The Pioneers are a Jamaican reggae vocal trio, whose main period of success was in the 1960s. The trio has had different line-ups, and still occasionally performs.
The Pioneers were formed in 1962 by brothers Sydney and Derrick Crooks, and their friend Winston Hewitt. Their early recordings "Good Nanny" and "I'll Never Come Running Back to You" were self-produced at the Treasure Isle studio using money lent to the Crooks brothers by their mother and appeared on Ken Lack's Caltone label.
Several other singles followed, none of them hits, before Hewitt immigrated to Canada in 1966. Hewitt was replaced for around a year by former Heptone Glen Adams.
The Pioneers' early singles were not successful, and Sydney began promoting concerts, while Derrick took up a job with the Alcoa bauxite company. The group broke up in mid-1967.
Sydney began working at Joe Gibbs' record shop, and through Gibbs, returned to recording. At his first session (to record "Give Me Little Loving"), with the other members of The Pioneers gone, Crooks recruited Jackie Robinson, who he found outside the studio just before recording began. Crooks later said of the encounter:
The Pioneer or The Pioneers may refer to:
"Pioneers" is a single by Bloc Party from their debut album Silent Alarm. It was released in the United Kingdom by Wichita Recordings on 18 July 2005 and reached number 18 in the UK Singles Chart. Due to an error printing, it was called "The Pioneers" on the album track-listing. Each copy of the single is numbered in the top left corner.
The music video was made by the company Mini Vegas and was directed by Aoife McArdle.
The Pioneers is a 1916 Australian silent film directed by Franklyn Barrett. The film is based on the debut novel by Katharine Susannah Prichard which won £250 in a 1915 literary competition. It is considered a lost film.
It was later filmed by Raymond Longford as The Pioneers (1926).
A convict, Dan Farrel, escapes from Van Diemen's Land and throws himself on the mercy of a farming couple, Mary and Donald Cameron. The years pass and Dan becomes a school teacher. He marries and they have a daughter, Dierdre, but his wife dies.
Dierdre grows up and agrees to marry a local pub keeper, McNab, to stop him from revealing that Dan is a convict. McNab still goes to the police and Dan is arrested. Dierdre accidentally kills McNab.