IT’S been 43 years since the Arrows International and Emperor Faith sound systems squared off at Student Union at The University of the West Indies’ Mona campus. Tomorrow they renew rivalry at House of Saphire in the Constant Spring area of St Andrew.

According to Michael “Mikey Faith” Martin, owner of Emperor Faith, it will be a good, old-fashioned, throw-down clash.

“It going be decent; no obscenities or anything negative. But him a come fi drop me an’ me a come fi drop him,” he told Splash.

Martin launched Emperor Faith in 1967. Along with Arrows International, it was among the top ‘sounds’ of the 1970s.

Ivan “Sonny” Linton, who started Arrows International with his younger brother Phillip “Bill” Linton in the late 1960s, will be at the controls. Bill, who ran the Arrows recording and dub studio on Windward Road in east Kingston for many years, was murdered in 2004.

The two sound systems first clashed in 1972 at Third Avenue in Martin’s old neighbourhood of Vineyard Town, east Kingston, in 1972. Two years later, according to Martin, they met at The UWI with Emperor Faith coming out on top on both occasions.

Tomorrow’s format hears the competitors playing alternately for one hour before a winner is declared. Most of the songs will be by grass-roots singers from the 1970s and 1980s.

— Howard Campbell