Pad Anthony

Email: [email protected]

Born Hartley Anthony Wallace.
He was from a musical family; his brothers were part of a group called Rags and Riches who won the 1976 festival song competition entitled “Big Heel Boot and Bellfoot Pants” with late, great Freddie McKay.

After moving to the Waterhouse district in Kingston, he started singing on local sound systems and eventually performed an audition at the Channel One recording studios, run by Joe Joe Hookim. His first recording was two cover versions, one by the late, great Alton Ellis entitled “Blackman’s World” and Ray Charles’ “Crying Time”. His first two hits were “See Them A Come” and “Champion Bubbler”, both on the Sunset label, responsible for also producing early hits from Half Pint. After that point, Anthony was picked up by King Jammys, recording numerous hits with the King and singing over the immensely popular sound system of the same name over the course of the mid-to-late 1980s.

Pad Anthony is most well-known for his “soundboy” tunes (45 records which a rival sound system is called to task) and his recording of dubplates for all top tier sound systems, in both Yard and abroad.