The In Crowd

If ever a reggae band had inconsequential beginnings it was the In Crowd. Its origins began in the late 1960’s with Filberto Callender, a native of the Cayman Islands, pulling together a showband style group to entertain along the burgeoning tourist strip of hotels on Jamaica’s sun-drenched coast. Soul, pop, old standards and reggae were the order of the day ‘ as long as the rich and ready-to-spend tourists were happy the band would play on.

Professionalism was the key word according to Fil Callender, as he sought to establish a tight, polished group easily able to provide tinkling cocktail-jazz one minute and to step-out with a classy rendition of the latest raucous Tamla hit the next. But Fil had a hidden talent.  When he wasn’t heading-up his lightweight Byron Lee style tourist band he was recording for Clement Dodd at the number one studio ‘ Studio One.

Fil was Coxson’s resident session drummer and had the privilege of playing on the Abyssinians’ original ‘Satta’, along with many other foundation tracks by groups like the Heptones. Fil was late for the session one day and unbeknown to the Coxson engineer Sylvan Morris, a young printer by the name of Leroy Wallace had slipped into the booth and was laying down a fearsome drum pattern. So good was ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace that Fil was relegated to session guitar. Undeterred, Fil went on to provide guitar on seminal recording such as the first Burning Spear sessions, with Errol Walker aka Earl ‘Bagga’ Walker on bass and Horsemouth ruling the drum kit.

The In Crowd had become a tight and cohesive group by the early 1970’s due to their constant hotel work, with their first name check being as the flip-side backing band to the Cables ‘Mixing’, issued on Trojan’s Duke label in 1971. Trojan had issued a single on their Spinning Wheel offshoot credited to the In Crowd in 1970, ‘Bush Jacket’/’Soul Face’, although it’s unlikely that it was the Fil Callender lead group, particularly the flipside which had a distinct Upsetter air to it. They then popped up again as the band behind a late Duke Reid recording of Pat Kelly singing ‘Baby Come On Home’ from 1973.

1975 found producer Geoffrey Chung using the In Crowd name, but not the group, for ‘Mango Walk’, a record that leaned heavily on the Mandrill 1973 funk hit ‘Mango Meat’. While another producer Clive Hunt, wrote and issued ‘Milk and Honey’ and ‘Bitter Sweet’ under the In Crowd name, but it was basically Hunt alone playing all the instruments and providing the vocals. ‘Milk and Honey’ is best remembered by Dennis Brown‘s definitive rendition on his magnificent ‘Visions’ album for Joe Gibbs.

The first bona-fide In Crowd record to appear was late in 1976 on Fil’s own Evolution label, ‘Born In Ethiopia’, where the group wasn’t just a backing band, but a full-on roots outfit. With a strident opening horn blast to the smoothly sung ‘praise to Africa’ lyrics, a new voice had appeared on the red, gold and green horizon. Surprisingly, although it was a much favoured record it didn’t show in the Black Music magazine pre-release charts and when the UK based Creole/Cactus label picked it up for local issue early in 1977 it didn’t crop up in the release charts either.

It took the sweeter and more melodic follow up, ‘His Majesty Is Coming’ to make the record buyers purchase in quantities high enough to clock a placing in the BM Pre chart in January 1977 where it appeared at number 4, again on Fil’s own Evolution label. Creole/Cactus nabbed it and took it to the second spot in the BM release chart of June of the same year. This was to be the start of the In Crowd’s three-year run of high quality hits.

The less satisfying ‘We Play Reggae’ came next hitting the top spot in BM’s Pre chart in September 1977, with the Cactus release duplicating the achievement in November of the same year. This was followed up by their most loved and still played record, the gently wistful ‘Back A Yard’ which shot straight to number 6 in the BM Pre chart in April 1978, with the Cactus release duplicating the feat the following month and running on to one off the top the following month. In June 1978, with no fanfare whatsoever, an album appeared: ‘His Majesty Is Coming’, on the Cactus label, and finally some information on the band was available via the credits on the sleeve back.

Although the In Crowd were now major contenders in the pre and release charts, no interviews, snippets of information or pictures had arrived from Jamaica and the band were an unknown quantity beyond their excellent recordings. The sleeve back revealed that Fil’s old Studio One contemporary, Errol Walker was on board supplying lead vocals alongside Fil and drummer Cleaveland Browne (who went on to become the ‘Clevie’ of the late 80’s rhythm pair Steely & Clevie). Beyond that the members were unknown names to the reggae buying public, although their professionalism and talent was without question.

One name appeared which was to crop up through the rest of the In Crowd and Fil’s career, Phil Mathias, who was thanked for his assistance in the recording of the album. Mathias, through his association with the Review label both in Jamaica and London (where it was part of the Creole group) was to issue and reissue some of the In Crowd’s work through the 1980’s.

BM’s resident reggae reviewer Chris May, presented the album with four stars in the July issue commenting, ‘Anyone expecting an album with any one sort of feel will be disappointed. There’s a bit of everything: dance songs, message songs, ‘religious’ songs, most of them excellent’. He continued the praise with, ” the scope and depth of the song writing and arranging marks the transition of (the) In Crowd from a dance band to a show band’.

‘A Little Bit Of Reggae’ came next and didn’t cause many ripples in the reggae market, unlike ‘Riding High’, which shot top number 5 in the 12″ chart in October 1978, while still on the imported Review label. Creole issued it on their Savannah label in February 1979, but it was too late to make much impact as sales had been moped-up by the heavily imported Jamaican release.

Creole had also issued the 12″ of ‘Baby My Love’ on their Cactus imprint, in the December of the previous year, with the first copies being housed in Jamaican printed custom sleeves. It was credited to Fil Callender alone, although without doubt the In Crowd provided all the musical backing. ‘Baby My Love’ was a tour de force of Fil’s song writing and the sweet song fitted his soothing voice to a tee. Complete with a fiery Jah Stitch DJ piece after the song, and trombone version on the flip provided by In Crowd member Barry Bailey, the record was a substantial seller and remains one of Fil’s most remembered pieces of work.

Next came a double-sided 12″ ‘It’s Late’ c/w ‘Island Music’ which crept to the number 3 spot in October 1979, although BM’s Chris May wasn’t too keen on the flip-side calling it, ‘inconsequential cocktail jazz/funk stuff’rather bland’.

In a surprising move, Island Records released an In Crowd album, ‘Man From New Guinea’, in November 1979. The album contained three tracks from their previous long player, ‘We Play Reggae’, ‘His Majesty Is Coming’ and ‘Back A Yard’ along with six new tracks, one of which had already been issued a Weed Beat import 12″: ‘Marcus Garvey’s Back In Town’ (originally backed with another In Crowd classic, ‘Getting Cozy’.

‘Man From New Guinea’ marked an end to the hit making In Crowd, with Fil’s name appearing as a solo artist from then on with tracks like ‘Rub A Dub Time’ and ‘Life’, both which were issued in 1981 as a double sided 12″. Whether the band were still with him by this time is unknown. Certainly some of the group had progressed to other projects like ‘Bagga’ Walker who had become an in demand bass player, and Clevie Browne who was touring in Freddie McGregor‘s band.

What would appear to be Fil’s final releases were both produced by Phil Mathias and issued on the tiny London based Smokey imprint in 1982. ‘Honey Bee’ and ‘Add A Little Light’ disappeared without trace which was a crime, particularly with ‘Add..’ as it was top draw Fil Callender material with a strong message lyric sweetened by his subtle and understated singing. Comparisons have to be made with the Mizell Brothers‘ US Blue Note productions of the mid 1970’s with swirling keyboards and breathy vocals at the start of ‘Add..’, and one wonders how much the In Crowd’s hotel circuit work had instilled a love for soul and jazz in their hearts.

So Fil and his In Crowd had come full circle playing soul to tourists, then reggae to the roots crowd. During their heyday, it could be said that they were an incredible band that succeeded in regularly scaling the reggae charts throughout the late 1970’s with little or no publicity, and relying solely on the sheer quality of their performance.

In recent years there have been numerous rumours of a reunion, but regardless of whether or not they prove  true, we still at least able to enjoy and relish the superb music they created when they were widely regarded as one of the most talented and versatile group’s on the Jamaican music ecene.

MICHAEL DE KONINGH