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Turntable Club

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Red Hills Road, Kingston nightclub opened in 1972 by Winston Blake and his brothers as the fixed home of the Merritone sound, becoming one of the city's longest-running music rooms. Capacity of 250-300, with two heart-shaped bars and a collection of abstract paintings; its weekly "Turntable Thursday" was Merritone's signature night for 28 years.

Opened when Red Hills Road, not yet renamed Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston, was Kingston's night-out strip of more than six clubs, jerk vendors and street dances, it outlasted every other club on the road; the Blakes closed it in 2002.

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Sources
Winston Blake biographies; Jamaica Gleaner, "Winston Blake a turntable maestro" (16 Feb 2018); Jamaica Observer, "When Red Hills Road lived and why it is dying"; Billboard obituary; Wikipedia.

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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.

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