Segment: No Community, Just Survival - Our Generation Worked and Sent Money Back Home

0:00What were you doing on the streets? I remember moving from chip shop to chip shop arcades. You know, it's one or two places that were just random places going to friends house, friends that were not even in school as well. And the little time, most would be, the other time you see me in school is maybe school lunchtime when we play football, then I'll go because everybody wants me to be on the side. So again, that was the only time I even go to school. Just lunchtime, just to play football, then we're not going to the class. So, you know, they became a time to say to that, I really want to be a footballer. And in fact, he helped me. Wow, yeah, he helped me, he started writing letters to various clubs to give me trials, a coach or a football club or a football club, Arsenal Football Club, because we did close up to Arsenal, KPR, it's quite, most of the London teams, my father actually wrote letters, posted letters for me to get trials, and majority of them we did get response back. You know, so this is something that he did for me. And I was appreciative so much.

1:01I remember, you know, one time even I had trials at the Queensborough in the year of 1986, and that was one of the cold winters in the UK. My father will come with me at eight o'clock in the morning all the way to Ciciclec, standing there in his jacket. All that memories, I'm like, wow, Daddy, you just did that for me? Yeah. I mean, with what? 14 siblings? Yeah, one number way, are you in the list of siblings? Think I'm number gosh, number 11. Okay. Yeah, I'm number 11. Okay. Yeah. My siblings are gonna kill me if I don't do that. Did dad have time for every other sibling just as he did? He did. That had time and he fought about each and every one of us. You won't say that way, but yes, that had time for everybody. Every one of us, I'm saying, if I sit down here and think how 14 siblings ended up in the United Kingdom, that's not three or four or 14 of us, ended up together in the United Kingdom, and not only just being in the United Kingdom, giving us the opportunity to go to school, to prepare for our education.

2:02But then, okay, so the time you finally dropped out, when did you realize that now football is not actually going to work? When I was, I got, actually, I got to, I'm not, I'm not good enough to be a footballer. I was, I was a very, I'm gonna just cook sign what you called YTS form. At the time, YTS meaning youth training scheme with one football club. And that's what we've prepared of two years. And the final year, I just called into the office by one, Mr. Tom Wally, that I can't forget his name. And I need to say, you know what we're looking for? The journey ends here, just like that. How do we do at the time? I think 14, 14, yeah, yeah, 14. How did you feel? I think I was, I wasn't old enough to understand what was actually happening to me in terms of, I was disappointed, yeah, but I was also thinking there's gonna be another chance somewhere else, yeah. Honestly, I was that good of a footballer. I believe that I could again on a chance somewhere else. So from 14 to 18, what happened? I started working, actually, after that,

3:03I worked in McDonald's, yeah. I was in my first job, my first job was I also put in paper runs, just delivering newspapers in the morning and in seven pounds a week. While you were still in school, wasn't still in school, yeah, yeah. Most, most young boys at that time were doing that, you know, delivering newspapers, yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, after that, I started working in McDonald's, and I want to started earning some money. I decided to start buying records with the money I was earning it for McDonald's, because I was in pain rates, obviously, pain rates, so just, I was just using the money. It wasn't a lot, but... So there are some of our, our parents, a lot of my parents are gonna be watching this, right? And they probably run the same age as you, and then they are thinking, you know, what, like I was alive, they are reminiscing about how life was, those times, you know, talking about the newspapers, and it being so cold, I think those times used to be really cold in life. Very cold, yeah. And the sort of life you had as a young person there. What was one of the most beautiful memories

4:03between that age of 14 and 18? It's a freedom, that you had a freedom. You didn't, you had no response, you know, you're not responsible to anything. You know, that freedom that I had, no bills to pay, nothing to worry about. You don't worry about sending money back home. I don't even think there was no mobile phone for you to worry about anybody calling you, that the freedom of that time was beautiful, you know, not responsibility. Then how did you use to stay in touch with some of your friends back home in Ghana? I never, I never did. I never, until I came back to Ghana, I never had any connection with any of my friends. Okay, tonight I've met money from, like, Don't know, it's so small money. Small money, yeah. Now, took me through the first venture, you decided to start. I started to buy equipment. It's got equipment because I did like music at a time. Even while I was in Ghana, where we were living in the suit, we were surrounded by two nightclubs. So obviously, right in the middle of two nightclubs, every night you just hear music, play music. So I was into music. So I started buying musical equipment, little speakers, little amplifiers here and there.

5:04And then obviously I was buying records as well, you know, to play just for myself, just to own something. Yeah. So that's what most of my money went on. What was the plan behind all those days? Just for me, just for me to have it as myself, something to do, it was, I had no vision, I didn't know what it was gonna lead up to. During those times as a young and 18-year-old or 17, let me just take it back to 17, 17-year-old in London, what were some of the activities that a lot of black people used to do within our community? There wasn't a lot. I mean, there wasn't a lot we could have done, except I'm going to youth clubs. You know, those days youth clubs were very, very popular. Or hanging out with friends on the street. No, no community hangouts, like... No, no, Ghanaians coming together. No, no, that wasn't there. No Ghanaian nightclubs, no Ghanaian restaurants. No, why? Is that generation was not ready for that? Or that generation was inmate to that? In fact, that generation was, the generation that's coming to the diaspora work and send money back home. That's what it was like, you know, people were doing morning cleaning, people were working as nurses and whatever is,

6:05just working and sending back home, money back home. So it wasn't about building, what we have now, we have various nightclubs, we have village, very strong, we have various sports places to go. That wasn't the case at that time. So, how many tea hangouts was not? In fact, the community hangout I remember was either you're going to church with your parents or it's a funeral. And you're following your parents, you're going to that. That to me was more of a hangout. So there was no like, where we have today. You guys just indoors, outdoor, playing football, just activities, youth clubs, church, funeral. That was it. That was it. All right. Church and funerals played a major part and a lot of us growing up back there. When we all know about Ghanaian, other is a funeral, it's also... It's a party. Yeah, yeah. So it's okay. Yeah. But then what was the transition from that to becoming a DJ? I had a very good friend of mine called Moscom. Moscom was a very good friend and he was a DJ as well. But not only just a DJ, Moscom was also a producer. He was producing for one or two UK artists at the time.

7:08So in one of our meetings, I remember going to his house and I saw him with all his equipment like they had the technist and table, the sun, the mixer, the microphone, everything else. And he was doing his friend. So I was just trying to say, look, Mos, teach me, I want to be a DJ. Because I was buying a equipment, but I was just buying it for myself. But then after seeing what he's done in the set up, I said to him, look, I'm going to be a DJ. So teach me. So that's how I got Lennart to be a DJ through Moscom. Who was the same person as well? Between Moscom. I managed to take me to a group of guys, which leads to my next discussion, which is 90% of his squad, whereby there was at the time, there was four Ganyan guys, which grew up to be six Ganyan guys. We decided to come together. All our equipment, let's put our equipment together and start renting out to various people to use our equipment. For three of us. Three of us. And also for parties, I mean, back in the day, at that time, one of the biggest music scene at the time

8:08was a music squad, acid house. I said, like that. I said, yeah. Okay. Acid house was the biggest thing at that time. It was the biggest thing we could, we, you know, it was driving the UK, you know, the UK dance scene was crazy. You go to places, you used to be a place in Kinshkow's called Party Studios. You know, so we used to take equipment there for them. Most promoters that we do in acid house music will rent an empty warehouse and they need equipment. Connected mine's podcast.