It’s been almost 30 years ago since deejay Major Mackerel hit the charts with Pretty Looks Done and Dutty Bungle. After a 15-year break, he is on the comeback trail.

Mackerel, 46, has recently performed on local shows and released new songs such as Truckback Productions’ Live it Up, Pepperpot and Gyal a Road.

The question is: Does he bring anything new to the table after all these years?

“Nothing has changed much about me except that I have gotten older and uglier. My job is to entertain and variety is the spice of life, so from time I will be mixing the old with the new,” he says.

Mackerel says while it is not difficult getting airplay for his new songs, it is not as easy as his heyday in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Back in the days the producers were solely responsible for promoting and getting the song out there. Now every dance I attend it is the

artiste that I see with their CDs issuing them out or trying to get it

to a selector to play,” he says.

It is not the only thing that has changed. Mackerel observed that there is a decline in major shows and he blames this partially on artiste demands.

“They need to drop their prices, this way more promoters will come on

board and keep more shows. Imagine an artiste charging $700,000

for a 15-minute performance!”

Major Mackerel has a lot of dancehall mileage under his belt. He emerged on the dancehall scene in 1978 and is best known for hits like Pretty Looks Done, Sorry Fi Both and Cow Cod.

Since the late 1990s, he has resided in New York City with his family. In 2009, he made headlines worldwide but not for his music.

Mackerel was the victim of a vicious attack that left him nursing wounds inflicted by a man wielding a Samurai sword.

According to reports from police in New York, the artiste was slashed across the head and hand in a fight outside his East Flatbush home by a jealous husband.

Besides new recordings, Major Mackerel says he is preparing for summer shows in Europe and Japan.