions, describes "Family Man 'pon the bass" and Carlton on drums. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 339.
  9. Sleeper says the Upsetters split in 1972 "when the Barrett brothers became a permanent part of the Wailers band," and that Adams later settled in Brooklyn. Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams."
  10. Sleeper says Adams and Lewis sang as the Reggae Boys and the Soul Mates. Sleeper, "Tribute to Glen Adams."

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