Chris Gibbs, the renowned bass guitarist, vocalist, and founding member of the legendary band the Merrymen, died early on Tuesday morning at his home after a battle with cancer, prompting tributes from across the island’s music and cultural community.
Together with tenor guitarist Robin Hunte and lead vocalist and guitarist Charles Emile Straker, Gibbs formed the Merrymen in 1962. Renowned for their infectious troubadour-style blend of calypso, folk, and Caribbean rhythms the group helped introduce the world to the sound of Barbados.
Gibbs was celebrated not only for his five-decade musical career but also as a champion watersports athlete who, in 2003, became the first Caribbean national to swim the English Channel.
Hunte died ten years ago from cancer.
Gibbs’ younger brother, Roger said the family had tried to prepare for his 80-year-old sibling’s passing, considering the illness he was experiencing.
“He was easy-going, he was the strength in the family,” Gibbs told Barbados TODAY in a brief telephone interview from his home in Canada.
Peter Roett, who joined the iconic band in 1976 as drummer and percussionist, was still trying to come to terms with the death of his lifelong friend and fellow musician.
“There were five members of the Merrymen since 1976 and now two have gone. I need time to process all of that. As I have told you, five members of the Merrymen since 1976: Emile Straker, Robin Hunte, Chris Gibbs, Willie Kerr and Peter Roett, that’s me,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“He was a unique bass player with impeccable timing. When I joined in 1976, and soca music came into play, bass and drums were the engine room of the band. So, we became the foundation of the band.
“He was really an incredible person overall. He had a determination as it came to life when he swam the English Channel,” Roett said of Gibbs, a champion swimmer who, in late August 2003, at the age of 58, became one of the few to cross the Channel from England to France in 11 hours and 30 minutes.
John Roett, who was a session musician with the Merrymen, said he was impressed with the way Chris Gibbs worked in the studio.
“He had a calm persona. He was like the rock of the band. He was the grounding personality of the band. Very, very calm and focused. He was one of those people who knew what to play, and how much to play, and how much not to play,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“Phil Brito, a great saxophonist, when I was coming up as a young boy, told me ‘what you don’t play is just as important as what you do play’. It took me three days to understand what he had meant, but Chris understood that inherently. And he and Peter, as far as the Merrymen go, as far as drums and bass, they locked in like a drum machine.”
He further described Gibbs, his wife’s cousin, as a “nice and genuine person”.
“He had beaten cancer and then he had a fall when he was riding. He hit a pothole and fell off and then realised the cancer had come back aggressively. But he did not die in pain. That was the one saving grace — he was not in pain. He will be sadly missed,” John Roett said.
Another ambassador for Barbadian music and culture, Dr Anthony Mighty Gabby Carter, said he knew Gibbs very well, recalling that it was Gibbs who engineered his first studio recording. Together with Emile Straker and Robin Hunte, Gibbs formed REC recording studio and record label, recording a who’s who in Bajan entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s.
Gabby told Barbados TODAY: “I admired his music, and mostly, the man himself. I do not know any human being who can say they ever saw Chris angry or cursing anybody or behaving in any derogatory fashion. He was a real gentleman.”
Gabby also remembered him as one of the few swimmers who could perform a sprint as well as a long distance, and recalled him as a top water polo and domino player.
“Chris has done a lot for Barbados being a member of the Merrymen and also as a human being. He was just a really wonderful person,” he said
In a statement issued on Tuesday night, the National Cultural Foundation expressed profound sadness at Gibbs’ passing. (EJ)
The post Founding member of the Merrymen dies at 80 appeared first on Barbados Today.
