This year marks the 50th birthday of Island Records, set up and run as an independent label by Chris Blackwell for the first 30 years it introduced a wide variety of Jamaican acts to the UK audience.
Jimmy Cliff, The Wailers, Burning Spear, Black Uhuru, Sly & Robbie, Third World, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Toots & The Maytals to name but a few.
The label also had a roster of UK rock acts that can only be described as eclectic; from Traffic, King Crimson, Spencer Davies Group, Roxy Music, Mott The Hoople, Free, Jethro Tull, Kevin Ayers, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and U2 make for an interesting line up.
On the acoustic side there were Fairport Convention, The Chieftains, John Martyn, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake and Cat Stevens.
Makes for pretty impressive reading – and listening – and I probably own more records from this label than any other.
This link is to an audio slide show with some of the music and brief interviews – this is one birthday that is well worth celebrating.
No comments:
Post a Comment