Moe's Alley Presents: The Itals

Moes Alley presents reggae icons The Itals, featuring legendary singer Keith Porter!Saturday, February 28,2026Doors: 8pm / Show: 9pm$25 in advance / $30 day of the show21+*All sales are final*Avoid scammers! Only purchase tickets from moesalley.com or ticketweb.com*Tickets requested by email will be delivered 3 days prior to the event*Will Call tickets will be available at the door on the day of the event=====THE ITALSLong before the Itals were a spark in their producers eye, Keith Porter recorded his first hit single, Hitey Titey, with the Westmorelites on the Studio One label in 1967. Around 1969, Keith became lead singer for a band named Soul Hermit, backed by Eugene Gray and Wignal Henry on guitars, and Reginald Seewell and Nash on base and drums. They played in numerous entertainment sectors of Jamaica until Owen Sinclair put together a new band in 1971. Called Future Generation, the band was composed of Dalton James and Roy Hilton on drums, Devon Henry on keyboards, Eugene Gray, guitar, Scott on sax, and Keith on vocals. They performed all over Jamaica for X amount of years, singing all styles of music, American R&B and love songs and native Jamaican songs.Tiring of the club scene around 1975, Keith ran into Ronnie Davis on Orange Street in Kingston and asked him who was auditioning. Ronnie gave him a cassette with a rhythm hed just had a hit on. I was so happy with that rhythm I didnt look any further, says Keith. In less than a week I had written Ina Dis Ya Time and came back to Kingston to record it for Lloyd Campbells SpiderMan label. Lloyd felt it needed some harmonies with my lead, so Ronnie and I both added harmony parts. There was no intention of forming a group called the Itals; the record first came out as Keith Porter. After the song was on its way to becoming a hit in Jamaica, we all went out to do some promotion. Lloyd, Ronnie, myself and Brian Thomas of RJR were sitting out back in the cantina, when Brian said why not call them the Itals, because now there was more than one person singing. Everyone liked that name. It sounded good, so all of a sudden, Itals was a group. It was never intentional. Ive always wondered if the name was the result of Brian noticing how strict I was about the food I ate, strictly Ital.