He’s widely known as ‘Reds’ Perreira but his passport name is Joseph, named after his grandfather Joseph Francis Martins, who, in later life, was my father after he married a second time. That makes Reds and me some kind of family – step cousin? – but I’m not sure exactly what. The families from Joseph’s two wives weren’t particularly close, but Reds and I gravitated to each other probably because we had become known in our fields – he in broadcasting, I in music – and over the years a brotherly connection grew; we’re constantly in touch by email or phone. Reds is full of information and opinions on sport, particularly cricket, and when he came to Guyana recently for a sports tourism seminar hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, I began chatting with him about his career. The name ‘Reds’ by the way, came not from the usual ‘red man’ label Guyanese use for a mixed-race person, but because as a young man he actually had red hair. Early on, his broadcasting genes were present. As he put it, “My interest simply came through the power of radio. As early as 1948 at 11 years of age, I remember listening to Test cricket when England toured the West Indies, which was followed by the 1950 tour of England with the Three W’s and Ram and Val. Listening to that as a youngster I just loved the theatre that came through the radio, with the description of the bowler coming in, the batsman responding and the reaction of the crowd. However, although my interest was great for the game and for commentary, I had no thoughts of ever getting to the stage of becoming a professional commentator, as I was fighting an uphill battle with a major stammering problem.”
