Western Jamaica turned out in its numbers on August 16 for Extoll “Dirty Harry” Earle’s thanksgiving service at Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St James.
Founder of the popular Ticka Music sound system, he died on June 28, three weeks after suffering a stroke.
Earle started Ticka Music in 1974 while still a student at Cornwall College, and helped make it the leading sound system in western Jamaica.
Neville Thompson of Buffalo Music Production travelled from South Florida to bid farewell to his friend of over 50 years. He said theirs was a lasting bond.
“Ticka was a loving youth, whenever or wherever we link the first thing he would say to me is, ‘High Priest, yuh good’? Ticka was a musical magician when playing the sound system, even if you were lame, whenever he played a certain tune the crowd goes wild,” Thompson told the Jamaica Observer.
Joining Earle’s relatives and friends at the service was Horace Chang, Jamaica’s deputy prime minister, minister of national security, and Member of Parliament for St James North Western; Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon; and Dr Andre Haughton, the People’s National Party candidate for St James West Central.
Steve “Junior Smiley” Campbell, a long-time member of the Ticka Music crew, described Earle as, “Di greatest, God blessed, clean heart. Him was loved by everyone.”
Ticka Music started out playing house parties and school events in St James. As Earle and his team became more established, they were one of the sound systems which played at Reggae Sunsplash, held at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.
During the early 1980s, Ticka Music shared the bill with many Kingston ‘sounds’, including Volcano and Stur Gav at Cornwall Beach, also located in the tourist resort. Those events attracted top dancehall acts such as Frankie Paul and Little John.
A keen footballer, Earle played as a striker for Cornwall College in the daCosta Cup during the 1970s and at the parish level with Hornets FC in St James.
Extoll “Ticka” Earle is survived by his widow Rosie, three children, four sisters, and one brother.