Childhood, for some, is remembered as the happiest time of life. Even if you grew up in a third world, you were blissfully unaware of your plight and never missed the material things the more “fortunate” counterparts took for granted. You played on the streets, climbed trees, plunged into the murky creeks and ran ba****ck in the pouring rain. You never worried about racism or politics or global wa
rming. You went to school, fell in love with the girl in the seat in front so you pulled her plaits. The wave of migration took a handful of us and scattered us around the planet. Now in our older years, left us craving a taste of what we once called home. Landed wherever we did, amidst strange culture, people and stranger cuisines, we did whatever we needed to swim or sink. We never lost that longing for that time. The Guyanese Kelvin A aka Dj Kman is one of us who built a music collection to feed that craving that we carry in our parched souls. Memory, they say, is triggered by sight, sound and smell, among others. Music is one such trigger and Kelvin knew that the local radio stations were doing nothing to keep his precious time capsule of boyhood memories. So many of Guyanese, and other Caribbean nationalities were caught in the rat race. Kelvin’s love for music made him socially oriented to help his fellow immigrants and so, in 2004, drawing on his naturally strong roots, rich cultural background – he combined his expertise as a DJ, together with ingredients that would trigger memories of happy childhood and Pepperpot Radio was born. During these sweet 20 years, Pepperpot Radio has taken us back to where we were happy, made us remember to jam, wine and smile to Dave Martins and The Tradewinds, Byron lee and The Dragonaires , The Mighty Sparrow, Lord Kitchener, The Merrymen, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Ken Lazarus, Pluto Shivraton, Eddy Grant, Mystic, Eddy Neblett, Wendy Alleyne, Tony Ricardo, and many more! If there is a song that is capable of taking you back to that moment when you fell in love for the first time, when your legs were covered by mosquitoes as you stand doing the dishes outside at the standpipe; or memories of teenage you waving goodbye to friends you would never see again; if that song exists, you will surely hear it on Pepperpot Radio.
