0:00:05 > 0:00:08When Jamaican music first arrived here in the '60s,
0:00:08 > 0:00:10it spoke mainly to the West Indian community.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Ska and early reggae were little more than novelties,
0:00:16 > 0:00:21though they offered a new soundtrack for the working class teens, black and white.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24But during the '70s, British reggae came out on the streets.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30It joined forces with rock and then punk,
0:00:30 > 0:00:33a rebel sound that was changing British music.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36# Him kick de bucket... #
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Reggae took on Babylon and, by the '80s, had become a mirror for
0:00:40 > 0:00:44the cultural and racial changes that were transforming Britain...
0:00:44 > 0:00:46# In the first race... #
0:00:46 > 0:00:49..while Britain transformed and absorbed reggae into the mainstream.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52# Get up, get up
0:00:52 > 0:00:54# In the first race
0:00:54 > 0:00:56# And him pull up the place
0:00:56 > 0:00:58# Longshot
0:00:58 > 0:00:59# Him kick de bucket... #
0:01:01 > 0:01:03The Real Thing, Whenever You Want My Love.
0:01:03 > 0:01:03And that's riding up the charts.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06And now from sunny Liverpool to the sunny Caribbean with
0:01:06 > 0:01:08the first reggae record ever to make number one.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11Desmond Dekker and the Israelites.
0:01:11 > 0:01:12CHEERING
0:01:12 > 0:01:17# Get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir
0:01:18 > 0:01:19# So that
0:01:19 > 0:01:24# Every mouth can be fed
0:01:25 > 0:01:31# Oh-oh
0:01:31 > 0:01:35# The Israelites
0:01:40 > 0:01:43# Get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir
0:01:43 > 0:01:47# So that every mouth can be fed
0:01:47 > 0:01:48# Oh-oh... #
0:01:48 > 0:01:51Israelites was the first reggae number one,
0:01:51 > 0:01:55reaching many who had never even heard the word reggae before.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57# My wife and my kids they pack up and leave me
0:01:57 > 0:02:00# "Darling" she said "I was yours to receive"... #
0:02:01 > 0:02:04Desmond Dekker was like a breath of fresh air.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06# The Israelites... #
0:02:06 > 0:02:12He just sailed to the top of the charts with Israelites.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17And I remember thinking it was, you know, a pop song with a reggae beat.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20It made us want to be like that.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25# I get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir
0:02:25 > 0:02:30# So that every mouth can be fed... #
0:02:30 > 0:02:31It was slightly different to a lot of the other records, wasn't it?
0:02:31 > 0:02:35It had a bit of attitude to it and a bit of a strut.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39It was a bit tougher than what you were generally hearing on the radio.
0:02:39 > 0:02:43He was right at the right time, you know, the way he used to open his mouth.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46- JAMAICAN ACCENT:- "It mek you haccidentally fall."
0:02:46 > 0:02:48You know, brilliant lyrics.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Great hardcore reggae at the time.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54# After a storm there must be a calming
0:02:54 > 0:02:57# You catch me in the palm you sound your alarm... #
0:02:57 > 0:03:01The Israelites and the hits, you know, that was my introduction to reggae.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04You know, I was fascinated about how do you play it.
0:03:04 > 0:03:09You know, even as early as that, I had the idea of merging
0:03:09 > 0:03:14rock music with reggae music, and finding some sort of middle ground.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17# Poor me, Israelites... #
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Hits like Israelites may have sounded like novelty music at the time,
0:03:21 > 0:03:26but they inspired a new generation with a taste for reggae, which they would eventually make their own.
0:03:26 > 0:03:32I think people forget that there was this golden period in the late '60s, particularly early '70s,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35where there was a lot of particularly melodic
0:03:35 > 0:03:37reggae tunes having top 20 hits.
0:03:40 > 0:03:41Hit the spot!
0:03:42 > 0:03:47Black people on the telly period in the '60s and '70s, even if they were a criminal,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51we'd be all... I was going to say ringing each other up, but we didn't even have phones in those days.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54But we'd be knocking on each other's doors, "Black man on the telly, black man on the telly!"
0:03:54 > 0:03:57If they were singing great music, even better.
0:03:58 > 0:03:59Work! Work!
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Work! Work! Work! Work!
0:04:04 > 0:04:05Your thing, baby, your thing.
0:04:07 > 0:04:08On a twist spin, baby.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13So by the time Dave and Ansell Collins had come along and was
0:04:13 > 0:04:18doing a kind of Booker T, with a James Brown kind of voice,
0:04:18 > 0:04:20"Huh! Hit it! I've made it! Uh!
0:04:20 > 0:04:22"Ow!"
0:04:22 > 0:04:23Much power.
0:04:25 > 0:04:26Good God.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Too much, I like it, huh!
0:04:30 > 0:04:33What really got me was the fans.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38We had to actually run for our lives.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39You know, screaming and shouting
0:04:39 > 0:04:41and grabbing and tearing off shirts
0:04:41 > 0:04:45and all them things, you know, it was crazy but we enjoyed it.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49I am the magnificent...
0:04:49 > 0:04:53They would be banging on the door, they would be banging down the door,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56and you're saying, "Man, these people are crazy."
0:04:56 > 0:05:04It was a bit surprising, as well, to us at the time, because we never thought that English people
0:05:04 > 0:05:06had so much oomph
0:05:06 > 0:05:10where the music is concerned.
0:05:14 > 0:05:20In the early '70s, reggae inspired both the West Indian community and white working class fans.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23First mods, then skinheads.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32I suppose sort of late '60s, early '70s,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36when I was like a little suedehead, a little mini, sort of
0:05:36 > 0:05:42post-skinhead, I mean, going to the local dances on a Thursday night and just hearing black music.
0:05:43 > 0:05:49Desmond Dekker, Return Of The Django, Liquidator, I mean they were big records.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53You know, you'd always hear them. And that was kind of it, really, that was the start of the love affair.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00So in some ways for us it became our music, so to speak.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04Because, I suppose, the lyrics, the sentiment was sort of like,
0:06:04 > 0:06:08it was to do with a rebel stance, which we all associated with.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13It's protest music, protest against injustice.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16And they saw me as a rebel and identified themselves as such.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18So there was some compatibility there,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21I think so, because
0:06:21 > 0:06:23you should have seen them.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28An anthem of the Skinheads was Max Romeo's Wet Dreams.
0:06:28 > 0:06:35They loved the rebel beat and risque lyrics that saw it banned from clubs and BBC.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38# Every night me go to sleep
0:06:38 > 0:06:39# Me have wet dream... #
0:06:40 > 0:06:44# Every night me go to sleep
0:06:44 > 0:06:45# Me have wet dream
0:06:46 > 0:06:48# Lie down, girl, let me push it up push it up
0:06:48 > 0:06:50# Lie down
0:06:50 > 0:06:53# Lie down, girl, let me push it up push it up
0:06:53 > 0:06:54# Lie down... #
0:06:54 > 0:07:00I think what happens is that they have a lot of anti-social
0:07:00 > 0:07:07feelings bagged up inside, and there was no way to actually spell it out.
0:07:07 > 0:07:13And here I come, the rebel, blurting out something like that, creating an upstir.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17So it was a good time for them to jump on the bandwagon and vent their anger.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20# Lie down, girl, let me push it up, push it up
0:07:20 > 0:07:21# Lie down
0:07:23 > 0:07:26# Lie down, girl, let me push it up, push it up, lie down... #
0:07:26 > 0:07:29That "chk, chk, chk, chk", it's just wonderful.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34And I used to like it when I was 15.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37I thought the dances that the girls did with all their little feather cuts
0:07:37 > 0:07:41and their nice little tonic suits and things, that was just so cute.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46# Throw all the punch you want to I can take them all... #
0:07:46 > 0:07:50These records, which were helping transform teenage Britain, had been arriving from
0:07:50 > 0:07:57Jamaica since the early '60s when they were distributed by a profusion of independent labels.
0:08:00 > 0:08:07Producers like Jamaican-born Chris Blackwell were planting the seeds of the reggae music business.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09We were just about
0:08:09 > 0:08:14the first people who decided to record
0:08:14 > 0:08:18Jamaican artists making popular music for a Jamaican audience.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21# Well, won't you tell me tell me, baby
0:08:21 > 0:08:24# What is a boy to do?
0:08:24 > 0:08:25# Woah
0:08:25 > 0:08:27# Hey-yeah, hey-yeah
0:08:27 > 0:08:29# Tell me, baby
0:08:29 > 0:08:31# Don't you ever tell me, baby... #
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Giant sound systems took these Jamaican hits all over the island.
0:08:39 > 0:08:40# You're treating me bad... #
0:08:40 > 0:08:42I used to go dance when I was very small.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44I couldn't get in the dance.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48And even Coxone Sound System used to come and play in my area.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49And I've heard a lot of songs when I was looking for
0:08:49 > 0:08:53Coxone Sound, which was champion sound, man. Trust me.
0:08:53 > 0:09:01Sugar Minott was one of many artists who would later influence the British reggae scene.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05He learned all about ska music there.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10I used to imitate all those songs after the dance, the next day I used to know them all.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12So that's where I know about ska, you know?
0:09:12 > 0:09:15# You don't know you don't know... #
0:09:15 > 0:09:16Later on,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21I took over the management of the jukeboxes when I had some of my own records.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25SKA MUSIC PLAYS
0:09:27 > 0:09:32If I took off a record, which had been on the jukebox for a bit and replaced it with a new record
0:09:32 > 0:09:35that the people didn't like, you'd hear immediately.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38It was something that I really learned, you know, from that experience.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Within about ten seconds they would say, "Take the record off."
0:09:42 > 0:09:46They didn't want to give it the time. That was it, it was just done within ten seconds.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And then sometimes, you know, there'd be a record that they'd like
0:09:49 > 0:09:50and everybody would get really excited.
0:09:50 > 0:09:55You know, it was an incredible sort of experience of instant response.
0:09:55 > 0:09:57SKA MUSIC PLAYS
0:10:01 > 0:10:05You used to have people in Jamaica like Caribbean Distributing Company,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08they used to make a good living by, even now,
0:10:08 > 0:10:13buying records and sending them to England.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17England is the gateway to real reggae music.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21The name of the music in England was Blue Beat, it was called Blue Beat.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25And so I was trying to sort of market the music
0:10:25 > 0:10:29and everybody would say, "Oh, do you have some Blue Beats?"
0:10:29 > 0:10:34And so I really pushed the name ska, because in Jamaica, it wasn't called Blue Beat.
0:10:34 > 0:10:41In Jamaica, it was called ska, cos it's a sort of onomatopoeic word for the guitar on the offbeat.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43So I really pushed the name ska.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50The earliest ska performers arrived in Britain in the early '60s.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55Singers like Prince Buster followed their records into this country, and were mobbed by West Indians
0:10:55 > 0:10:57alongside adoring mods and skinheads.
0:11:00 > 0:11:06The first big Jamaican success in the British pop charts came in 1965.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10It was a Chris Blackwell production - Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14# I love you, I love you I love you so
0:11:14 > 0:11:17# But I don't want you to know
0:11:17 > 0:11:21# I need you, I need you I need you so
0:11:21 > 0:11:24# And I'll never let you go-oh-oh
0:11:24 > 0:11:26# My boy lollipop... #
0:11:26 > 0:11:29This record of Millie, which I knew was going to be a hit when I finished
0:11:29 > 0:11:34working on it, it never got to number one, unfortunately - it got to number two.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37But it became a huge hit and it changed my life completely.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39# My lollipop... #
0:11:40 > 0:11:44By the early '70s, a small number of producers were firmly in control
0:11:44 > 0:11:48of the Jamaican and therefore the emerging British reggae business.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Though tens of thousands of records were distributed around the UK,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55many artists were not receiving much reward.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Accountability was always a problem.
0:11:58 > 0:11:59Because it was about them.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03"Oh, I'm selling your record in England and, you know, you'll just have to take my word for it.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05"This is how it goes."
0:12:05 > 0:12:08It was difficult to sue these people because you didn't know
0:12:08 > 0:12:12who to sue. We were told that it went to Jamaica to the producer.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17When we went to Jamaica to get our portion, we were told that it was left here and for Trojan
0:12:17 > 0:12:19to give it to us.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21I never really
0:12:21 > 0:12:25trusted these...outlets.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28You're supposed to get a percentage on every record that is sold.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31That is royalty, mechanical royalties.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34You could get publishing, money from publishing, copyright and these things.
0:12:34 > 0:12:35And I never used to get that at all.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Just the £10 and that's it.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45You discover that you haven't got anything to show
0:12:45 > 0:12:47for what you have done.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53I became very depressed
0:12:53 > 0:12:57and I locked myself away
0:12:57 > 0:12:58for quite a while.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07Times were hard for Jamaican artists who had settled here
0:13:07 > 0:13:13but found there was little support for their careers or follow up to their early successes.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15Their records were one hit wonders.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18It was the tunes that mattered, not the artists.
0:13:18 > 0:13:24One reggae singer even recorded a musical plea to the BBC to play his people's music.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29# It is a long walk to the BBC
0:13:29 > 0:13:31# But I've got my walking shoes on
0:13:32 > 0:13:37# Can't take a plane, a bus or train cos my money ain't that long
0:13:37 > 0:13:40# But people, I believe
0:13:40 > 0:13:41# Oh, yeah!
0:13:41 > 0:13:43# That you love reggae still
0:13:43 > 0:13:44# Oh, yeah!
0:13:44 > 0:13:46# So I'm going to see the management Lord
0:13:46 > 0:13:47# Oh, yeah
0:13:47 > 0:13:50# To wipe away my fears I tell you to look out... #
0:13:50 > 0:13:55A lot of the DJs had a snobbery towards Jamaican music
0:13:56 > 0:14:01that sometimes bordered on racialism.
0:14:01 > 0:14:02There was nothing played on the radio.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05There wasn't a few, there was nothing played on the radio.
0:14:05 > 0:14:11I never sent any of the records to the radio after a bit because nobody was ever interested in them.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15I never sent them to the press because nobody was interested in them.
0:14:15 > 0:14:23You know, according to rock press and the whole student rock scene, reggae was like idiot music, it was
0:14:23 > 0:14:27regarded as some sort of weird novelty music.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29It wasn't taken seriously at all.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32# I am on my way, oh yes I will
0:14:32 > 0:14:34# Long walk to the BBC... #
0:14:34 > 0:14:37Determined to get radio play, producers began remixing
0:14:37 > 0:14:41Jamaican recordings to make them sound sweeter.
0:14:41 > 0:14:46First off, they reduced the bass frequencies, and then they added an orchestral sound.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51It seemed like companies like Trojan,
0:14:51 > 0:14:56to make the records accessible to the British buying public,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00seemed to add strings to make it more classical.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04And then there was things like Young, Gifted And Black,
0:15:04 > 0:15:10that went into the charts, Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths, Bob and Marcia, that had strings all over it.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15# Young, gifted and black
0:15:17 > 0:15:22# Oh, what a lovely, precious dream
0:15:22 > 0:15:24# To be young, gifted and black
0:15:26 > 0:15:28# Open your heart to what I mean... #
0:15:28 > 0:15:31First time when he does that...
0:15:31 > 0:15:34# The whole world, you know
0:15:34 > 0:15:38# There's a million boys and girls
0:15:38 > 0:15:42# Who are young, gifted and black
0:15:42 > 0:15:44# And that's a fact... #
0:15:46 > 0:15:49I was very satisfied and very pleased with the strings.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54And so to hear a Jamaican recording, probably the first
0:15:54 > 0:16:01to be so well endowed with such beautiful arrangements, I felt good to be a part of that.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06It was the music that we identified with,
0:16:06 > 0:16:11and my time in school, there wasn't many black kids in the class.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14There was about three or four of us at the time.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19- Present, Miss Atkins. - We took our music to school.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22It was our music. It was something that we said, "This was ours."
0:16:25 > 0:16:31In the early '70s, British school curricula virtually ignored West Indian culture and history.
0:16:34 > 0:16:35Bearing in mind, you know,
0:16:35 > 0:16:38we were never taught about ourselves at the schools.
0:16:38 > 0:16:44It was always about William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings, Elizabeth I, the Spanish Armada.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50Things that really had nothing to do with our development,
0:16:50 > 0:16:54our growth, spiritually, physically, mentally.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59At that time, it was very important to me.
0:16:59 > 0:17:04As a matter of fact, I've never looked back since in the direction I've decided to take.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10As a first generation British-born black,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13we'd seen how our parents were really getting shafted
0:17:13 > 0:17:16by trying to anglicise themselves to be accepted.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19And we weren't buying that.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29What we did reject was the caution that our parents,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32and the restraint that our parents had.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39In a hostile racial environment, they were limited
0:17:39 > 0:17:44in the ways that they could fight against racial oppression.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48They had responsibilities. They had to put kids through school,
0:17:48 > 0:17:53they had to put bread on the table, send money back home to their families and so on.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57Though West Indians had been migrating here since the late 1940s,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02to do the jobs the British didn't want to do, many were still haunted, well into the '70s,
0:18:02 > 0:18:08by Enoch Powell's Rivers Of Blood speech condemning immigration.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13Though violence sometimes broke out, irony was perhaps a sharper weapon.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17COMIC JAMAICAN ACCENT: Hello 'dere.
0:18:17 > 0:18:18LAUGHTER
0:18:18 > 0:18:23DROPS ACCENT: Hey, you're lucky I came tonight, you know, cos I won't be here tomorrow.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25Enoch Powell has offered me £1,000 to go home.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29Which is great, really, cos it's only £10 on the train from here to Birmingham.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:18:31 > 0:18:37We wanted to be British. We wanted to be fitting and become a part of the society, but we found ourselves
0:18:37 > 0:18:40in a racialised environment, and this is where reggae came in.
0:18:40 > 0:18:46Reggae afforded us our own independent cultural identity.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50We were rejected by the wider society, so this was our music, this was our culture.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54My generation, we were the rebel generation,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58and we refused to tolerate the things our parents tolerated.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Listening to the imports coming in from Jamaica,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06you could keep in touch with what was happening in the society,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09you could keep in touch with the language.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14We knew what we were supposed to sound like, cos we were getting the music from Jamaica.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16But there was no visual accompaniment.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20I mean, I guess Bob would come along soon with the dreadlocks and everything,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23but for imagery of Jamaica, it would invariably come from a postcard.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28There'd be a man riding a donkey on a beach with a straw hat, or somebody limbo dancing.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32But then I saw The Harder They Come. That would have been in the early '70s.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36And I walked out inspired and empowered.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39I mean, we were all empowered after seeing The Harder They Come.
0:19:39 > 0:19:44I mean, it was the story of somebody who'd come from the country coming to the city to make it.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50And again, that really appealed to us, as, you know, we weren't exactly foreigners, we were born here,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52but we were made to feel like that.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56So Jimmy Cliff's struggle,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58yeah, it struck a chord with us.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04While cinemas introduced the Jamaican rude boy image to these shores,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08it was the sound systems that carried the music around the country.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12Home-made monster speakers updated the old Jamaican equipment.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18The sound system is totally responsible for the development of reggae in this country.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20Because radio didn't play it.
0:20:22 > 0:20:28In order to have the audience know that it was available, it had to be played on a sound system.
0:20:30 > 0:20:35If the sound system didn't play a particular record, you could bet it wouldn't be a hit.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44I remember in my teens standing up in front of the 18-inch bass speaker.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46That used to be a great feeling,
0:20:46 > 0:20:52hearing the bass running through your solar plexus or whatever you want to call it,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55running through your system. The bass.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58And Jamaican music is bass-led.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11We would just be fascinated and in awe of these people.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14They just look exciting, intriguing and different,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16something you've never seen before.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24They would be sitting in front of a speaker, and you could see their bodies going...
0:21:24 > 0:21:26And I wanted to experience that.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31And I used to stand in front of the speaker waiting for the beat of the bass line, so I could go...
0:21:33 > 0:21:37Then you started to smell the weed, right, and it was part of their culture,
0:21:37 > 0:21:43and it was a lovely smell. And I remembered dabbling, trying it out.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44High as a kite!
0:21:46 > 0:21:49There used to be, in the neighbourhood where I lived,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52there always used to be house parties.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54And I'd sneak out of my bedroom window
0:21:54 > 0:21:59and go down the road to one of these house parties, stay there for a couple of hours.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04And then come back, sneak back into the house,
0:22:04 > 0:22:06hopefully without my parents finding out.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09But occasionally I got caught and got the beating of a lifetime,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11but for me, it was worth it.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18What they were playing were the latest '70s imports
0:22:18 > 0:22:23from Jamaica, featuring new artists like Big Youth.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27The sound system, to be honest with you,
0:22:27 > 0:22:32the sound system was our BBC and ITV and CNN and everything,
0:22:32 > 0:22:38cos through the sound system we could get to communicate with the common people on the street.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49To be perfectly honest with you, Big Youth took the scene.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56Big Youth helped introduce the British reggae scene to mystical truths
0:22:56 > 0:23:01about Jamaican street life, and the pride and the faith of Rastafari.
0:23:06 > 0:23:14Big Youth came with kind of lyrics that were pertaining to what I wanted to know about, what I was studying.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17It was Rasta lyrics, he was telling bits of scripture.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21# So come on down along the sound The way is out, play
0:23:21 > 0:23:23# Yeah!
0:23:36 > 0:23:38It was just an amazing thing.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41It was like, "Wow, where did this guy come from?"
0:23:41 > 0:23:49The proverbial wisdom of Big Youth's first UK hit record was inspired by his Yamaha S90 motorbike.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53So I said, "Ride on, but don't you ride like lightning.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57"Say, man, if you ride like lightning, you'll crash like thunder."
0:23:57 > 0:24:00# So come on down along the sound and lead
0:24:00 > 0:24:01# The way is out, play.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04# Huh, good gosh! #
0:24:04 > 0:24:09It was just like something totally new, totally original, never heard it before.
0:24:09 > 0:24:12And I said, "yeah, I want to do that," you know what I mean?
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Young British musicians were enthralled by these Jamaican records,
0:24:18 > 0:24:21and were desperate to see the artists who made them.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Those artists were now fleeing the island to escape political gang wars.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29The songs they brought with them told of rough justice on the streets of Kingston.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31# My name is Capone
0:24:31 > 0:24:35# C-A-P-O-N-E
0:24:35 > 0:24:37# Capone... #
0:24:37 > 0:24:42If you listen to Guns Don't Argue and listen to the lyrics of that song,
0:24:42 > 0:24:49because it was the time when the gun was just introduced to Jamaica.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52You know, and it was introduced by the politicians.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57What I was saying in that record, "I'm a defender, not an offender.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01"So don't let the children cry, or you'll have to tell Al Capone why."
0:25:01 > 0:25:03# Don't let the children cry
0:25:03 > 0:25:06# Or you'll have to tell Al Capone why
0:25:06 > 0:25:09# My bucka will drop you, don't you know?
0:25:09 > 0:25:11# Yeah! #
0:25:11 > 0:25:13HE LAUGHS
0:25:19 > 0:25:25All these Jamaican imports would change the style and sounds of the British reggae scene.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30The latest recordings of producers like Lee Scratch Perry and Max Romeo
0:25:30 > 0:25:35were hotly fought over in the specialist record stores that sold them at top dollar.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39It's like, going to the record shop, I was excited, you know?
0:25:39 > 0:25:41You're like a little kid.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43OK, let me go to Dub Vendor,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47or Black, or Dread Records, or whoever it was at the time,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50you'd go there and say, "Right, what have you got new?"
0:25:50 > 0:25:54On a Friday evening, I mean, I was there till 8pm-9pm sometimes.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57And the shop would be packed. And this is a small shop.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01And as soon as you put a record on, it's played five seconds
0:26:01 > 0:26:04and ten hands have gone up, wanting that record.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09Because sometimes you might be in there and there might be only two records left,
0:26:09 > 0:26:14and you walk in, and so there'd be people in there saying "No, you can't have that."
0:26:14 > 0:26:18You know, we'd be fighting over who's going to get that seven-inch and who's not.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22It depends just how much they've got in stock, cos it's not even a wink.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25It's like, "Me, I'll take this. I was here first!"
0:26:27 > 0:26:31But there was one Jamaican whose music combined a rude boy image
0:26:31 > 0:26:35with Rasta consciousness in a way no other artist had.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37He would take Britain and the world by storm.
0:26:37 > 0:26:43At last there was a reggae star who'd be promoted as a hit maker and as an artist.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48# Slave driver
0:26:48 > 0:26:51# The table is turned
0:26:51 > 0:26:56# You've got your fire You're gonna to get burned
0:26:56 > 0:27:00# Yeah, slave driver
0:27:00 > 0:27:02# The table is...
0:27:02 > 0:27:06# Got your fire Got your fire
0:27:06 > 0:27:10# you're gonna get burned, oh... #
0:27:10 > 0:27:13Marley, the importance of Marley on the black British youth,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16it's almost impossible to put into words.
0:27:16 > 0:27:22I mean, I saw him play and it was like a religious experience - I mean, my top gig of all time -
0:27:22 > 0:27:26and walked out of there a new man, a reinvented man.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31Because we saw somebody here that was being accepted on his terms.
0:27:31 > 0:27:37You know, no straightened hair, no speaking English, it was his way or the highway.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42I think Bob Marley probably had the most impact of any artist
0:27:42 > 0:27:45on us collectively as a group of mates.
0:27:47 > 0:27:52We went to see him, and that to me was the closest thing to a spiritual experience I'd had.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54He was incredible.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59The band were brilliant, the Wailers were great, but he was something special.
0:27:59 > 0:28:05# Today they say that we are free Only to be chained in poverty
0:28:05 > 0:28:08# Good God, I think it's illiteracy
0:28:08 > 0:28:11# It's only machines that make money... #
0:28:11 > 0:28:15The Wailers had been together as a trio since the mid-'60s,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19but now they were about to transform the British reggae scene.
0:28:19 > 0:28:25It was probably the most important event in my life.
0:28:25 > 0:28:30I felt we should position him more as a rock act, as a black rock act.
0:28:30 > 0:28:37And in so doing, I wanted to move the music away from being its raw reggae,
0:28:37 > 0:28:45into having some elements which I felt would pull in the people
0:28:45 > 0:28:48who are interested in rock music, that kind of music.
0:28:48 > 0:28:54Catch A Fire's original Jamaican tapes were adapted for the rock market by Chris Blackwell,
0:28:54 > 0:28:57who overdubbed American musicians onto the recordings.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59They started playing this strange music,
0:28:59 > 0:29:03I mean, I'd never heard the likes of. It was...
0:29:03 > 0:29:07Compared to anything else I'd ever heard in my life, everything,
0:29:07 > 0:29:13the R&B, the church music, anything I'd ever heard, this was backwards.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15GUITAR RIFF PLAYS
0:29:18 > 0:29:24And Bob had his guitar on and he was going "chicka, chicka,"
0:29:24 > 0:29:27like they do. And I was just meandering on the organ, like...
0:29:31 > 0:29:35And he said, "No, no, bumbaclart, rasclart," all this, you know.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37So I made it a chord, and went...
0:29:41 > 0:29:46It's what he could teach you about his music that helped you with your own music.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48For my generation that bought that album,
0:29:48 > 0:29:50not only did we not know that Blackwell did that and there was an
0:29:50 > 0:29:53original roots version, we didn't care.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56It was those things that made our ears prick up
0:29:56 > 0:30:00and go, "Wow, this is somebody that's really doing something different."
0:30:00 > 0:30:02# Darkness has covered my light
0:30:05 > 0:30:09# And has changed my day into night, yeah
0:30:10 > 0:30:12# Where is the love
0:30:12 > 0:30:16# To be found?
0:30:16 > 0:30:18# Won't someone tell me?
0:30:18 > 0:30:20# Life
0:30:20 > 0:30:23# Must be somewhere
0:30:23 > 0:30:24# To be found
0:30:27 > 0:30:30# Instead of concrete jungle
0:30:30 > 0:30:35# I say, where the living is hardest
0:30:38 > 0:30:41# Your concrete jungle
0:30:41 > 0:30:45# Man, you've got to do your best
0:30:48 > 0:30:50# Oh-oh-ho-ho... #
0:30:52 > 0:30:56But Blackwell still needed the help of a major rock star to get
0:30:56 > 0:31:00Marley's music to the mainstream that reggae had not yet touched.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05Now, at that time, there was no bigger artist in England
0:31:05 > 0:31:09and maybe the world than... than Eric Clapton.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14And when Eric Clapton picked some material from Bob Marley,
0:31:14 > 0:31:17that, I think, was probably Bob's biggest break.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20# I shot the sheriff
0:31:20 > 0:31:24# But I did not shoot no deputy... #
0:31:25 > 0:31:28The rock audience was becoming aware of reggae.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33And the record business wondered whether other British bands
0:31:33 > 0:31:36would grab this opportunity to reach a new audience.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43# Freedom came my way one day
0:31:44 > 0:31:47# And I started out of town
0:31:50 > 0:31:54# All of a sudden I see Sheriff John Brown... #
0:31:54 > 0:32:00But the fledgling black reggae bands found themselves in the shadow of Marley's music,
0:32:00 > 0:32:05and they faced sceptical fans who were now looking for an authentic sound.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07We had a split audience.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10We had the slightly older generation that looked to Jamaica,
0:32:11 > 0:32:16and then we had the British audience, who were still in a flux
0:32:16 > 0:32:22as to whether they looked towards the Caribbean, which was authentic,
0:32:22 > 0:32:25or looked at what was happening on their doorstep.
0:32:28 > 0:32:33The young roots bands sharpened their musical skills in local bars and clubs.
0:32:37 > 0:32:43At the same time, we're rehearsing every week, hoping that the band's successful.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48Meanwhile, the parents have no interest in music at all.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58They had their share of musical snobbery and prejudice to overcome as well.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Lots of people were hurling criticism at reggae.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05"You just have to know how to play two chords and you're there."
0:33:05 > 0:33:08A lot of reggae has been two chords,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11but two of the sweetest chords you could put together.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20We were more interested in trying to fuse
0:33:20 > 0:33:25a pop style with a soul style with a reggae beat.
0:33:35 > 0:33:41If you said roots and British, the two didn't sit side by side comfortably.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Roots was Jamaican.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Roots and British
0:33:47 > 0:33:49didn't really work.
0:33:54 > 0:33:59One band that quickly gained credibility with reggae fans was Aswad.
0:33:59 > 0:34:02They offered a British flavour to Jamaican roots sounds.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23Our attitude has always been that the band and the music
0:34:23 > 0:34:28was about our experiences in inner-city London.
0:34:29 > 0:34:35And a lot of the bands at that time were just copying music that came from Jamaica.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37They weren't telling their own story.
0:34:37 > 0:34:43And I think this was probably the unique thing about Aswad, and
0:34:43 > 0:34:49later on we were not only identified with by the black youth, but also
0:34:49 > 0:34:55white kids, Indian kids were identifying, because we were talking about what was happening to us.
0:34:55 > 0:35:01# It's not our wish That we should fi-i-i-ight
0:35:03 > 0:35:06# It's not our wish
0:35:06 > 0:35:09# That we should fight fight fight... #
0:35:21 > 0:35:24We were confronting the system
0:35:24 > 0:35:27and how the system created a negative space
0:35:27 > 0:35:28for people of colour.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31This is where we were speaking from.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40We used to use the term Babylon.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43The Sus laws was an expression of Babylon.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46It was the long arm of the law
0:35:46 > 0:35:50that said, "If we suspect you might be doing something,
0:35:50 > 0:35:56"that gives us the right to strip search you, on occasions publicly."
0:35:56 > 0:36:02Your parents would say, "Look, don't go out on your own, make sure you come in before it's dark."
0:36:04 > 0:36:07"Don't dress a certain way,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11"because that will give them an excuse to stop you."
0:36:11 > 0:36:14Social divisions were growing.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17The summer of '76 would be long and hot,
0:36:17 > 0:36:19the hottest since records began.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24# Then it was 96 degrees
0:36:24 > 0:36:26# In the shade
0:36:29 > 0:36:31# Ten thousand soldiers
0:36:31 > 0:36:33# On parade
0:36:36 > 0:36:38# Taking I
0:36:38 > 0:36:41# To meet to the big fat one
0:36:43 > 0:36:45# Sent from overseas
0:36:45 > 0:36:48# The queen employ... #
0:36:48 > 0:36:51At the Notting Hill Carnival, tensions were building.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56The British roots bands and their families were arriving.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58Aswad among them.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02We had just released our first album, Aswad.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05It was just a great experience, it was a great energy.
0:37:05 > 0:37:06# You got me on the loose
0:37:06 > 0:37:08# Fighting to be free
0:37:08 > 0:37:12# Now you show me a noose on the cotton tree... #
0:37:12 > 0:37:16Then suddenly from Portobello Road, someone came around screaming, "The beasts are coming!
0:37:16 > 0:37:18"The beasts are coming!"
0:37:20 > 0:37:25We was at the point under the Westway when there was some scuffling,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27and like the police went in to arrest somebody.
0:37:30 > 0:37:37Suddenly, it was like a whole separation of people, of police...
0:37:37 > 0:37:39It was like them against us.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46Well, the first thing that we had to do was to get our instruments into the van,
0:37:46 > 0:37:51so while things were going and missiles were flying around, we were loading stuff into the van.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56Yeah, I just remember me and Joe spending ages trying to set this
0:37:56 > 0:37:59car alight that was upside down,
0:37:59 > 0:38:04and then a police motorcycle zoomed through, and I threw a bollard.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07And shit, I don't know what I would have done if the guy had come off,
0:38:07 > 0:38:10but it hit his front wheel and it staggered for a moment.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12# Send in the riot squad quick
0:38:12 > 0:38:14# Because they're running wild... #
0:38:14 > 0:38:18By that time, the police were coming this way, and they were hurling missiles.
0:38:23 > 0:38:27And the next thing that we had to do was to find our parents.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29We don't know where they went.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33That was our carnival experience.
0:38:36 > 0:38:39Inner-city riots spread all around England, including Handsworth in
0:38:39 > 0:38:47Birmingham, home of Steel Pulse, reggae's most militant and musically adventurous home-grown band.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51# We're walking along just
0:38:51 > 0:38:55# Kicking stones Me minding my own business
0:38:56 > 0:38:59# I come face to face with my foe
0:39:02 > 0:39:03# Disguised in violence from head to toe... #
0:39:03 > 0:39:07Ku Klux Klan warned of the danger
0:39:07 > 0:39:10of American-style white supremacists gaining a voice in Britain.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14My imagination just got the better of me, where I started to imagine
0:39:14 > 0:39:18me minding my own business walking along the streets of Handsworth
0:39:18 > 0:39:21and then getting reprisal
0:39:21 > 0:39:24from some white extremists of some kind.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26So that's how that song came into play.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30The hoods were made out of pillowcases initially.
0:39:30 > 0:39:37We simply cut slits for, er... the eyes.
0:39:37 > 0:39:44So the hoods was a very powerful, confrontational, militant statement, saying, "We're here, we're here to
0:39:44 > 0:39:47"stay, and we are prepared to fight for our position."
0:39:47 > 0:39:52# Here to stamp out black man, yah
0:39:52 > 0:39:54# The Klu Klux Klan... #
0:39:56 > 0:40:01At that time, I felt that Steel Pulse had their finger
0:40:01 > 0:40:07absolutely on the button of really furthering British reggae music.
0:40:07 > 0:40:13They were putting out stuff which was highly charged, highly political.
0:40:13 > 0:40:21These were black people doing this, and that was just shocking, it was absolutely shocking.
0:40:24 > 0:40:27But a new musical alignment was taking place
0:40:27 > 0:40:32between what had until now been separate musical cultures.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36It would radically change reggae's impact and acceptance almost overnight.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50# It takes a joyful sound
0:40:50 > 0:40:52# To make the world go round... #
0:40:52 > 0:41:00In the late '70s, young British blacks found a musical and ideological ally in the punks.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02# It's a punky reggae party... #
0:41:02 > 0:41:04What we were writing about was everyday life,
0:41:04 > 0:41:06and what the reggae musicians were writing about was
0:41:06 > 0:41:08every day, contemporary life,
0:41:08 > 0:41:12what's happening now, the violence, the poverty, the injustices.
0:41:14 > 0:41:19Out of the punky reggae explosion came Rock Against Racism,
0:41:19 > 0:41:24which was really a response to the rise of the right wing that was happening in the late '70s,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27during the kind of time of social crisis, you know.
0:41:35 > 0:41:41Rock Against Racism brought together reggae and punk bands in musical protest and solidarity.
0:41:46 > 0:41:52Up to that time, black bands didn't play on the same stage with white bands.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55That's a really important point to make, people forget that now.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58You had black concerts and white concerts.
0:41:59 > 0:42:05We got increasingly large stages to perform in front of, where the audience were
0:42:05 > 0:42:12saying, "We never instigated this segregation between the musicians, and we support this coming together."
0:42:18 > 0:42:24The Clash offered reggae performers a new audience, but this was reggae in punk clothing.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33We weren't trying to do a slavish copy.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37We were trying to give our interpretation of ingredients to our
0:42:37 > 0:42:41music, you know, and people say, "Oh, it's not like reggae."
0:42:41 > 0:42:44It wasn't meant to be like reggae.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47It was our... We were a punk group, you know.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50# Police and thieves in the street
0:42:50 > 0:42:52# Oh, yeah
0:42:52 > 0:42:54# Scaring the nation with
0:42:56 > 0:42:58# Guns and ammunition... #
0:42:58 > 0:43:04The Clash embraced the work of respected Jamaican artists and producers like Lee "Scratch" Perry.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08The thing is, Police And Thieves was quite a popular tune at that time.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10We decided to do a cover of it,
0:43:10 > 0:43:15which was quite interesting, because Lee Perry said, when we finally met him,
0:43:15 > 0:43:18"What do you think of our version?" He said, "Oh, you ruined it!"
0:43:18 > 0:43:20which made me laugh!
0:43:20 > 0:43:23# From genesis
0:43:23 > 0:43:24# To revelation
0:43:26 > 0:43:28# The next generation... #
0:43:31 > 0:43:33The punk movement had in
0:43:33 > 0:43:37common with the reggae movement was that it was frowned upon.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40People, you know, looked at it as an inferior genre.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48So together... you know, they came out fighting, you know,
0:43:48 > 0:43:52and then everybody wanted a piece of reggae in his punk tune.
0:43:55 > 0:44:01Dennis Bovell was asked to produce the debut album of the punk band the Slits.
0:44:02 > 0:44:07It's very normal for me to feel that music was a conduit for protest,
0:44:07 > 0:44:12and that's what punk was and that's what reggae was as well,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15and I think that's where the two really came together,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18talking about life on the streets when you were an underdog,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20where you had no money, you had no voice,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23and you wanted to point out the wrongs in the world
0:44:23 > 0:44:25and your only way through that was through music.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39I think what reggae really taught punk musicians was about space
0:44:39 > 0:44:42and being brave enough to let there be holes and gaps,
0:44:42 > 0:44:44and dub even more than that.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47Because punk was very strict, very fast, you know -
0:44:47 > 0:44:50get through it as fast as possible - very, very urban,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54whereas reggae also came from an urban background,
0:44:54 > 0:44:57but it was about letting go, being loose,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00and it was such a relief after the strictness and minimalism of punk.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07This is a street way of getting your voice out there
0:45:07 > 0:45:10and, you know, punk and reggae both did that.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19Reggae was now finding its way into even the most unexpected corners of the country.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25Hidden away in a leafy London suburb was a musical foundry
0:45:25 > 0:45:29that would feed British sound systems throughout the land.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31Why write no more?
0:45:31 > 0:45:33Keep it dubbing.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35We're working it, you know.
0:45:35 > 0:45:37Rock-solid base. We rule, innit.
0:45:38 > 0:45:42While thumbing through the Yellow Pages one time,
0:45:42 > 0:45:47looking for a place to cut an acetate,
0:45:47 > 0:45:50found Hassell Recordings.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52Phoned up, gone over there.
0:45:52 > 0:46:00An elderly gentleman, who was famed for smoking a big fat cigar - John Hassell - answers the door.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06We go into his house, into his living room, right,
0:46:06 > 0:46:08and he's got this wonderful
0:46:08 > 0:46:11German disc-cutting lathe set up in his front room.
0:46:13 > 0:46:15They had come to cut an acetate -
0:46:15 > 0:46:19the metal dub plate from which vinyl records would be cut.
0:46:19 > 0:46:24And his wife Felicity has offered us a cup of tea, a cup of coffee.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27Then we put on these tapes and it's, like, reggae.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33You know, imagine stumbling on that through the Yellow Pages, right.
0:46:33 > 0:46:39Then we were telling other people, "Listen, we found a guy
0:46:39 > 0:46:41"who knows how to cut reggae."
0:46:41 > 0:46:44Doing straight dub, are we?
0:46:44 > 0:46:47You can have a fantastic-sounding thing on the tape
0:46:47 > 0:46:50and then it all falls to pieces at the cutting end of it.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53And someone who would be sympathetic to the frequencies
0:46:53 > 0:46:59and know how to capture that sound from the tape onto the disc...
0:46:59 > 0:47:00And John was a master at that.
0:47:04 > 0:47:10It's an esoteric world. It's a world of subtlety and refinements.
0:47:11 > 0:47:12To them,
0:47:12 > 0:47:16sound is important, it has a meaning,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19so it has to be done right and professionally and proper.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Next stop for Bovell's British dub cuts were the sound systems
0:47:25 > 0:47:28where DJs would preview new tunes
0:47:28 > 0:47:31and gauge whether the dancers liked them.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37But sound systems only wanted to preview Jamaican imports.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42To get British reggae played required a further sleight of hand.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45So we had this idea
0:47:45 > 0:47:50to get a machine that could make a big wide hole in records
0:47:50 > 0:47:53that were pressed in this country
0:47:53 > 0:47:56and don't put on it, "Made in England".
0:47:56 > 0:47:59HE LAUGHS That was another dead giveaway!
0:47:59 > 0:48:01You know, put as little information as possible.
0:48:04 > 0:48:10Then parade them as pre-release and mix them in with the Jamaican stuff,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13and very often they passed off as that.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18That was definitely the way of getting our music played on sound systems.
0:48:20 > 0:48:23To decide which pre-releases would become hits,
0:48:23 > 0:48:28sound systems used the old Jamaican tradition of bare-knuckle competition.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32It's like, you know, Mike Tyson fighting Lennox Lewis.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36People pay to see and people want to go
0:48:36 > 0:48:40because they don't know what the outcome's going to be, but they go.
0:48:40 > 0:48:45You know, the sound system clashes, it's the same kind of thing.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48They want to see who's going to play the best music on the night.
0:48:50 > 0:48:56The most powerful and respected sounds were Jah Shaka, Coxsone and Saxon.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03Each sound had its own partisan following and its own DJs.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08We were always looking to Jamaica,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11but when Saxon came along, you know what I mean,
0:49:11 > 0:49:16Jamaica started to look to us, which was never done before.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22There was a new confidence and a sense of home-grown identity
0:49:22 > 0:49:27to the British sounds coming out of the black communities in areas like Brixton.
0:49:28 > 0:49:34Perhaps British reggae's most distinctive voice in the late '70s was Linton Kwesi Johnson,
0:49:34 > 0:49:38who pioneered a distinctively British dub poetry.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41# Ganja crawling creeping through my brain
0:49:41 > 0:49:44# The cold light's hurting and breaking and hurting
0:49:44 > 0:49:48# Fire in the head and the dread beat bleeding, beating
0:49:48 > 0:49:50# Fire, dread... #
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Dread is dread, dread is fear.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54Dread is a kind of terror.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00Dread Beat An' Blood is kind of a metaphor
0:50:00 > 0:50:06for the tension and the violence that were part of...
0:50:06 > 0:50:08that culture of resistance
0:50:08 > 0:50:10to which reggae was so essential.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15His record Dread Beat An' Blood absolutely knocked us for six.
0:50:15 > 0:50:21It was his delivery, his words were so clever, the beats, it was so understated.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25It was like nothing you'd ever heard before. He was like a god to us.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32I don't begin with a piece of music.
0:50:32 > 0:50:34I begin with the word.
0:50:34 > 0:50:36The language of the verse I write
0:50:36 > 0:50:38will determine the rhythm of the music.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46I hear music in language, so that...
0:50:46 > 0:50:50in a poem like, for example, It Noh Funny, I say,
0:50:50 > 0:50:55"Dem wi' tek chance," and that's exactly what the bass plays.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57Da-da-DUH-da.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00And the horn section will play the same rhythm as well.
0:51:02 > 0:51:04That was my aesthetic -
0:51:04 > 0:51:08that I wanted to write verse that sounded like a bass line.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12I wanted to write lines of poetry that sounded like a reggae bass line.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16The mix of instrumental sounds,
0:51:16 > 0:51:19the bass and echo effects in Dread Beat An' Blood,
0:51:19 > 0:51:22were the result of an unusual partnership.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33The great thing about dub is that
0:51:33 > 0:51:37it's the engineer's art,
0:51:37 > 0:51:39it's what the sound engineer does.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46It's the deconstruction of a piece of music
0:51:46 > 0:51:53and its reconstruction as an act of illusion.
0:51:59 > 0:52:03By act of illusion, I mean you have a spatial dimension,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05which is created with echoes and reverbs.
0:52:11 > 0:52:17British dub is quite a lot different to its Jamaican counterpart.
0:52:19 > 0:52:24Quite a lot of young British people like the fact that
0:52:24 > 0:52:29the echoes will take them into a different world, you know.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32You could hear your favourite song mashed up.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35It was like making scrambled eggs.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Bovell's first experience of this musical bricolage
0:52:41 > 0:52:45didn't come from Jamaica, but from an album he had at home.
0:52:45 > 0:52:51I thought that the first dub I'd heard was Jimi Hendrix,
0:52:51 > 0:52:54a song called Third Stone From The Sun.
0:52:54 > 0:52:59The amount of echo on the guitars and the sound effects in there
0:52:59 > 0:53:02were positively the first sort of dubbing I heard.
0:53:02 > 0:53:08Then to find that creeping into reggae, it was like, "Yeah!"
0:53:11 > 0:53:16It was this mixture of early influences from pop records, school friends and sound systems
0:53:16 > 0:53:19that would earn him the title Godfather Of British Dub.
0:53:30 > 0:53:35Dub sounds became part of the musical mix for many British rock and punk bands at that time.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45Police came along and turned reggae into rock and roll,
0:53:45 > 0:53:51by adopting the Jimi Hendrix Experience style
0:53:51 > 0:53:55of a three-piece band - drums, bass and guitar -
0:53:55 > 0:53:57and, em, playing reggae.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02# Dreaming dreams of what used to be
0:54:02 > 0:54:06# When she left I was cold inside... #
0:54:06 > 0:54:08'We completely...'
0:54:08 > 0:54:12bastardised reggae. We plundered it without remorse.
0:54:12 > 0:54:18We took from it what was useful to us, but we made no attempt to repackage it
0:54:18 > 0:54:21and deliver it back unto the people, which would have been false.
0:54:23 > 0:54:29The Police began life as a punk-reggae band in 1977 with an agenda all their own.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34Roxanne, off their first album, became their signature tune.
0:54:36 > 0:54:37# I've loved you since I knew you
0:54:39 > 0:54:41# I wouldn't talk down to you
0:54:42 > 0:54:45# I have to tell you just how I feel... #
0:54:48 > 0:54:53The first time I heard Roxanne, I heard Sting come up with this song
0:54:53 > 0:54:56and he had it as a sort of bossa nova with the chords going...
0:54:56 > 0:54:59HE PLAYS BOSSA-NOVA STYLE GUITAR CHORDS
0:55:06 > 0:55:09So it was very soft and a kind of sexy song.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13"Yeah, really nice. But bossa nova? This is the punk scene.
0:55:13 > 0:55:14"We're going to get killed!"
0:55:14 > 0:55:18We started to sort of change it around.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21We were sort of being influenced by reggae at that point,
0:55:21 > 0:55:25to see if there was some way we could change the drumming.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28And so we reggae-fied this bossa nova tune that he had written.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31And it's not even real reggae.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35Andy Summers, his guitar part, is not the up-chick, it's the downbeat.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38He plays one, two, three, four, chick, chick, chick.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47And that locks the whole thing together.
0:55:47 > 0:55:49So with the straight four on the bar guitar
0:55:49 > 0:55:52and the drums doing this kind of reggae feeling
0:55:52 > 0:55:56and the bass line going with that - dum-DUM, da-da-da, dum-DUM, da-da-da.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00# ..Oh, Roxanne, oh
0:56:00 > 0:56:03# Oh, Roxanne, oh-oh... #
0:56:03 > 0:56:08We tried to be as mercenary as possible
0:56:08 > 0:56:11because we want to conquer the world, but actually we can't resist
0:56:11 > 0:56:15playing with this thing that really is fascinating us and turns us on
0:56:15 > 0:56:18and we find this new rhythmic formula,
0:56:18 > 0:56:23which applies to Sting's new-found ability to write fancy chords
0:56:23 > 0:56:25and with a guitarist who can play them.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28It was like candy for us.
0:56:35 > 0:56:36Here we go.
0:56:36 > 0:56:38# ..Roxanne
0:56:38 > 0:56:42# You don't have to put on the red light
0:56:43 > 0:56:45# Those days are over
0:56:45 > 0:56:48# You don't have to sell your body to the night
0:56:48 > 0:56:50# Roxanne... #
0:56:52 > 0:56:56At the same time, there was a little group of mainly Midlands bands,
0:56:56 > 0:56:59digging further back into Jamaican history.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03In Coventry, they were reinventing the sound of the '60s.
0:57:07 > 0:57:112 Tone were a kind of musical commune that included Selecter, The Beat and Madness.
0:57:11 > 0:57:17They injected old-school Jamaican ska with a new punk energy.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20The 2 Tone guys, they were from Coventry,
0:57:20 > 0:57:25and Jerry Dammers, the maestro who pulled that all together, which was the weirdest thing.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28I never got to know Jerry at all.
0:57:28 > 0:57:29Some of the other guys, yeah,
0:57:29 > 0:57:32but Jerry seemed like a complete mastermind.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37I don't know what part of his brain was working, but some part clearly was in focus.
0:57:37 > 0:57:42I'd say we were the beginning of the imitation generation, you know.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44At least we were one of the first to do it.
0:57:44 > 0:57:45We were like The Jam.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47It was like imitating the past, but in real life.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54This was our inspiration.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58'It would be really hard to say why retro culture happened,
0:57:58 > 0:58:01'but it did and it was exciting.
0:58:01 > 0:58:03'I think it was good'
0:58:03 > 0:58:05from the point of view that it probably...
0:58:05 > 0:58:09introduced a younger generation into that music.
0:58:09 > 0:58:14You go and find the originals and it's like, "Oh, that's what it's about."
0:58:14 > 0:58:17Then those originals lead you on to something else.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19They're like stepping stones, I think.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23I think 2 Tone was important from that point of view, you know.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31The ska that we played was very different.
0:58:31 > 0:58:35We didn't really know how to play Jamaican ska properly.
0:58:35 > 0:58:38If you listen to it, it's actually a strange fusion
0:58:38 > 0:58:44of bits of skinhead style, bits of Mod style, bits of Jamaican rude-boy style.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47Mixing it and matching it and...
0:58:47 > 0:58:51creating something, which never actually happened in the first place exactly.
0:59:13 > 0:59:16# Now you're on your own
0:59:17 > 0:59:24# I won't return Forever you will wait... #
0:59:24 > 0:59:30There are, I believe, periods of huge energy and change.
0:59:30 > 0:59:35I think youth always needs something to kick against
0:59:35 > 0:59:38and if the political climate feels more oppressive to them,
0:59:38 > 0:59:43they will kick harder and something bigger and better will grow out of it.
0:59:43 > 0:59:47# Call me immature Call me a poser
0:59:47 > 0:59:49# I'll put manure in your bed of roses
0:59:49 > 0:59:52# Don't bother me Don't bother me... #
0:59:56 > 0:59:59In a way, The Specials were playing out the kind of...
0:59:59 > 1:00:03drama of British society on the stage, you know.
1:00:03 > 1:00:06That was part of the concept.
1:00:06 > 1:00:08# You done too much Much too young
1:00:08 > 1:00:12# You're married with a kid when you could be having fun... #
1:00:12 > 1:00:172 Tone. I think that we were using elements
1:00:17 > 1:00:22of that time of what Jamaican reggae artists and Jamaican ska artists
1:00:22 > 1:00:25like Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster, all those kind of people,
1:00:25 > 1:00:31and The Skatalites were doing, but we were really of the punk generation.
1:00:31 > 1:00:34Recycle it, OK?
1:00:38 > 1:00:42Three Minute Hero was about
1:00:42 > 1:00:48what it was like to have a job clocking on and just living, in a way, just for the weekend.
1:00:48 > 1:00:52# They asked you if you're all right
1:00:52 > 1:00:54# You said yes
1:00:55 > 1:00:58# But all the time you know
1:00:59 > 1:01:00# It's a mess
1:01:00 > 1:01:04# It's 5pm and you're on your way home
1:01:04 > 1:01:07# It's just another day with that endless grey drone
1:01:07 > 1:01:10# Three minute hero, I wanna be... #
1:01:12 > 1:01:20It was possible for us to use political lyrics with that kind of music and still keep it high energy.
1:01:22 > 1:01:27Pauline's band, The Selecter added the strongest punk stamp to this 60s retro-culture.
1:01:27 > 1:01:33They toured the country alongside The Specials, with high-energy songs like On My Radio.
1:01:40 > 1:01:45On My Radio showcased the vocals because of the very high...
1:01:45 > 1:01:47(HIGH-PITCHED) # On my radio... # business going on.
1:01:47 > 1:01:54It sort of sounded a bit like Kate Bush crossed with, I don't know, Millie Small,
1:01:54 > 1:01:57crossed with some other kind of reggae thing that was going on.
1:02:00 > 1:02:02# On my radio... #
1:02:03 > 1:02:07'It had all the ingredients of a quirky pop song
1:02:07 > 1:02:09'and people loved it.'
1:02:09 > 1:02:14# On my radio, my radio My radio... #
1:02:14 > 1:02:18With 2 Tone at the time of the ska revival, I always found there was
1:02:18 > 1:02:21a closer connection with punk than there was with ska.
1:02:21 > 1:02:24It was like what would normally be a punk band
1:02:24 > 1:02:26would get up there and play an offbeat
1:02:26 > 1:02:29and suddenly you've got something that sounds vaguely like ska.
1:02:29 > 1:02:34None of us was really interested in being part of what was effectively
1:02:34 > 1:02:36just a ska revival.
1:02:36 > 1:02:40To start playing ska was like taking two steps backwards.
1:02:40 > 1:02:44We wanted something a little bit more long lasting.
1:02:46 > 1:02:50# He wields his flute with an expert hand
1:02:50 > 1:02:52# Then, all too soon... #
1:02:52 > 1:02:57The band that would take '70s reggae into the pop charts for the next 30 years
1:02:57 > 1:03:00was a bunch of Birmingham lads.
1:03:03 > 1:03:08We called ourselves a jazz dub reggae band when we started.
1:03:10 > 1:03:16But we wanted to make reggae music, you know. It was important to us.
1:03:16 > 1:03:20It wasn't going to be Jamaican reggae, you know, because we were
1:03:20 > 1:03:23a British band and we wanted to make British reggae, like a hybrid.
1:03:23 > 1:03:28# There are murders that we must account for
1:03:28 > 1:03:33# Bloody deeds have been done in my name
1:03:33 > 1:03:36# Criminal acts I must pay for
1:03:36 > 1:03:40# And our children will shoulder the blame
1:03:40 > 1:03:45# I'm a British subject I'm proud of it
1:03:45 > 1:03:49# While I carry the burden of shame
1:03:49 > 1:03:54# I'm a British subject and I'm proud of it
1:03:54 > 1:03:58# While I carry the burden of shame... #
1:04:01 > 1:04:04Our environment totally shaped who we were.
1:04:07 > 1:04:11I think if you went to Balsall Heath,
1:04:11 > 1:04:13which is where most of us grew up,
1:04:13 > 1:04:18and grabbed eight guys off the street, they'd look pretty much like us.
1:04:18 > 1:04:21The same kind of racial mix.
1:04:21 > 1:04:28We were immediately more attractive, I think, to a British audience because we were mixed.
1:04:28 > 1:04:36As far as our image goes, we had no image. We just wear what we wore anyway.
1:04:36 > 1:04:42We weren't into dressing up in uniforms and suits and whatever.
1:04:42 > 1:04:44What you see is what you get.
1:04:44 > 1:04:46We were called UB40
1:04:46 > 1:04:49because we were all signing on at the time.
1:04:49 > 1:04:53A friend of ours suggested the name when we were trying to think of a name.
1:04:53 > 1:04:58He said, "You've all got UB40 cards, why not call yourselves UB40?"
1:04:58 > 1:05:02It was honest, as well, because we really did come from that.
1:05:02 > 1:05:06Without taking dole money we'd never have been able to afford to rehearse.
1:05:06 > 1:05:10We'd have had to get a job. We were actually in the middle of that.
1:05:10 > 1:05:15It wasn't something we took from the outside hoping we might attract an audience.
1:05:15 > 1:05:19We were responding to the circumstances we were in.
1:05:19 > 1:05:26So, obviously, when we made our first album, it was just a natural progression to call it Signing Off
1:05:26 > 1:05:28because we weren't signing on any more.
1:05:28 > 1:05:31It was a facsimile of the UB40 card.
1:05:31 > 1:05:37It was pretty clever because it gave us three million card-carrying fans instantly!
1:05:45 > 1:05:47It sold eight million copies, you know.
1:05:47 > 1:05:51For an album made in a bedsit, that was pretty good going.
1:05:52 > 1:05:55# Refugee without a home
1:05:55 > 1:05:56# A housewife hooked on Valium
1:05:56 > 1:05:58# I'm a pensioner alone
1:05:58 > 1:06:02# I'm a cancer-ridden spectre that's covering the earth
1:06:02 > 1:06:07# I'm another hungry baby I'm an accident of birth
1:06:07 > 1:06:10- # One in ten - A number on a list
1:06:10 > 1:06:14- # One in ten - Even though I don't exist... #
1:06:14 > 1:06:19To us, reggae didn't represent palm trees and beaches, it represented the inner city.
1:06:19 > 1:06:24When I heard reggae music, that's the image I picture in my own head.
1:06:30 > 1:06:36By the dawn of the '80s, new-wave reggae from 2 Tone to UB40 was taking on Thatcher's Britain.
1:06:39 > 1:06:44# Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?
1:06:46 > 1:06:50# We danced and sang as the music played in any boomtown... #
1:06:55 > 1:06:57We were touring the country.
1:06:57 > 1:07:02Margaret Thatcher was busy closing down huge swathes
1:07:02 > 1:07:05of British industry because they weren't profitable.
1:07:05 > 1:07:09She was like...Al Capone, I would guess.
1:07:09 > 1:07:13Because her mob weren't getting paid she was going to shut them all down.
1:07:13 > 1:07:17That's what happened. We were touring the country and we could literally see it happening.
1:07:19 > 1:07:23# This town is becoming like a ghost town
1:07:23 > 1:07:25# Why must the youth fight against themselves? #
1:07:25 > 1:07:27Ghost Town just captured what was happening
1:07:27 > 1:07:29all over England at the same time.
1:07:31 > 1:07:33It was all closing down.
1:07:33 > 1:07:36Your local corner shops were closing down.
1:07:38 > 1:07:40Dance halls getting closed down.
1:07:40 > 1:07:42It meant something to you.
1:07:53 > 1:07:55In Ghost Town...
1:07:55 > 1:07:58I got a good solo in Ghost Town.
1:07:58 > 1:08:01I think I did everything in that solo.
1:08:01 > 1:08:05I was talking about suffering, I was talking about goodness.
1:08:05 > 1:08:10If you listen to that solo, you hear everything that you like to hear in music.
1:08:14 > 1:08:17I play my trombone to speak for all those who cannot speak
1:08:17 > 1:08:21and because I have the opportunity to be there.
1:08:28 > 1:08:30We know oppression very well.
1:08:30 > 1:08:32We know oppression very well.
1:08:57 > 1:09:05The death of Bob Marley, reggae's only superstar, saw him given a state funeral in Jamaica in 1981.
1:09:11 > 1:09:15# I need strength to make my own way... #
1:09:16 > 1:09:20The British roots bands that had once built themselves in Marley's image
1:09:20 > 1:09:24now found they were losing the support of their record companies and their audience.
1:09:29 > 1:09:33These bands - Aswad, Matumbi,
1:09:33 > 1:09:39had gone...slower reggae and a bit more political.
1:09:41 > 1:09:47And the...fun had gone out of reggae for a lot of those bands.
1:09:47 > 1:09:49It was serious music now.
1:09:50 > 1:09:56But the BBC playlists mostly remained a no-go area for reggae artists.
1:09:56 > 1:09:58It's the brotherhood of flower pots. That's it.
1:09:58 > 1:10:02'The industry still did not gravitate or cotton on to reggae music
1:10:02 > 1:10:05'in its proper context.'
1:10:05 > 1:10:08Music was still not played on the airwaves.
1:10:08 > 1:10:12It still wasn't publicised in newspapers.
1:10:12 > 1:10:15Interviews were still pretty much secluded to
1:10:15 > 1:10:17the black community papers.
1:10:17 > 1:10:20I can remember record company...
1:10:20 > 1:10:23individuals saying to me, "Look, Michael,
1:10:23 > 1:10:26"the audience likes to buy itself."
1:10:26 > 1:10:28"What do you mean?" "You don't look like the audience."
1:10:28 > 1:10:32# Red, red wine
1:10:33 > 1:10:36# Goes to my head... #
1:10:36 > 1:10:40Bands like UB40 we saw as cashing in
1:10:40 > 1:10:46on all that hard work that we'd done to bring British reggae to a point
1:10:46 > 1:10:53where we could exploit it, only to be superseded by what we thought at the time
1:10:53 > 1:11:01was a more pastel, a weaker version, a commercial version of what we were doing.
1:11:01 > 1:11:06# All I can do, I've done... #
1:11:06 > 1:11:10I think there are some bands that think white guys
1:11:10 > 1:11:15shouldn't be playing reggae and that we've stolen their music.
1:11:15 > 1:11:17But they're as English as we are, you know.
1:11:17 > 1:11:20# I'd have thought
1:11:20 > 1:11:23# That with time... #
1:11:23 > 1:11:28As the '80s unfolded, reggae moved away from its earlier militancy.
1:11:28 > 1:11:33UB40 now did an about-turn and paid tribute to the softer
1:11:33 > 1:11:38classic hits of the early '70s that had inspired them to play reggae in the first place.
1:11:38 > 1:11:41# Red, red wine
1:11:43 > 1:11:46# Stay close to me... #
1:11:46 > 1:11:50Labour Of love, which was the album we'd wanted to do
1:11:50 > 1:11:53from the beginning but everyone in this industry had gone,
1:11:53 > 1:11:55"You can't do that, you mustn't do that.
1:11:55 > 1:11:57"It would be commercial suicide."
1:11:57 > 1:11:59And, of course,
1:11:59 > 1:12:04as is usually the case, the opposite turned out to be the truth.
1:12:04 > 1:12:07It turned out to be another stroke of accidental genius.
1:12:11 > 1:12:17There was a more romantic British reggae evolving in the black community too,
1:12:17 > 1:12:20for dressing-up, for feeling good, for a fun night out.
1:12:20 > 1:12:22They called it lovers' rock.
1:12:23 > 1:12:29We understand lovers' rock is similar to rock steady
1:12:29 > 1:12:31but it's English style.
1:12:31 > 1:12:33It's laid back.
1:12:33 > 1:12:38The lyrics are a bit more soppy, know what I mean?
1:12:38 > 1:12:39That's it, really.
1:12:39 > 1:12:41But people love it.
1:12:41 > 1:12:45It's love songs with a difference.
1:12:45 > 1:12:48# Cos if I keep on seeing you, baby
1:12:48 > 1:12:51# You're gonna make me feel so blue... #
1:12:53 > 1:12:55Lovers' rock is...
1:12:55 > 1:13:00one of the British-created vibes in reggae music.
1:13:00 > 1:13:06You can be a revolutionary, you can be a soldier, but a soldier needs to come home to the family.
1:13:06 > 1:13:08A soldier needs love, the same way.
1:13:08 > 1:13:11It was time to dance with your girl,
1:13:11 > 1:13:16whereas when you listen to the roots stuff,
1:13:16 > 1:13:20it was chanting down Babylon on your own, basically, dancing on your own.
1:13:20 > 1:13:25With lovers' rock, it was where you found yourself a girl to hold close
1:13:25 > 1:13:27and dance to.
1:13:27 > 1:13:30You dressed up to make an impression, right?
1:13:30 > 1:13:34And if you knew someone who sang that tune, oh, you were famous.
1:13:34 > 1:13:38It's a whole lifestyle, a lifestyle.
1:13:38 > 1:13:42Just like the rasta and the roots culture was a lifestyle.
1:13:42 > 1:13:45Lovers' rock IS the British sound.
1:13:45 > 1:13:48Lovers' rock is the British sound of reggae.
1:13:50 > 1:13:54From the days when people said "You cannot make reggae in London.
1:13:56 > 1:13:58"You have to go to Jamaica, to get the feel."
1:13:59 > 1:14:03In England, artists WERE the producers.
1:14:03 > 1:14:09# Girl, you, high up above
1:14:09 > 1:14:10# Girl
1:14:10 > 1:14:12# You are high up... #
1:14:12 > 1:14:17British-based musicians were honing their musical and business skills.
1:14:18 > 1:14:24In our case, we played our own studio, right.
1:14:24 > 1:14:27We didn't have some executive. That's why we fell out with Trojan.
1:14:27 > 1:14:30Trojan wanted us to do cover versions of songs.
1:14:30 > 1:14:33So a pop song would come out and they'd go, "That's it.
1:14:33 > 1:14:38"That's your next assignment. Reggae version of that, please. Thank you."
1:14:38 > 1:14:44And then, someone else would cop all the publishing, you know.
1:14:44 > 1:14:51We wanted to write and produce our own material and it came out that way.
1:14:56 > 1:15:00Though lovers' rock was mostly sung by women for a female audience,
1:15:00 > 1:15:02the production was still handled by men.
1:15:04 > 1:15:06All the producers were male.
1:15:06 > 1:15:09I dared to have an opinion, which I did often.
1:15:09 > 1:15:12- Well, yeah.- And I would... - ..fall out with people!
1:15:12 > 1:15:15- Fall out of favour very quickly, to have an opinion.- Yeah.
1:15:15 > 1:15:19And I did often find that I'd have to filter my opinion through a male,
1:15:19 > 1:15:23to have it realised. It was about the track, wasn't it?
1:15:23 > 1:15:27Yeah, it was about the track, then by the time you got to the vocals,
1:15:27 > 1:15:29it was like near the ending of the session
1:15:29 > 1:15:31and then you'd have the producer...
1:15:31 > 1:15:33"Time is money!" And it's like,
1:15:33 > 1:15:35I want to get everything perfect,
1:15:35 > 1:15:38but there's never enough time to get everything perfect.
1:15:38 > 1:15:41The studio time used to cost so much money back in the day,
1:15:41 > 1:15:44so you sing a harmony and think, "That's not right.
1:15:44 > 1:15:46"I need to do it again." He's like...
1:15:46 > 1:15:50My first track, the first record that came out, was a demo.
1:15:50 > 1:15:52I just went in there to try out.
1:15:58 > 1:16:01And I'm thinking, "Ooh, that sounds familiar" and I came down
1:16:01 > 1:16:06and I thought, "That's me, that's my song!" And it was on the radio.
1:16:06 > 1:16:11- The next day.- And I hadn't even had a chance to go back and review it and make sure it was in tune.
1:16:11 > 1:16:12I was just sketching it.
1:16:12 > 1:16:16# Ooh
1:16:16 > 1:16:22# When I'm in love
1:16:22 > 1:16:25# Oh, baby
1:16:25 > 1:16:29# When I'm in love
1:16:31 > 1:16:36# I'm hopelessly in love... #
1:16:36 > 1:16:40I think what... I think for you, I mean, because Janet came before me, I was inspired
1:16:40 > 1:16:48by Janet, so I remember seeing Janet do Silly Games on Top Of The Pops and thinking, "Oh, that's fantastic.
1:16:48 > 1:16:49I could do that.
1:16:52 > 1:16:55# You're as much to blame
1:16:55 > 1:16:59# Because I know you feel the same
1:16:59 > 1:17:06# I can see it in the eyes
1:17:07 > 1:17:10# But I've got no time
1:17:10 > 1:17:14# To live this lie
1:17:15 > 1:17:18# No, I've got no time
1:17:18 > 1:17:23# To play your silly games... #
1:17:23 > 1:17:27It was still rare for black British reggae artists to appear on Top Of The Pops.
1:17:27 > 1:17:30Some things hadn't changed in a decade.
1:17:30 > 1:17:35# Silly games. #
1:17:35 > 1:17:42When I recorded Silly Games again, Silly Games was recorded in the same way that Caroll and I spoke about,
1:17:42 > 1:17:47in that you'd go into the studio, you'd do a tune, you don't know what's going to happen.
1:17:47 > 1:17:51You just go in there. It was played by the sound systems for a while.
1:17:51 > 1:17:57And it circulated in the community for about six months
1:17:57 > 1:18:01before it actually got into the British charts.
1:18:01 > 1:18:05We didn't even know how many albums or how many singles we'd actually sell,
1:18:05 > 1:18:08so we didn't know how many hearts we'd actually touched.
1:18:11 > 1:18:15Lovers rock suffered from reggae's old problems.
1:18:15 > 1:18:19It was a cottage industry, dependent on the sound systems for distribution,
1:18:19 > 1:18:23with little or no support from the mainstream pop record business.
1:18:26 > 1:18:27The effects of reggae music,
1:18:27 > 1:18:33as becoming pop music in the '80s, didn't really affect me,
1:18:33 > 1:18:39because...I wasn't really invited into that world.
1:18:39 > 1:18:44That was a record company push, that was like Virgin and EMI and the rest of them.
1:18:44 > 1:18:48They weren't really interested in looking at black talent involved in reggae industry.
1:18:48 > 1:18:51We weren't really invited to that party.
1:18:51 > 1:18:55Lovers rock... In a funny sort of way,
1:18:55 > 1:18:58it was reggae music that didn't frighten white people!
1:18:58 > 1:19:00Safe to say, isn't it?
1:19:00 > 1:19:04It was kind of, "Oh, this is nice. "You can dance to this", you know?
1:19:04 > 1:19:09# Do you really want to hurt me?
1:19:09 > 1:19:10# Do you really... #
1:19:10 > 1:19:14George's debt to lovers rock was obvious in Culture Club's first big hit.
1:19:14 > 1:19:18# Do you really want to hurt me?
1:19:18 > 1:19:23# Do you really want to make me cry? #
1:19:23 > 1:19:27But tabloid critics remained sceptical of George's dread credentials.
1:19:29 > 1:19:33White people have always seemed to have a problem with me doing reggae. Not black people.
1:19:33 > 1:19:38Black people say, "It's a nice tune, you can sing reggae good." I always get complimented.
1:19:38 > 1:19:42White people seem to have a problem. I remember the first review that we
1:19:42 > 1:19:44ever got for Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?
1:19:44 > 1:19:48They said it was "fourth division, Kathy Kirby, watered-down reggae.
1:19:48 > 1:19:53"The only think Culture Club have got going for then is the hideously unphotogenic Boy George.
1:19:53 > 1:19:55I still remember it, word-for-word.
1:19:56 > 1:19:58# You've been talking but believe me
1:20:00 > 1:20:04# If it's true you do not know
1:20:05 > 1:20:09# This boy loves without a reason
1:20:09 > 1:20:13# I'm prepared to let you go
1:20:13 > 1:20:17# If it's love you want from me... #
1:20:17 > 1:20:20Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? was actually written as
1:20:20 > 1:20:22the B-side of quite a famous reggae record.
1:20:22 > 1:20:25I remember turning it over and playing the kind of dub version
1:20:25 > 1:20:30and coming up with a kind of melody idea and then Mikey coming up with that brilliant baseline,
1:20:30 > 1:20:33which one of the most memorable things about the song.
1:20:33 > 1:20:38# Do you really want to hurt me? #
1:20:38 > 1:20:43The reggae thing crept into a lot of what we did, you know, as a band.
1:20:43 > 1:20:45We were a multicultural band.
1:20:45 > 1:20:47It was a big thing for us.
1:20:47 > 1:20:52# Don't put your head on my shoulder
1:20:52 > 1:20:55# Sing me in a river of tears
1:20:55 > 1:20:57# This could be... #
1:20:57 > 1:21:03But I loved what we became. It was much more fun, much more exciting, kind of mixing
1:21:03 > 1:21:08genres around and just sort of throwing them into a big pot and seeing what came out.
1:21:08 > 1:21:10# Your time is precious, I know... #
1:21:13 > 1:21:19The new-wave British bands adapted their image for videos, designed for teenage MTV audiences.
1:21:26 > 1:21:30The Police dyed their hair blonde and took reggae into the rock video stratosphere.
1:21:30 > 1:21:32# Walking on the moon
1:21:34 > 1:21:37# I hope my leg don't break... #
1:21:37 > 1:21:38'We were'
1:21:38 > 1:21:41wearing the flag of convenience.
1:21:41 > 1:21:43We were wearing the uniform de jour.
1:21:43 > 1:21:46We had the haircut of the day - critical.
1:21:46 > 1:21:50# We could be together
1:21:50 > 1:21:55# Walking on walking on the moon... #
1:21:55 > 1:21:59Well, every band struggles to get an audience. A bigger audience
1:21:59 > 1:22:02and bigger and bigger and more and more and, at no time,
1:22:02 > 1:22:06I don't think, is there ever a calculation of, "Well, am I now... Is this too much?
1:22:06 > 1:22:09"Have I taken this too far? "No, let's take it further."
1:22:10 > 1:22:12# This generation
1:22:12 > 1:22:14# Rules the nation
1:22:14 > 1:22:17# With version... #
1:22:17 > 1:22:20The one black band that did briefly go global was Musical Youth.
1:22:22 > 1:22:26Five school kids from Birmingham would turn an old reggae song
1:22:26 > 1:22:29about smoking ganja into a homily to the cooking pot.
1:22:29 > 1:22:34- #- I say- Pass the dutchie 'pon the left-hand side
1:22:34 > 1:22:37# Pass the dutchie 'pon the left-hand side, it gonna burn
1:22:37 > 1:22:41- #- Give me the music, make me jump and prance- It a' go done.
1:22:41 > 1:22:44- #- Give me the music- Do you know?
1:22:44 > 1:22:47Musical Youth getting into number one with Pass The Dutchie was...
1:22:47 > 1:22:50Well, it was important to me because I made the video.
1:22:50 > 1:22:53You've got to understand, this video was shown on Blue Peter
1:22:53 > 1:22:56one afternoon and the next day it went to number one.
1:22:56 > 1:23:00It was actually on the national news and then went to number one in 18 countries around the world.
1:23:00 > 1:23:03# How does it feel when you got no food? #
1:23:03 > 1:23:06Apparently, that was the first all-black video on MTV.
1:23:06 > 1:23:10# How does it feel when you got no food?
1:23:10 > 1:23:12Musical Youth reflected two cultures.
1:23:12 > 1:23:15The first was the Jamaican homeland of their parents.
1:23:15 > 1:23:19The second was their British upbringing and schooling.
1:23:19 > 1:23:22# Give me the music Make me rock in the dance... #
1:23:22 > 1:23:26Like the music itself, the twin cultures could now flourish side-by-side.
1:23:27 > 1:23:30# Eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one-a
1:23:30 > 1:23:33# It's I, Smiley Culture with the mike in my hand-a
1:23:33 > 1:23:34# Me come to teach you right
1:23:34 > 1:23:38# And not the wrong in the Cockney Translation
1:23:38 > 1:23:41# Cockney's not a language It's only a slang-a
1:23:41 > 1:23:44# And was originated, yah, so inna England-a
1:23:44 > 1:23:47# The first place it was used was over East London
1:23:47 > 1:23:50# It was respect for the different-style pronunciation... #
1:23:50 > 1:23:54It's two different cultures and I feel that respect's due to both,
1:23:54 > 1:23:57because I know both, so I thought that I'd do something
1:23:57 > 1:24:00to kind of compliment that. It's looking at what you've got
1:24:00 > 1:24:03around you and and making it into a lyrical thing.
1:24:03 > 1:24:06# Say Cockney fireshooter We bust gun-a
1:24:06 > 1:24:08# The Cockney say tea leaf We just say sticks man-a
1:24:09 > 1:24:11# You know them have wedge while we have corn
1:24:11 > 1:24:14# The Cockney say, you first, my son, we just say gwan... #
1:24:14 > 1:24:18Whatever the lyric was, it was about the lyric and the whole story worked
1:24:18 > 1:24:23as a story, as opposed to just having a verse here and a little thin chorus and,
1:24:23 > 1:24:29you know, I think now it's more and more coming that way, but I think we were really ahead of our time.
1:24:29 > 1:24:32# Rope chain and choparita Me say Cockney call tom-a
1:24:32 > 1:24:35# Say cockney say Old Bill We say dutty Babylon...
1:24:35 > 1:24:39Great. Not so much reggae, but the music is
1:24:39 > 1:24:41definitely reggae-influenced, you know.
1:24:44 > 1:24:47Smiley Culture had learned his style of video MC-ing with the
1:24:47 > 1:24:52Saxon Sound System, which had been touring the UK since the mid-'70s.
1:24:52 > 1:24:55He travelled with Saxon colleagues like Tippa Irie.
1:24:59 > 1:25:04You used to just take styles from each other,
1:25:04 > 1:25:08but the main thing is that we defeat the other sound, that's stringed up over there.
1:25:08 > 1:25:13# No, me humble, me conscientious You know me righteous
1:25:13 > 1:25:15# You want me on the ground Please wait, don't rush
1:25:15 > 1:25:18# Tippa Irie is life and London blood
1:25:18 > 1:25:20# But it's good to have the feeling you're the best... #
1:25:20 > 1:25:23It's Good To Have The Feeling is really a lyric
1:25:23 > 1:25:26that I wrote about the sound system stacks.
1:25:26 > 1:25:28# Yes, it's good to have the feeling you're the best
1:25:28 > 1:25:31# Cos I can show the north, south, east and west
1:25:31 > 1:25:34# In London and Birmingham Enough to confess... #
1:25:34 > 1:25:38But always original, always our own.
1:25:38 > 1:25:41We wouldn't follow what they were doing in Jamaica.
1:25:41 > 1:25:45# Putting that beat back... #
1:25:45 > 1:25:51I think sometimes the understated backbone of British black music is the sound system.
1:25:51 > 1:25:53It is reggae.
1:25:53 > 1:25:56And we've all evolved out of that
1:25:56 > 1:26:01collective experience of reggae in different ways.
1:26:02 > 1:26:07It has spawned many sub-genres and many interpretations of it.
1:26:07 > 1:26:11One of the best examples of that was Soul II Soul.
1:26:12 > 1:26:18Reggae was being marketed for the '80s, packaged appeal to everyone, here and in the USA.
1:26:18 > 1:26:20# Because it's all about expression... #
1:26:20 > 1:26:24Our idea was based on the sound system.
1:26:24 > 1:26:28We came up with an idea of a happy face, a thumping bass for a loving race.
1:26:28 > 1:26:33One of our ideas was obviously to take the idea of the dread uptown.
1:26:33 > 1:26:37So we were kind of creating a different style, a new myth, as it were.
1:26:37 > 1:26:41And the whole effect of us trying to put all of these things into this
1:26:41 > 1:26:46incredible melting-pot, which allowed us to be inclusive.
1:26:46 > 1:26:49# I think you should come down
1:26:49 > 1:26:53# And try to express yourself
1:26:53 > 1:26:55# Yourself, be there
1:26:55 > 1:26:58# Be there, be there, be there
1:26:58 > 1:27:01# Be there I want, I want I want you to be there... #
1:27:03 > 1:27:05The culture's blending.
1:27:05 > 1:27:07It's merging more. I think that people...
1:27:07 > 1:27:11It's hard, like I said, to distinguish between colour
1:27:11 > 1:27:16as much any more, even though people kind of want to keep it black and white. I think you can't do that.
1:27:16 > 1:27:21I think that it's just not going to happen any more. It's becoming people as opposed to just colour.
1:27:21 > 1:27:26# Keep on moving
1:27:26 > 1:27:28# Don't stop like
1:27:28 > 1:27:32# The hands of time... #
1:27:32 > 1:27:36In the 30 years since reggae first arrived here,
1:27:36 > 1:27:41it had propelled and reflected many changes in our music and society.
1:27:41 > 1:27:47And though reggae, as we knew it, had passed away, its musical descendants survive and flourish.
1:27:51 > 1:27:54# This way, yeah
1:27:54 > 1:27:57# Keep on moving, don't stop, no
1:27:57 > 1:27:59# Keep on moving
1:28:02 > 1:28:03# Keep on moving
1:28:05 > 1:28:07Keep on moving, don't stop, no
1:28:07 > 1:28:09# Keep on moving
1:28:14 > 1:28:17# It's so tough
1:28:17 > 1:28:19# It's tough today
1:28:19 > 1:28:23# The right time is here to stay
1:28:24 > 1:28:26# Stay in my life
1:28:26 > 1:28:28# My life always... #