Reggay: Son of R & B
Overview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, May 1969
THERE WERE two kinds of reaction when Desmond Dekker's 'Israelites' started up the hit parades in March: blimey, I heard that before Christmas; and, the what! ...

Reggae Music
Comment by Roger St. Pierre, West Indian World, July 1971
"REGGAE" – JAMAICA'S own form of pop music – has made a dynamic impact on the pop scene around the world and yet an amazing amount ...

Various Artists: The Harder They Come
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, October 1972
HOW TO GET into reggae in two easy stages. First you go to see the film The Harder They Come, which will engross you with its ...

Johnny Nash: I Can See Clearly Now
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, October 1972
AT LAST, REGGAE as all-around entertainment, whose rhythms will still generate movement in a crowded basement discotheque but whose arrangements and moods shift often enough for ...

Johnny Nash
Profile and Interview by David Nathan, Blues & Soul, March 1973
"REALLY WEIRD" is how Johnny Nash describes the acceptance and success he's recently received in the States via his major CBS hit 'I Can See Clearly ...

Jimmy Cliff and Various Artists: The Harder They Come
Review by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, April 1973
IT'S REGGAE, MON, sweet as cola wine and m'bopo supremo. No lectures, no history lessons, if ya don't know about that sound from Jamaica by now ...

Jimmy Cliff et al: The Harder They Come
Review by Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, April 1973
THE REGGAE GROUNDSWELL that cups Jamaica's potential as a pop force has been heralded for many moons now, yet despite several breech-opening successes from a variety ...

Judge Dread: Working Class Hero And The Robin Hood Of Reggae
Interview by Nick Kent, NME, May 1973
NICK KENT SPECIAL interview (snigger, snigger) with the man who's rude (snigger) but heaven forbid – not crude ...

Will Reggae Make It? Jamaica Says It Will!
Overview by Greg Shaw, Crawdaddy!, June 1973
THE STONES, Aretha, Traffic, Paul Simon and Roberta Flack have all made celebrated pilgrimages to the island and bandwagon trend-watches are beginning to mutter about reggae ...

The Maytals: From The Roots (Trojan)/I ROY: Presenting... (Trojan)
Review by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, November 1973
THIS STUFF IS even harder to understand than Jethro Tull's Passion Play, but nobody's going to stop singing because some dumb reviewer can't work it out. ...

Jimmy Cliff: From Reggae To Riches
Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, November 1973
IT MUST BE almost three years since the last hit record. God, that's an artistic lifespan for many people, but somehow he manages to suggest it's ...

Jimmy Cliff: Struggling Man (Island)/ Music Maker (Reprise)
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, August 1974
LAST YEAR, 'the word' was that reggae was all set to become the next big thing. Once radio program directors and listeners heard that irresistibly jerky ...

Jimmy Cliff: Skanking In Exile
Interview by Bob Woffinden, NME, September 1974
I'VE BEEN living in Stoke Newington for about six months. The area's one of the most cosmopolitan in North-East London, with an immigrant population that moved ...

Desmond Dekker
Interview by Karl Dallas, Melody Maker, May 1975
SEVEN YEARS ago, Desmond Dekker was a raw, gangling boy from St Thomas, Jamaica. ...

Bob Marley: Wollman Skating Rink, New York NY
Live Review by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, July 1975
IT WAS THE first one of those muggy nights this season, when the air is so close it cuts down your breathing, that Bob Marley brought ...

Bob Marley & The Wailers: Lyceum Ballroom, London
Live Review by Philip Norman, The Times, July 1975
BOB MARLEY and the Wailers reached the Lyceum two nights ago, in some style. By early evening, long before they were due to appear, the foyer ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, July 1975
"HEY, MON... WHAT are all these whites doin' here? They not here last time the Wailers ...

An Herbal Meditation with Bob Marley
Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, September 1975
LOS ANGELES – This Bible is not the arcane, apocryphal version you might expect to find in the possession of these mysterious Rastas, but a straight ...

Reggae
Overview by Kevin Allen, Record Mirror, September 1975
You either love it or hate it. It's either boring, and all the same, or the most exciting thing you've ever heard. No other current musical ...

Bob Marley et al: Jamaica
Overview by Mitchell Cohen, Phonograph Record, October 1975
FIRST DAY, RAIN. Thick clouds and then more rain. It is, I'm told, the wetter of Jamaica's two wet seasons. ...

Burning Spear: Man In The Hills (Island)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 1976
Spear’s album is a staggering success. It's a big challenge to follow up Marcus Garvey (I don't count Garvey's Ghost), which from the instant of release ...

Jimmy Cliff: Follow My Mind (Island)/Toots And The Maytals: Funky Kingston (Island)
Review by John Morthland, Creem, January 1976
SINCE HE ELECTRIFIED audiences In The Harder They Come, Jimmy Cliff has been his own worst enemy. His songs in that film bristled with passion, energy ...

Junior Byles: From the Dread Depths of Despair
Report by Penny Reel, NME, February 1976
JUNIOR BYLES emerged as the supreme talent of the year, if not of the decade. His moving 'Bur O Boy' was without peer. ...

Toots & The Maytals: The Man Who Would Be God
Interview by Penny Reel, NME, February 1976
JAH TOOTS: "...tracks on my new album? Well, there's 'Reggae Got Soul' – that's the title track, you know – 'Never Go Down', 'Dog War', 'Sad ...

Jack Ruby: Mono Reggae For The Ghetto
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, March 1976
WE’RE CALLING this Garvey’s Ghost," explained Jack Ruby, gesturing expansively towards the reel-to-reel, from whence issued sweet, sweet music. ...

The Twinkle Brothers: Rasta Pon Top
Review by Penny Reel, NME, March 1976
EVER SINCE ITALIAN propagandists began spreading false rumours concerning the demise of the Emperor, Negus Ras Tafari, Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Conquering Lion of ...

Toots And The Maytals: Reggae Got Soul (Island)***
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1976
SAD TO say, there's no track on this album that measures up to the quality of the classic tracks on Toots' last two 'rock-oriented' albums, Funky ...

Mike Dorane: The Lone Arranger
Interview by Cliff White, NME, April 1976
"Say, stranger...who's that masked man who just wrote those songs, played all the instruments, sang all the harmonies, mixed the tracks in his home studio and ...

The Curious Case of Dr. Alimantado
Profile by Penny Reel, NME, April 1976
"Ere Jah Man!"
"Ites!"
"Whadda word Babylon mean, dread?" ...

Bob Marley & The Wailers: Rastaman Vibration (Island)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1976
"Chase them crazy bald heads out of town" ...

Mighty Diamonds: Right Time
Review by Penny Reel, NME, May 1976
THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS emerged in the wake of the resurgence of interest in Burning Spear – "I and I, son of the Most High – Jah ...

Bob Marley: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, NME, June 1976
THERE WERE EXACTLY four things wrong with the final show by the Wailers at Hammersmith last ...

Bob Marley & the Wailers: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, June 1976
RIOTS LAST NIGHT they said, marauding hordes of smart, mean kids swarming around getting illegal all over the place with property and the concession stands in ...

Mighty Diamonds/U Roy/Delroy Washington: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, NME, September 1976
The Lyceum rockers wore dreadlocks, the Aldwych wouldn't do the Strand; the rude bwoys were on a ballroom blitz; and PENNY REEL reports on a RASTAFARIAN ...

British Reggae: Prejudiced Vibrations
Comment by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, October 1976
ON THE SURFACE it looks as though there has been something of a major breakthrough for reggae in Britain. ...

Bunny Wailer: Reincarnated Soul Makes Year's Best Album
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1976
"WHY DO THEY regard me with awe? I didn't know that peope think of me as superhuman. I've never flown or anything of that type. Ras ...

Reggae: Black Punks On 'Erb
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1976
'Youth is the first thing that hits you about the musicians...reggae is still a young music, further progress is made every ...

Reggae Part 2: Black Punks On 'Erb
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1976
We've got wars and rumours of war...
('Armagedon' by Bunny Wailer) ...

Max Romeo & the Upsetters: War In A Babylon
Review by Mick Farren, NME, November 1976
I WAS a soft-porn-skankin' rude boy in a mohair suit until I discovered RASTAFARI!!!! ...

Aswad: Hot with the Rods
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, December 1976
"I think it’s only now people really see it — we suffer here as well." ...

Bob Marley And The Wailers: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1977
And I went in there feeling conscientious, like I really wanted to take notes. But believe me when I tell you, nothing seemed less important than ...

Bob Marley And The Wailers: Exodus
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1977
From a purely marketing point of view, this is the one. With Rastaman Vibration’s appearance, there weren’t many music fans on the planet unaware of Bob ...

Bob Marley & The Wailers: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, June 1977
THE TENSION in the Rainbow was almost painful, the only relief the appearance of the Wallers. ...

Bob Marley: Jahve, Mon
Comment by Nick Kent, NME, June 1977
We know where we're going,
We know where we're from
We're from Babylon
Bob Marley – 'Exodus' ...

The Abysinnians: Forward On To Zion (Klik)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, July 1977
IN THE SOUNDS Top Ten of ’76 I voted this album (then known as Satta A Massagana) number two. ...

Burning Spear: Dry And Heavy
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, August 1977
IT ALL DEPENDS whether you're a sucker for the Burning Spear Sound. It hasn't changed too much through all their Island albums, and certain key ingredients ...

Burning Spear: Dry and Heavy
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, September 1977
DRY AND Heavy indeed. The title says it all. This album is pure magic from start to finish and, in my opinion, his best yet, even ...

Jah Punk: New Wave Digs Reggae
Report by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, September 1977
'We're gonna have a punky reggae party...the Wailers will be there, the Slits, the Feelgoods, and the Clash...'
– BOB MARLEY SONGS LYRIC ...

Jah Punk: The Black New Wave
Overview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, September 1977
ASWAD: Drummie, drums, vocals: George Oban, bass: Chaka Forde, rhythm guitar, vocals: Donald Guiti, lead guitar, vocals. Courtney Hennings, keyboards, vocals. ...

Burning Spear: Error Inc.
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, November 1977
TALK ABOUT being stood up. The first time I met Winston Rodney/Burning Spear he was eight hours late. And this was, mind you, after having schlepped ...

Winston Rodney is Burning Spear
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, December 1977
Is The Man In The Hills, is The Sound Of The Present Age ...

Rockers: Reggae On Film
Review by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, December 1977
LISTEN, going to the movies is cheaper than going to Jamaica. Am I right or am I wrong? As Dillinger used to say before he had ...

Althia & Donna: Nah Pop No Style, A Strictly Roots…
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, January 1978
IF YOU don't like talking to strangers, don't walk through Kingston with Donna or Althia. ...

Bob Marley: T'ings Could Be Worse
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, March 1978
"Talking to no-one is strange, Talking to someone is stranger."
– Kevin Coyne ...

Culture: From The Roots
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, March 1978
"THIS IS cactus. You can wash your hair with it. You pick it," running his finger nail down the cactus bud till a creamy sap oozes ...

Bob Marley: Kaya (Island)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, March 1978
Marley runs on the spot ...

The Congos: Heart Of The Congos
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1978
HEARING THE Congos is like recognising your favourite nursery rhyme, the one you'd forgotten. Or had knocked out of you. Like the purest folk songs, work ...

Tapper Zukie: Peace Fighter
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1978
PLENTY PEOPLE don't know the other half of Tapper Zukie. "If they knew the other half of me, they'd see me different. Right now me see ...

Aswad: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1978
REVELATION TIME. Aswad hadn't played any dates to speak of, and the audience were Aswad-starved, raring to rave. ...

Steel Pulse: No Jah-Babble In-A Birmingham
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, April 1978
REGGAE IS HIP. Punks said it was OK way back and how the parasitic shower of hustlers and sycophants who comprise the music biz are catching ...

One Love Peace Festival
Report by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1978
SUNDAY AFTERNOON Bob Marley relaxed on his front stoop. Everybody is still discussing the One Love peace show the previous day, on the night of the ...

The Gladiators: Soul Originators
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1978
ALBERT GRIFFITHS has interesting hands. The fingers are stubby, square but deft, workman's hands. His manner is straightforward, workmanlike, direct, too. And if you do yourself ...

Jamaica: The Young Lion Roars, part 1
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, May 1978
"WELCOME TO REMA," reads the spray-can graffiti down by 7th Street in Trenchtown. "Peace, Love And Unity". Over on the other side of the Calamite Road, ...

Jamaica: The Young Lion Roars – The JA Connexion Part 2
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, June 1978
SURROUNDED on three sides by a raw, harshly primal terrain that combines austere Bronte-evoking moorland with a dense near-Northern Californian verdancy, the Jamaican Tourist Board showcase ...

The Mighty Diamonds: There's No Ganja In Nassau
Report by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, June 1978
DAWN FLUSHED the sky like tomato juice infiltrating a shot of vodka, as a precarious caravan of dreadlocks weaves between stately lines of towering palm trees. ...

Judy Mowatt: Black Woman
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, June 1978
JUDY MOWATT of Wailers' I Three fame is wearing a blue denim button-through skirt, and her hair is hidden under an elaborately rimmed scarf tied turban-style. ...

Black Slate: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, NME, July 1978
THE ACCOMPLISHED Black Slate roadshow has reached just about the limit of its capabilities without coursing a drastic change of direction. ...

Culture: Haughty Culture
Interview by Penny Reel, NME, July 1978
OF AN EARLY Saturday evening, when there is but little or even less activity generating in this man's discomix – prior to a blue wave Blast ...

Gregory Isaacs: Presenting Mr Isaacs
Review by Penny Reel, NME, August 1978
PRIOR TO the glorious advent of soulful lover Pat Kelly in more recent weeks, lean, laconic crooner Gregory Isaacs was recognised as possibly the most cool ...

Poet And The Roots: Dread Beat An' Blood
Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, August 1978
'All oppression
Can do is bring
Passion to de heights of eruption
An' songs of fire we will sing'
– 'All Wi Doin' Is Defendin' ...

Linton Kwesi Johnson: Poet Of The Roots
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, September 1978
"The one crowded space in Father Perry's house was his bookshelves. I gradually came to understand that the marks on the pages were trapped words. Anyone ...

Third World: Journey To Addis
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, September 1978
SINCE THEIR appearance in 1975, Third World have always seemed the most likely candidates to follow Bob Marley through the gates marked Reggae/Pop Crossover. ...

Dr Alimantado: Best Dressed Chicken In Town
Review by Penny Reel, NME, October 1978
INTRODUCING THE august surgeon of ital nourishment on a ten track album of selected singles dating from 1973-6. ...

Keith Hudson: A Dread Tale
Report by Penny Reel, NME, October 1978
ONE NIGHT I AM standing outside the Jamaican pattie shop in Portobello Road partaking of the same when a car pulls up on the street and ...

Steel Pulse: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, November 1978
THE RAINBOW Theatre seemed a poor venue for Steel Pulse's Big London Gig, but reconsidering during this performance, it was probably second choice only to the ...

A Lost Leader? Bob Marley & the Wailers’ Babylon By Bus
Review by Simon Frith, Melody Maker, November 1978
THE BEST RECORD Bob Marley ever made was the live single version of ‘No Woman, No Cry’. The reasons for its success were complex, but its ...

Third World: 100 Club, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, NME, November 1978
IT IS surely not coincidental that now Island seem to have relegated Bob Marley and company to the status of lampoonery with joke titled albums they ...

Dennis Brown
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1978
HE'S BEEN ON the stage for twelve years, eight of those rarely out of the Jamaican charts. He's a major reggae ambassador to Canada, the United ...

Peter Tosh: The Bush Doctor's Dilemma
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, December 1978
GAME-RULES for life: tall people have a natural advantage. Or look at it this way: tall people stand out. They're obvious targets. If you're very tall ...

Tosh in monotone
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, December 1978
Peter Tosh did three nights in London, and I attended two. Why is it always the night I'm not there that everybody raves about? In this ...

Sly & Robbie: The Reggae Heartbeat – Freedom Into Form
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, December 1978
"Mr. Bassie, please sing your song to me." – Horace Andy, Rasta Rabbi in his own ...

Dennis Brown: Words Of Wisdom (Laser)
Review by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 1979
THE WHITE listener who came to reggae through Bob Marley may have been puzzled by the emergence of Dennis Brown, who at first seems to be ...

15, 16, 17: Living For The Weekend
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, January 1979
15, 16, 17 are the best-known of British reggae's new crop of female vocal trios. ...

Jimmy Cliff: A Pioneer Returns
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, February 1979
Jimmy Cliff, wholesome and handsome as a ripening ear of corn, radiates on the couch. The night before, he had made a triumphant return to Britain, ...

Inner Circle: reggae's final breakthrough?
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, February 1979
Bobby the Em aside, JA roots music has achieved no significant market penetration outside its own country. VIVIEN GOLDMAN suggests that, by 'going disco', the likes ...

The Gladiators: Naturality (Virgin/Front Line), Presenting The Gladiators (Studio One)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, March 1979
NOT A great week for the Gladiators, all round. First of all, the lead singer, Albert Griffiths, is shattered to learn over the phone that a ...

Culture: The International Dub
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, March 1979
Like Bob Marley before him, Culture's Joe Hill is spreading Jah-message, international-style. But how long can he keep his roots pristine in the hotels and duty-free ...

Linton Kwesi Johnson
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1979
"THEY THINK THEY'RE FIGHTING FASCISM ON BEHALF OF BLACKS, BUT THEY'RE FOOLING THEMSELVES" ...

Sly Dunbar: Sly, Wicked And Slick (Virgin Front Line)
Review by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, May 1979
REGGAE'S ONE of the youngest contemporary musical forms, but it's growing up fast, and in all sorts of directions. ...

Dennis Brown: Enter A Good Man
Profile and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, May 1979
Dennis Brown comes of the race of Joseph; and he means that seriously, 'I am Joseph, here to do the things Joseph has done in the ...

Peter Tosh: Mystic Man
Review by Simon Frith, Melody Maker, June 1979
I ALMOST didn't make it through the title-track. Two female trios do the I Threes jobs for Tosh, and here their effect is extra-irritating. They echo ...

Bob Marley In His Own Backyard
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Melody Maker, August 1979
AS YOU drive through the white-pillared gates into the grounds of 56 Hope Road, the first thing you notice is that the road doesn't have any ...

Rock's Fiery Jamaican Connection
Report by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, November 1979
REGGAE MUSIC was widely tabbed as pop's Next Big Thing five years ago. With fiery lyrics of social protest wedded to a catchy dance rhythm, reggae ...

Jamaican Sunrise: The Promise, Problems and Ethos of Rasta Reggae
Essay by Carol Cooper, The Black American, 1980
AS A BAROMETER of social pressure, and an indicator of public opinion, reggae music has no peer in the modern world of multi-media. As an art ...

Bob Marley & The Wailers: Confrontation (Island)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 1980
MOST RECORD COMPANIES waste little time in emptying the vaults when a major artist dies, but Island has refrained from pursuing that course with the late ...

Bob Marley and the Wailers: Uprising (Island)
Review by Vivien Goldman, NME, July 1980
"But even without the forceful pressures of the slaves, the slave system was collapsing surreptitiously from within..."
(The Caribbean: Franklin W Knight: Oxford University ...

Misty In Roots: Live At The Counter-Eurovision ‘79
Review by Vivien Goldman, NME, July 1980
IT SEEMS POINTLESS to divorce Misty's music from their well-known context as Southall youth organisers whose People Unite self-help organisation was badly damaged by the Special ...

The I Three
Interview by Vivien Goldman, NME, August 1980
To get into the Mayfair service flat you have to pick your way over the supplies: catering-size packs of rice and kidney beans and pulses, giant ...

Desmond Dekker and Laurel Aitken: Old Rude Boys Never Die
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, September 1980
DESMOND DEKKER and Laurel Aitken are two Jamaican vocalists who, in earlier musical incarnations, helped lay the ground for the eventual acceptance of reggae music into ...

The Specials: More Specials (2-Tone)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, September 1980
TO BET or not to bet, that is the question. Whether it be nobler to sit pretty with a winning formula or take a gamble and ...

Jimmy Cliff: A Lion Out There
Interview by Penny Reel, NME, September 1980
VETERAN JAMAICAN singer Jimmy Cliff finally achieved international status for his leading role in the seminal reggae film The Harder They Come in the early '70s. ...

Gregory Isaacs: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, NME, September 1980
TAKE ANY moderate gathering of citizens intent on peaceable pursuit and out comes the Babylon in force. I am growing altogether more and more disgruntled when ...

Black Uhuru: Last Exit to Brooklyn
Interview by Vivien Goldman, NME, October 1980
Brooklyn is definitely a dread neighbourhood. A neighbourhood of brownstone buildings and trees, Selassie’s Herbal Groceries store and the Cool Runnings Candy ...

Toots Comes Home To Roots
Live Review by Penny Reel, NME, October 1980
Toots And The Maytals: Hammersmith Palais, London ...

Burning Spear Debuts At The Roxy
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1980
THE WEST COAST debut of Burning Spear before a packed house at the Roxy Tuesday night may not have matched the excitement of Bob Marley & ...

Aswad/Linton Kwesi Johnson/New Regulars: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, January 1981
MONDAY NIGHT in the Palais: forward and upful all the way. Aswad's 'Warrior Charge' as featured in Babylon and Brinsley Forde's performance in the principal role ...

Burning Spear: The Spear Guide to Higher Stepping
Interview by Vivien Goldman, NME, February 1981
Burning Spear on tour. In the dressing room at the Birmingham Odeon, certain thick-set members of Spear's Burning Band mutter that they want to kill me ...

Reggae Titles: Footlong Skanking
Review by Van Gosse, Village Voice, April 1981
IN RECENT MONTHS Riffsters have written paeans to the gritty nudisco and rapperound 12-inch song-and-dances now heard blasting from the shiny boxes on the street and ...

Bunny Wailer: Bunny Wailer Sings The Wailers
Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, May 1981
THE PRODIGIOUS travesty of our time may be that rock bands rooted in reggae like the Clash or the Specials are more familiar to white American ...

Bob Marley: A Personal Remembrance
Essay by Vivien Goldman, NME, May 1981
"I don't believe in death – neither in flesh nor in spirit..." ...

Bob Marley's Final Return Home
Report by Vivien Goldman, NME, May 1981
King of Reggae laid to rest in Jamaica ...

Black Uhuru: Black Sounds Of Freedom The Wailing Souls: Firehouse Rock Toyan: How the West Was Won
Review by Vivien Goldman, NME, August 1981
THE Greensleeves label, tucked under the concrete arm of the motorway at Hammersmith Roundabout, seems to still be carrying the swing – chart-wise too, now that ...

Black Flag: Aswad
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, Summer 1981
WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE ...

Black Uhuru: Tear It Up (Island)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, February 1982
BLACK UHURU'S tour of English provinces last year took place at a time when the streets were torn with riot, ironically the perfect setting for Uhuru's ...

The Viceroys: We Must Unite (Trojan)
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, March 1982
THE CULT phenomenon, as with other realms of popular music, is also almost predominantly featured in the world of reggae. The Viceroys, a mysterious trio of ...

Third World: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, May 1982
OBVIOUS I know, but it seemed more than a coincidence that Third World should kick off their opening night in London on the first anniversary of ...

Sly and Robbie: Laying Reggae's Bottom Line
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, August 1982
QUESTION: WHAT do chic chanteuse Grace Jones. English rockers Joe Cocker and Ian Dury and reggae power house. Black Uhuru have in common? ...

Gregory Isaacs: Night Nurse (Island)
Review by Penny Reel, NME, September 1982
IT'S SINGULAR how Gregory Isaac releases a better number of tunes as good as 'Night Nurse' over the past decade and longer, and as good a ...

Musical Youth: Youth Of Today (MCA)
Review by Gavin Martin, NME, November 1982
AND SO in the wake of a government that's introduced the repressive British nationality bill, caused Britian to become involved in her first war since 1969 ...

Musical Youth: Out Of The Mouth Of Babes
Profile and Interview by Jim Green, Trouser Press, June 1983
IT'S A BITTERLY cold and gusty February day that finds me scampering through the remnants of New York's blizzard of '83 on my way to the ...

Timothy White: Catch A Fire: The Life Of Bob Marley Stephen Davis: Bob Marley
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1983
YES MI FRIEND, mi good friend, them set me free ...

UB40: Fortified Wine
Report and Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, September 1983
I WAS STILL trying to figure out what UB40 had done with all the money they'd earned – there just had to be an interesting story ...

Linton Kwesi Johnson: Making History
Review by Edwin Pouncey, Sounds, October 1983
A LOT OF polluted water has flowed under the bridge since Bass Culture, Linton Kwesi Johnson's last album of poems, was released to rave critical ...

UB40: 1980-83
Review by John Morthland, Creem, December 1983
UB40, A MULTIRACIAL reggae group whose name derives from the code on British unemployment cards, emerged from Birmingham in 1980, right around the time the two-tone ...

Aswad: Conquering Lions Of The Concrete Jungle
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, January 1984
IF REGGAE is dying, how curious that my interest in it is just coming to life. Years of comparative indifference (and ignorance) pass and suddenly I'm ...

The Skatalites: Return Of The Big Guns (Island White Label)****.5
Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, June 1984
KA-BOOM. KA-BOOM. Ka-boom. This is where it all began and has now returned to, more or less. ...

Aswad: Local Heroes
Interview by Chris Salewicz, Time Out, July 1984
That Aswad are The Greatest Reggae Band In The World is the principal theme of Island Records' campaign to give the London-born trio the commercial success ...

Black Uhuru: International Anthem
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, July 1984
SO...WHAT is life? A location and time? Hardly. We could be almost anywhere, but... ...

Augustus Pablo.: A Shadowy Reggae Legend
Report by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1984
Personnel: Pablo, keyboards-melodica; Liebert (Gibby) Morrison, lead guitar; Fazal Prendergast, rhythm guitar; Anthony (Asher) Brissett, Errol (Tarzan) Nelson, keyboards; Christopher Meredith, bass; Harry (Harry T) Powell, ...

Aston Barrett: Rhythm Behind The Reggae
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, November 1984
THE BARRETT BROTHERS may be the most influential unsung heroes in pop music. ...

Eek-A-Mouse: Reggae For The Fun Of It
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, January 1985
REGGAE ARTISTS usually strive to appear as visionary prophets in concert, but Eek-A-Mouse will bring a more light-hearted approach to the Music Machine on Saturday night. ...

The Skatalites: Scattered Lights (Alligator)
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, February 1985
FOUR YEARS AGO, the Two-Tone ska revival raced through America as another Anglo hip trip, a six-month passing fancy that disappeared in a swirl of porkpie ...

Skabeana in Soho: Alton Ellis at Gossips, London
Live Review by Penny Reel, NME, April 1985
ROCKING STEADILY to the dogged rhythms of Studio One spiced with ska, the crowd tonight are in appreciative mood to welcome Alton Ellis onstage, where accompanied ...

Burning Spear: Resistance (Heartbeat)
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, June 1985
A FULL DECADE after the landmark Marcus Garvey (Island) album, the voice and vision of Burning Spear (the nom de stage of Jamaican singer/songwriter Winston Rodney) ...

Slim Smith: Memorial
Review by Penny Reel, NME, June 1985
"Slim was a builder, soul singer, and a very good entertainer, and I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, Slim had to leave us, leave us so ...

Joe Higgs Seeks Reggae 'Triumph'
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, August 1985
"IF I WAS A prophet, I wouldn't have left the Wailers, but I didn't know they were going to become this monstrous," Joe Higgs said quietly. ...

Steel Pulse
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1985
DAVID HINDS was not in the mood to mince words. The lead singer and chief songwriter of Steel Pulse was furious over the delay in the ...

Bunny Wailer Goes To Market
Report and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, February 1986
BUNNY WAILER, who formed the creative nucleus of the Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh when the group became Jamaica's reigning pop heroes in the ...

Judy Mowatt: Mowatt's Winding Path To Success
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, February 1986
JUDY MOWATT'S Working Wonders album has received a Grammy nomination, but that isn't the only reason she'll remember the record. A succession of studio disasters – ...

Audrey Hall: Dance Hall Revolution
Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, March 1986
"WE'VE HEARD what the men can do, it's time to hear the women. You can't keep us in the background for ever. There are loads of ...

Bunny Wailer: Wailers 'Together Again'
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, April 1986
THE UPCOMING Wailers album Together Again isn't just your average reunion record. Besides Bunny Waller, Peter Tosh, Junior Braitwaithe and Constantine Walker, the lineup will feature ...

The Skatalites: The Fathers Of Ska
Profile by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, June 1986
Personnel: The 11-man lineup will include charter members Johnnie Moore (trumpet), Lester Sterling (alto sax), Roland Alphonso and Tommy McCook (tenor sax), Rico Rodriguez (trombone), Lloyd ...

Notting Hill Carnival '86: Everybody Wet Wet Wet
Report by Penny Reel, NME, September 1986
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO I back up on my first Carnival almost by accident. ...

Sugar Minott: Inna Reggae Dance Hall (Heartbeat)
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, October 1986
BOB MARLEY'S international breakthrough spawned a glut of Jamaican journeyman scrambling for the reggae rainbow's seemingly attainable pot of gold but an inevitable byproduct of the ...

UB40: Salt Of The Earth
Report and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, NME, December 1986
"My life is like a joke but to me it isn't funny..." ('All I Want To Do') ...

Reggae: Can The Beat Go On?
Comment by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1987
THE DEATH OF Peter Tosh, gunned down Sept 11 at his Kingston, Jamaica, home during an apparent robbery, is only the latest tragedy in the reggae ...

Peter Tosh: "Volatile"
Obituary by Lloyd Bradley, Q, November 1987
ON THE AFTERNOON of Saturday September 12, Peter Tosh and his wife were entertaining friends at their home in Kingston, Jamaica. Three men arrived, were invited ...

Sly & Robbie: Silent Assassin (Island)
Review by Don Snowden, unpublished, 1989
HMM, HMM, HMM, let's see here...looks like Sly & Robbie & KRS-One are on to something here but I don't think it's what most people figured. ...

Puss In Boops
Interview by Penny Reel, Musicweek, January 1989
Penny Reel prowls Miller’s Terrace with Super ...

Second Generation Picks Up the Torch From Bob Marley
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, February 1989
Bob Marley Day: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles ...

Ziggy Marley Livelies Up Himself in the Nick of Time
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, August 1989
ZIGGY MARLEY did not wait a minute too long to dip into his father's songbook for 'Lively Up Yourself'. ...

Burning Spear Aims to Stay True to Roots Reggae
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1989
THERE IS no more pure exponent of roots reggae than Burning Spear. Reggae has gone through a number of permutations in the 15 years since it ...

UB40: Labour Of Love II
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, January 1990
THE SECOND VOLUME of classic reggae songs – the first album, released in 1983, spawned the group's first Number 1 single ('Red Red Wine'), topped the ...

The Resurgence of Reggae
Report by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, February 1990
Pop music: Major labels sign more artists and watch sales rise. The Jamaican style enjoys renewed popularity with a new generation of performers and ...

Linton Kwesi Johnson: Reggae's Pioneer Poet Has Picked Up His Pen Again
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, March 1990
Music: Linton Kwesi Johnson took a break because he was afraid he'd run out of things to say, but Europe thought ...

Various Artists: King Tubby’s Fast Car (Serious Business)
Review by Penny Reel, Black Echoes, May 1990
THE MAN WHO own the Serious Business record label also drives a gleaming scarlet Mercedes-Benz sports car bearing the famous registration number JAH 50N, or JAH ...

Bob Marley & The Wailers
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, October 1990
Confrontational classics from Bob ...

Lee Perry: From the Secret Laboratory (Mango)/Maxi Priest: Bonafide (Charisma)
Review by Carol Cooper, Village Voice, November 1990
THIS YEAR'S New Music Seminar featured a panel called ‘Reggae in the ‘90s: Does Dancehall Rule?’ Both Jamaican and New York’s regional enthusiasm for dancehall were ...

Alton and Hortense Ellis: Alton and Hortense Ellis
Review by Penny Reel, Select, January 1991
THE COMMANDING voice of Alton Ellis has been a constant feature in popular Jamaican music for over a quarter of a century and his classic sides ...

Reggae's Maxi Priest Wins Mainstream Favor
Profile and Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, February 1991
Pop music: The British singer adds an R&B flavor to the Jamaican sound. He and his band play San Diego and Long Beach this weekend. ...

Bob Marley: Talkin' Blues
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, March 1991
IT IS A popular truism that the obsessiveness with which popular culture picks through the bones of its most illustrious dead is the sign of a ...

Scritti Politti: Do The Gart, Man
Interview by Terry Staunton, NME, March 1991
THE DANCEHALL FOUNDATIONS are shaking and there's outrage in the ragga ranks. A white pop star has plundered their culture with the aid of Lennon & ...

Shabba Ranks: As Raw As Ever
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, July 1991
AS THE REIGNING king of Dancehall, Rexton Gordon aka Shabba Ranks is a major Jamaican sex symbol, ambitious enough to crush his rivals at Sunsplash by ...

Dancehall Invasion
Report by Richard Gehr, Newsday, August 1992
CURRENTLY MAKING impressive inroads into the American market, dancehall reggae may be the most challenging--and, many would say, irritating--style of popular music since rap, which it ...

Bob Marley: Songs For Freedom
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, November 1992
WHEN LITTLE RICHARD stood up at his piano and hollered 'Tutti Frutti', he sounded like a man who'd just broken out of prison. ...

Dub It Up: A Whistlestop Tour Through Reggae's Echo Chambers
Guide by David Toop, The Wire, May 1994
A is for Alpha & Omega

The odd couple of '90s roots and culture. Bassist Christine Woodbridge and melodica puffer John Sprosen conjure cultural spirits in ...

Mellow down the Mix
Memoir by Penny Reel, Black Echoes, January 1996
Penny Reel at the pool table meets a man from ...

The Mighty Diamonds/The Twinkle Brothers: The Forum, London
Live Review by Lloyd Bradley, Mojo, April 1997
IT'S A RARE THING THESE DAYS THAT Ralston Grant, the guitar-playing half of The Twinkle Brothers, leaves Jamaica, and for the last decade or so his ...

Celebrating Bob Marley at Studio One
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, February 1998
On the 35th anniversary of Studio One ...

This Dance Music Is Dangerous To Your Heath: The Skatalites & The Birth Of Ska
Retrospective by James Maycock, The Independent, July 1998
WITH THE passing of time, a tragic event sometimes reveals a comic nuance. One night in 1964, the Skatalites were performing at Club Calypso in Falmouth, ...

Metro & The Birth Of The British Sound System
Profile and Interview by James Maycock, The Independent, August 1998
"AMPLIFICATION AND records – if you have those 2 items, then you can go somewhere," states the man called Metro. Born with the slightly less swish ...

Sly ‘n’ Robbie on Drum ‘n’ Bass
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, The Independent, 1999
Drum ‘n’ bass: it’s the foundation of popular music, the engine which drives rock, pop, soul, funk, jazz, reggae and anything else you care to ...

A Bluffers Guide To Dub
Guide by John McCready, Jockey Slut, 2000
Note: This piece originally featured in Jockey Slut magazine and was written to serve as an introduction to those who had heard the word Dub bandied ...

Into the Heart of the Ark: An Audience with Lee
Book Excerpt by Chris Salewicz, Rock's Backpages, November 2000
In an excerpt from his book Rude Boy: Once Upon a Time in Jamaica, Chris Salewicz recounts his February 1978 meeting with legendary reggae producer Lee ...

Fishy Riddims!
Guide by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, January 2001
From Radio Ethiopia to Dread Zeppelin...
20 classics of ...

Big Youth: Natty Universal Dread; and, Various Aritists: A Jamaican Story
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2001
IN JAMAICA, the DJ isn't the guy who spins the records (that's the selector), it's the bloke who chats over the music. As misnomers go, it's ...

Bob Marley And The Wailers: Live!
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Mojo, June 2001
ALONG WITH the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club and Prince at the Lyceum, these shows played in London by Bob Marley And The Wailers were ...

When Two Systems Clashed at Club Four Aces: A snapshot of London reggae culture in the early '70s

Book Excerpt by Penny Reel, Deep Down With Dennis Brown, February 2002
Penny Reel was the pre-eminent reggae writer of reggae's '70s heyday, contributing regularly to NME, Black Echoes and other publications. His Deep Down With Dennis Brown ...

The Skatalites
Retrospective and Interview by Lloyd Bradley, Mojo, August 2002
ASK JAMAICA'S PRIME MINISTER ABOUT THE SKATALITES and he'll come over all misty-eyed. Never mind that, at the moment, PJ Patterson is running a country that ...

Bob Marley: Change Is Gonna Come
Retrospective by Andy Gill, Mojo, August 2002
BY 1966, IT LOOKED LIKE THE WAILING WAILERS WERE FINISHED ON the Jamaican music scene. They had recorded numerous hits, eventually challenging The Maytals as the ...

Buju Banton: Astoria, London
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, August 2002
IT'S A SWELTERING Sunday night in London's West End, and inside this venue, a West Indian community meeting is in progress. ...

Beenie Man: Beenie There, Done That
Interview by Lulu Le Vay, The Guardian, September 2002
One of the biggest stars of Jamaican dancehall, Beenie Man's outgrowing the reggae charts and going global. Lulu Le Vay meets him as he gets set ...

The Night Bob Marley Didn't Play the Bouncing Ball
Memoir by Penny Reel, Rock's Backpages, May 2003
IT IS 1973, around the time of the release of Catch A Fire, that Bob Marley And The Wailers are booked to play at Admiral Ken's ...

Jimmy Cliff: Hail Reggae's Lost King
Interview by Nick Hasted, The Independent, September 2003
MANY PEOPLE THINK Bob Marley stole his crown. But it was Jimmy Cliff who gave reggae to the world, when he starred in and wrote half ...

The RC INTERVIEW: Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry
Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, 2004
LET NO ONE tell you otherwise. An hour with reggae maverick Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is a wondrous thing. His ‘madness’, however stage-managed, is there, almost like ...

The Shooting of Bob Marley
Retrospective by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, February 2004
DECEMBER 3, 1976. A mellow, starry Friday night at 56 Hope Road, Bob Marley's Kingston home. Children playing in the yard - three of them Marley's ...

Bob Marley
Retrospective by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, February 2004
DECEMBER 3, 1976. A mellow, starry Friday night at 56 Hope Road, Bob Marley's Kingston home. Children playing in the yard – three of them Marley's ...

Is It Rolling Bob?: A Reggae Tribute to Bob Dylan
Review by Michael Gray, Observer Music Monthly, August 2004
THE SUBTITLE CONFESSES that all we have here is a concept album – that despite the liner notes claiming that "Jamaica was into Bob Dylan", it's ...

Tatchell v Beenie Man: Arrest This Development
Comment by Andrew Mueller, The Guardian, September 2004
LET'S HOPE THAT no friends of the Jamaican dancehall artist Beenie Man have recently reminded him that the only thing worse than being talked about is ...

Rico Rodriguez: Rico – Trombone Man: Anthology 1961-71 (TJDDD2222)
Sleevenotes by Mike Atherton, Trojan, 2005
FROM THE Duke Reid Group to the Jools Holland Rhythm & Blues Orchestra, from ghetto studios to the stage of Top Of The Pops, from the ...

The Wailers: Burnin’ (Deluxe Edition) (Tuff Gong/Island)
Review and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, January 2005
CATCH A FIRE set the world alight but Burnin’ got it blazing. By the time Eric Clapton took the album’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ to No. ...