MAY PEN, Clarendon – On Saturday, Lloyd Palmer celebrated two significant events in his life – his 70th birthday and his second wedding anniversary along with wife Rita, with whom he has shared a 38-year union.

Come Saturday, March 30, Palmer will celebrate yet again.

He will be honoured by the organisers of the Clarendon Music Awards (CMA) for his contribution to “community development”. No, Palmer is not a musician. He is a barber.

As CMA’s promoter David ‘Temperature’ Anderson explained: “Mr Palmer has trimmed a lot artistes over the years” and in keeping with this year’s sub-theme: music, hair and fashion, paying homage to the man who is said to be the oldest and longest serving barber in this central Jamaica town was seen as fitting.

“Lloyd is not nominated in any of the categories, but he will be given a special award,” Anderson said. “He’s being cutting hair for the past 50 years, so we just thought that it will be good to highlight him because (his work) is a part of community development,” he added.

Here in May Pen, Palmer is known as the ‘Godfather of barbering’, after

him, the 50-year milestone would have gone unnoticed, but those who have benefitted from Palmer’s tutelage over the years weren’t about to let it slide.

“Mr P is the real Godfather in the business,” said Milton ‘Carrot’ Solan, a barber, trained by Palmer, years ago. “A him give me my big break in a May Pen. As a youngster you can go to him and (he will) give you some give advice just like a father,” Solan added.

On March 30, Palmer won’t be the only CMA awardee without a direct link to

the music industry. The CMA will also be laying out the ‘red carpet’ for those people including local fashion designers and hair stylists who make an indirect contribution to music.

“The whole concept of Clarendon Music Awards is to highlight and applaud veteran and upcoming artistes from Clarendon, but not only artistes because we also cover dance … and drama. This year, we thought it would be good to broaden our horizon, so that we can acknowledge a lot more people because when you look at it, everything link to entertainment,” explained Anderson.

“Why hair? A lot of people will be coming to Clarendon Music Awards will get their hair done by talented hairdressers and their clothes make b dressmakers and tailors,” she said.

The additional categories, reflects the growth of an event that’s only three years old, explained Anderson, a songwriter and former information technology teacher at May Pen High School.

” … the event is growing so we are expecting the third year to be much bigger,” he added.

Recording artistes I-Octane, Coco-Tea, Barrington Levy, Merciless, Silver Cat and Denno are among the most recognisable names up for awards in some 41 categories.

“Last year, it was about 30 categories, but this year we have broadened, so

in addition to Artiste of the Year, Venue of the Year and New Venue of the Year, there’s also Party of the Year because Clarendon has a lot of parties, Best Fashion Designer, Best Hairdresser, Dance Group of the Year and also Fashion Icon of the Year,” Anderson said.

“In order to vote for anyone of the enominees you can go to our website, www.clarendonmusicawards.com,” he added.

This year’s event will held at The Village (Old Police Station) in May Pen, which Anderson said is a part of a number of changes.

“We have actually changed the whole setting for this year,” he said, “It’s really a ‘party edition’, so awards will be given out during intermissions.

It’s an award ceremony with performances; not a stage show, but we will have a stage.

Anderson said the economic recession had influenced a reduction of ticket prices with a minimum charge of $500 for “standing” patrons.