MADOO BIOGRAFIA

Biography

Osbert Madoo (a.k.a Maddo, the Bionic Singer, Papa Madoo - he is not to be confused with his brother UU Madoo) was brought up in Easter Kingston. He went to the legendary Alpha Boys Primary School and then to Excelsior high school. As a youth, he and his brother UU Madoo used to listen to Sound Systems such as Sir Stanford (who shared the same tenement yard at homestead rd.), Sir Norman (that was across the gully),Arrows (from Dunkirk) and Phase 1. The sound Sir Stanford with who he used to sing initally transformed to Stylistics (Madoo's favourite singing group at the time) and a man called Danhai became the owner and DJ.

Madoo stated that he was singing all the time but only in public when under the pressure of friends in school or at home (from who he had a great encourage).

One evening, in '77, his friends Michael and Scarley decided that they should stop by the soundStereophonic to meet their friend Donovan who was working with the sound. While there Madoos friend Scarley dared the deejay Welton Irie to give Madoo the microphone. The singer then sung a few songs (such as Skylarking by Horace Andy - Madoos favourite singer and also the one he based his singing style on). He was then asked to perform the following weekend and he was soon a resident singer on the sound.

Welton later left the sound for Gemini Disco. It was the Madoo and Colonel Flux who covered the dances until General Echo joined. When General Echo joined the sound he and Madoo sparred together greatly and became a major attraction for the crowd.

Joe Gibbs who heard Madoo on some sound tapes decided he wanted to recorded the singer who claimed he was singing in a dancehall style, since his lyrics both could be chatted and sung. At Joe Gibbs he met Errol Thompson who was already familiar with the singer since Madoo had sung on a lot of amateur shows with the We The People Band who was the recording band. When at Gibbs the decided to record Madoo in the middle of a Dennis Brown session. He recorded the songs »Jamming So«, »Joe Grine« and »Landlord«.

At this time Madoos was singing for both Stereophonic and Virgo - the former a down town disco and the latter an up town. His brother, having the similar dancehall name UU Madoo, started to sing for Gemini.

In 1981 an album was released with several of Madoos singles on the D Music label. It was called Rock With Papa Madoo - according to Madoo this was a bootleg. In 1982 the album You Turn Me On was released for Tony Shabazz. In the mean time UU Madoo started to perform his brothers songs on live sessions.

In 1983 Madoo relocated to the USA.

Name confusion

It was when Madoo relocated to the states that the confusion started between his brother and him. Old tapes started to label Osbert Madoo as UU Madoo and UU Madoo himself would often be referred to as simply Madoo.

There was also a singer known as Badoo that isn't to be confused with Madoo. According to Madoo he was a singer from the north coast who collaborated extensively with the deejay Errol Scorcher and would pirate the combination style of Echo and Madoo. Badoo supposedly once signed a contract with a promoter as the singer Madoo.

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