Sunday 1 September 2019

Preview: Johnny Osbourne


Ready or not, Scotland – here he comes, the greatest ever reggae artist called Johnny*, one month to go:  Johnny Osbourne, Thursday 3rd October,  BAaD, Glasgow.

Why am I so excited about the prospect of seeing Johnny Osbourne live with the Uppercut band for the first time playing in Scotland? Straight from international festivals and the Jazz CafĂ© in London to the Barras, we are very lucky to have one of the living legends of reggae with us. No other Jamaican singer has spanned the generations and genres of reggae so comfortably, cutting his teeth in the rocksteady era of the late sixties with infectious hits like 'Warrior’, equally at home with conscious messages like ‘My Name Is Man’, from sublime  love songs like 'Love Is Here to Stay’, to cutting eighties digital anthems like ‘Budy Bye’ that still rock the dancehall. Why he is not more of a household name in the UK today remains something of a mystery (although it may be something to do with spending most of the seventies in Canada). A pupil of the Alpha Boys’ School, where he would have looked up to the likes of Don Drummond and Tommy McCook as they invented ska in a lunchbreak, Johnny’s first recordings were with Winston Riley as a member of the Wild Cats, clearly showing an early affiliation with Scotland. ‘Come Back Darling’, accredited to Johnny Osbourne and the Sensations in 1969, is a rock steady gem with crossover appeal (the title track later a top ten hit for UB40) but he left for Canada the day he completed the album to be with his family. His return to Jamaica in 1979 led to a hugely prolific period. The ‘Truths and Rights’ album alone secures his place in music history, a Studio One album (like Freddie McGregor’s ‘Bobby Bobylon’) that looks, sounds and feels like it was forged in the fire at the very foundation of reggae music, it came as a shock to discover it was only released in 1980 (though many of the rhythms date from earlier). Every track on the album is a classic, with the outstanding ‘Jah Promise’, ‘We Need Love’ and ‘Sing jay Stylee’ he built the bridge between rocksteady, roots and the emerging dance hall explosion. He followed this up with a string of hit singles and albums for the top producers of the early eighties such as Prince Jammy, Henry Junjo Lawes and Bobby Digital, including ‘Water Pumping’, ‘Fally Ranking’, ‘Rock It Tonight’ and ‘On the Right Track’, making him a constant feature in the reggae charts. He also documented the history of black Britain with the poignant ‘13 Dead and Nothing Said’ following the New Cross Fire. Even those not familiar with his work may recognise his voice which graced many of the tracks on the classic Greensleeves dub albums, floating in and out of the mixes from Scientist, or even sampled by Major Lazer. But while I’m still discovering more of his classic tunes, I know the Glasgow reggae community will be ready to show their appreciation for Johnny ‘Bumpy’ Osbourne. One love!

*Top 10 Reggae Johnnies
1.       Johnny Osbourne
2.       Johnny Clarke – he would be a lot of people’s number one, as testified by the crowd when he played Glasgow
3.       John Holt – he would be higher but no one ever really called him Johnny. Just Sir John.
4.       Johnny “Dizzy” More – trumpet player, founding member of the Skatalites.
5.       John McLean – not the Glasgow revolutionary socialist, but the London lovers rock singer.
6.       Johnny Nash – Bob famously taught him to play reggae.
7.       Johnny Lover – deejay on ‘I Like it Like That’ Tuff Gong version on B-side of Rock My Boat.
8.       Little John – gave us the unforgettable Clarks Booty
9.       Johnny Was – classic from Bob Marley’s Rastaman Vibration, covered by Stiff Little Fingers.
10.   John Brown – fictional character who personified Jamaica and saved the world in ‘To Jamaica With Love

Monday 5 August 2019

Film Review: Rudeboy: The Story of Trojan Records


Warning: This film contains graphic scenes of the destruction of vintage vinyl which some viewers may find upsetting.
Trojan – a name forever synonymous with classic reggae music for a certain generation, proudly emblazoned across my T-shirt, occasionally these days gets strange looks from the youngsters who apparently think I’m advertising condoms. But this documentary, still playing across the UK in August should help restore the balance and put Trojan Records back in the forefront of the consciousness of the music-loving public. Nowadays it’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when ska, rock steady and reggae was a weekly feature in the UK charts and Top of the Pops in the late sixties and early seventies, making an indelible impression on the minds of British youth and laying the foundations for the Two Tone revival. This film tells the story of how this was achieved, through a slightly fuzzy haze, like memories of blues dances and house parties seen from the eyes of a child staying up past bedtime. The action starts, where else, but Kingston, Jamaica with a reconstruction of Duke Reid running the music production and distribution across the island in his Trojan truck (made in Croydon, where I once bumped into Desmond Dekker coming out of a pub - talk about full circle, eh?) and running auditions in his liquor store for the likes of Derrick Morgan. This was of course the perfect opportunity to bring the Treasure Isle store scene in To Jamaica With Love to the silver screen, but sadly the producers forgot to call me.

Everyday life in the music factory that was Kingston in the era of independence is witnessed through magical interviews with the surviving members of that trailblazing generation, including Marcia Griffiths, Dave Barker, Lee Scratch Perry, Bunny Lee, Roy Ellis, Freddie Notes, Toots Hibbert, Ken Boothe and many more, alongside archive footage and dramatisations. Trojan Records sprung up as an independent force, making deals with Island Records and various producers, capturing this fever and selling it to a hungry market in England initially made up of Jamaican migrants, quickly spreading to their white working class neighbours. How a combination of West Indian and British entrepreneurs and musicians battled prejudice to get radio airplay and television appearances, inviting Jamaican artists into living rooms up and down the country, is shown to play a genuine part in breaking down barriers and counteracting the racism that was rife at the time of Enoch Powell. It doesn’t quite explore the uncomfortable phenomenon of those who liked the music but also continued to be racist (listen to ‘Skinhead A Bash Them’ by Claudette and The Corporation, and see the great Don Letts’ The Story of Skinhead for a deeper examination).  There is inevitably a slightly rosy-tinted nostalgia about the film, but the murkier side of the business is touched upon, with legal wranglings and contract disputes rumbling in the background as Trojan grew. The story of how it went from not being able to keep up with demand to flooding the market with Jamaican music is illustrated in harrowing scenes of the policy of destroying unsold stock for tax reasons.  Flipping from collecting original hits to becoming a receptacle for records squarely aimed at the UK pop charts, losing some of what made it so special and controversially adding strings, at a time when the era of roots and punk was brewing, all added to its sudden demise as liquidation came in 1975. The bubble may have burst, but the impact of Trojan Records could never be forgotten, as the label was resurrected and successive generations have rediscovered this music which will never, ever die. At the CCA screening in Glasgow we were lucky to have one of the contributors to the film, one of the founding fathers of reggae and sound system culture in Britain, Sir Lloyd Coxsone, in a Q&A afterwards, as he continues to spread the message. One love.