The Gay Lords of Dominica were a popular Carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

 band from Dominica

Dominica

Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth...

 from 1966 to 1974.

Members

Members (during the lifetime of the group) included founder members Greg Breaker who is now the lead vocalist with Hot Chocolate, now using the sobriquet of Billy Brown), Clayton 'Baby Julie' Guiste (now with the New Serenaders Band), Crispin Seaman, Dennis Joseph and Tony 'Bingo' Henderson, and later, Alwin 'Cocky' Polydore, Lionel Pinard, Eden 'Presley' Richardson, Lewis 'Double L' Lestrade, Fitzroy 'Fat Cap' Williams (later to be with Exile One), the blind keyboardist Starret Francois, Archie Francis, Walter Cooke and Julian Gibson]]. They later changed their name to Gaylords Power Union. Starret Francois died in February, 2008, of renal failure and MRSA, in the UK.

Recordings

They recorded three albums, Love, Peace and the Caribbean (WIRL,1972), Karybian Explosion(Antillana, 1970) and To Dominica with Love (Antillana,1969), as well as several singles (45rpm), the most popular of which was "Hit Me With Music".
With the exception of four 'covers' and the modification of two Dominican traditional 'street songs', all their material was original, written predominantly by Dennis Joseph and Clayton Guiste with contributions from Walter Cooke ("Reflections, Part1"), Greg Breaker ("Unforgettable Susan"), Crispin Seaman ("Sugar Cane Fields") and Fitzroy Williams ("Hit Me With Music") and collaboration on "Ma John" and "Lovely Dominica" with Chris Seraphine.

Tours

They toured the entire Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

, working the hotels in Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

, Antigua

Antigua

Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...

, St. Lucia and the Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...

, sharing bills with Jimmy Cliff and the Mighty Sparrow, then the Caribbean's premiere calypsonian, and Blind American singer, Clarence Carter. Then in 1971, they played Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 (where they recently made a nostalgic comeback appearance in 2004), and Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.

In 1973, they toured the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 together with John Holt (the 1,000 volts of Holt tour and appeared in Edmonton

Edmonton

Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

, with Bob Marley, when they re-recorded Hit Me With Music on the Spark label, produced by Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five. They returned to the UK in 1974 for another tour, and split up in September 1974, when founder member and lead singer, Greg Breaker decided to go solo. The Gaylords re-united in 2003, to make a one-off nostalgic appearance at Dominica's world renowned Creole Festival, in October.