"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to our very special Barbados Beach Club Caberet!"
The voice is as rich and sincere as it was 50 years ago. The smile is still filled with laughter, and the eyes are as bright as the stars. And though he limps due to the ravages of diabetes (he wears a prosthetic left leg), he is as dapper as ever, wearing a red blazer with a stylish, red-and-white butterfly-collar shirt and jet black pants.
And then - with coconut trees a-swaying in the hug of the breezy night - the 'Bajan Godfather of Music' starts to sing. Tonight his first tune is one of Sparrow's best known calypsos - "Jean and Dina" - and the audience is taken away into a Caribbean musical wonderland.
This Maestro is none other that Lord Radio.
Born Oliver Brome in the northern fishing village of Speightstown - once a bustling whaling station - Lord Radio most probably came into this world singing. "We've been calling him Lord Radio since the time we were children running up and down the streets of Speightstown," recalls his boyhood friend, Errol. "For as long as I can remember, Lord Radio has been playing a banjo and singing. That was our entertainment as children."
Indeed, it has been 54 years that Lord Radio has been performing for his fans, many of whom are tourists. He has also managed many of the island's top hotel bands, and his contribution to the industry cannot be overstated.
"I was the first to take calypso into the hotels", he says in his humble yet matter-of-fact way of speaking. "You see, back in the old days I used to play my banjo in (the Bridgetown districts of) Swan Street and Baxter's Road, but then I would also play just outside of the hotels as well." He remembers that the once very popular Paradise Beach Club was one of the first to invite him to play on their stage. And the rest, as they say, is history.
"Back in the 1960's we would play for a shilling", he recalls, "and I can also remember playing for $3.00 and $4.00 a night at some of the best discos like the Club Morgan and the Coconut Creek Club Disco".
Today, the richness of his voice continues and not a beat has been missed. He has performed all over Canada, America, Europe and the Caribbean, and has even represented his island-home at the 1967 World Expo in Canada.
And tonight he fittingly closes his performance with a tropical version of Frank Sinatra's "I Did It My Way."
Lord Radio - still belting out the sweet, sweet tunes of the Caribbean.
Article written in 2006 by Katy Gash and compliments of "Ins and Outs of Barbados" Magazine
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