Merciless’s funeral for Sept 17
THE thanksgiving service for the life of dancehall deejay Merciless is scheduled for St Gabriel’s Anglican Church Hall on Church Street in May Pen, Clarendon, on Saturday, September 17, 2022.
Start time is slated for 10:00 am. Interment follows in a family plot in Clarendon.
The funeral in Clarendon will be handled by Audrey E Williams Funeral Services.
“We’re trying to put the details of the colour scheme together. I know there are going to be tributes from artistes but the family is still in the process of putting everything together,” said Audrey Williams, the funeral director in charge of the burial.
“Merciless’s funeral will be tastefully done. I know his music, I listened to his songs, but I am not a fan of fast music. I know some of the words and all that; my favourite is Mama’s Cooking because it is plain and straight,” Williams continued.
The burial will cap a three-day celebration of the deejay’s life.
On the night of Thursday, September 15, the festivities will kick off with a ‘set up’ at Mixing Lab on Dumbarton Avenue in St Andrew where Stone Love sound system will hold centre stage. Artistes and selectors are expected to converge at the popular studio to pay tribute to the singer.
“Everyone who loved and knew Leonard can come show their respect and give tributes with performances,” said Merciless’s former manager Harvel “Gadaffi” Hart.
Funeral director Tommy Thompson of Brite Lite Funeral Services will be in charge of the proceedings in Kingston and will arrange a procession through the streets of the Corporate Area to honour Merciless.
“We are going to parade the body around Kingston, and organise a major viewing of Leonard’s body at Mixing Lab, and put all the relevant protocols in place to send Merciless off in style,” Thompson assured.
“My team and I will be turning Dumbarton Avenue into ‘Merciless Boulevard’ with banners, photos and such. On Friday, there will be tributes done at Mixing Lab where songwriters, musicians and entertainers will be in the house paying their last respects,” Thompson said.
Merciless, born Leonard Bartley, was found unresponsive inside a guest house on Walker’s Avenue off Beechwood Avenue in St Andrew on July 19.
The results of the initial autopsy were inconclusive after a number of internal and external tests performed failed to provide a cause of death.
Merciless, who hailed from Chapleton in Clarendon, exploded onto the dancehall scene in 1994 when he was propelled by Stone Love (from a virtual unknown) to stardom after his hit song, Len Out Mi Mercy debuted at House of Leo nightclub in Kingston at the hands of Stone Love boss Winston “Wee Pow” Powell.
The Clarendon native followed up with a string of other hits including Mavis, which was the top reggae single in Jamaica in 1995. He also recorded Ole Gallis, Whaddup, Mama Cookin, Gizzada, Let Dem Have It, and God Alone with Little Hero and Action Fire.
