Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Wife Seeks Engineering Help With Off-The-Grid Project
Mireille Perry, the wife of late Reggae legend Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, is presently sourcing an engineering firm to build a bridge over the river that borders the LSP Paradise community, the eccentric producer-singer’s legacy project in Hanover, Jamaica.
“We need to build a bridge, I want to find a company to build a bridge, I found two but each time, they get bigger jobs and go do something else . It is really not easy to find professional construction in Jamaica,” she lamented to DancehallMag.
“I need a building company to build a bridge over the river because we still have to cross the river by foot. We’re clearing the ground, we hope to get the bridge and we need to get building material over and it is not easy if we have to do it on foot.”
LSP Paradise is one of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s legacy projects and involves the creation of an off-the-grid 3o acre community in Hanover, to enable him to get away from what he had described as “this Babylon Madness”.
Mrs. Perry hopes that in the future volunteers will be able to teach students at the community how to plant properly using permaculture and fertilize crops naturally using animal droppings. Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems.
“We will use the bamboo and the resources that are on the land. We have to be able to accommodate people who can help with natural planting and fertilizer. Jamaica needs to focus more on the natural fertilizer, we don’t need to buy chemicals, we should promote natural planting and fertilize it with natural materials,” she said.
A team is constructing bamboo cottages and plans are far advanced to install a solar system power grid in the community.
“We were hoping to use solar and the JPS but the JPS transformer is too far but maybe we have to wait until JPS brings the transformer closer but we’re going to put a solar system in place,” Ms. Perry said.
Ms. Perry is pleased with the progress so far.
“All the workers are from the community and they are very happy, everybody is making progress. It is very good for community, I am going to meet them and spend time iwth them at the bar so it is good for everybody. We want to be close to the community and work together
The 30-acre community boasts a cornucopia of trees including aloe vera, pineapple, callaloo, corn, coconut, avocado and ackee trees.
“The trees are growing nice, the earth is very good and we hope to go more vegetable for the volunteers, and we hope to feed them from the land,” she said.
Eventually the community will have “an art house, and a studio, just as Scratch intended,” Mrs. Perry said.
The LSP Paradise community was a project that was very dear to the philosophies of the late producer. He had announced the project in 2020.
“I AM SOON GOING TO JAMAICA TO START A SELF -RELIANT COMUNITY TO ESCAPE THIS BABYLON MADNESS! I want to make a YouTube channel that follows every step from the beginning: Choosing the land…preparing it for permaculture and farming…building a new art house and studio…and everything happening on the way,” he wrote on his Instagram page over a year before his death.
Perry died on August 29 at the Western Jamaica hospital at the age of 85, reportedly from an undisclosed illness. Mireille had been married to Perry for over three decades. Perry is survived by his wife, and two children from his marriage to her.
The eccentric Scratch was widely hailed as one of the most important creative, artistic and musical figures to emerge in the latter half of the 1900s.
The Grammy award-winner had the distinction of producing more than 1000 recordings during his career, which spans more than half-a-century. These include some of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ best early recordings – including the Soul Rebel and Soul Revolution albums and Small Axe, Duppy Conqueror, Jah Live, Punky Reggae Party, and Rastaman Live Up singles.
Perry notched one Grammy win in 2002 for the Reggae album, Jamaican E.T.