Entertainment

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Jamaicans knew of Dominick in his deejay mode, but when Peter Metro met him he was working as a journalist, writing about music rather than performing it.

"I did a show in Brixton Academy one night. Him a do some journalist work for a company - all now. At the time me meet him, him tell me him a deejay. Me tell him him fi come Jamaica if him waan buss," Metro recalled.

Metro returned to Jamaica and did not have any contact with Dominick, then encountered him by chance one night in Gemini Club on Half-Way Tree Road, St Andrew. It was about 1984 and Dominick had come for a visit, just to experience Jamaica but not necessarily deejay. "Him fly out and call me and say him want to come (back). Me say come," Metro said.

And Dominick did, in 1985. Metro took him under his wing, reminding The Sunday Gleaner "them time me hot. A me a run Jamaica". So Dominick started working on Metromedia sound system, from which Peter Metro got his name, receiving a weekly salary as well. Peter Metro said in those days he was paid $400 a night, this at a time when a tin of condensed milk cost $30 to $35 and the US-dollar exchange rate was $5.50 to $1.

Dominick's most popular record was Boy George, which protested "who seh Dominick fava Boy George" and went on to list the things that Boy George did sexually that Dominick did not.

'Cockney and yardie'

Dominick eventually went back to England and visited Jamaica rarely. White deejays were no longer a novelty and with more Jamaicans travelling, the British accent is much more familiar than it once was, but Peter Metro said Cockney and Yardie has retained its appeal.

Dominick made a trip to Jamaica in December 2008 and Peter Metro said they performed the song to very good response at 'Road March' in Clarendon and a few small shows in the Corporate Area including Arnett Gardens. Dominick stayed about four weeks, Peter Metro said, but they did not do any recordings together.

"Me nuh know why it never come cross. Me did jus' glad fi see Dominick after so much years," he said.