Reggae Britannia


Reggae Britannia

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When Jamaican music first arrived here in the '60s,

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it spoke mainly to the West Indian community.

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Ska and early reggae were little more than novelties,

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though they offered a new soundtrack for the working class teens, black and white.

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But during the '70s, British reggae came out on the streets.

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It joined forces with rock and then punk,

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a rebel sound that was changing British music.

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# Him kick de bucket... #

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Reggae took on Babylon and, by the '80s, had become a mirror for

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the cultural and racial changes that were transforming Britain...

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# In the first race... #

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..while Britain transformed and absorbed reggae into the mainstream.

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# Get up, get up

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# In the first race

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# And him pull up the place

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# Longshot

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# Him kick de bucket... #

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The Real Thing, Whenever You Want My Love.

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And that's riding up the charts.

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And now from sunny Liverpool to the sunny Caribbean with

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the first reggae record ever to make number one.

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Desmond Dekker and the Israelites.

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CHEERING

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# Get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir

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# So that

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# Every mouth can be fed

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# Oh-oh

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# The Israelites

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# Get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir

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# So that every mouth can be fed

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# Oh-oh... #

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Israelites was the first reggae number one,

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reaching many who had never even heard the word reggae before.

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# My wife and my kids they pack up and leave me

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# "Darling" she said "I was yours to receive"... #

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Desmond Dekker was like a breath of fresh air.

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# The Israelites... #

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He just sailed to the top of the charts with Israelites.

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And I remember thinking it was, you know, a pop song with a reggae beat.

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It made us want to be like that.

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# I get up in the morning slaving for bread, sir

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# So that every mouth can be fed... #

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It was slightly different to a lot of the other records, wasn't it?

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It had a bit of attitude to it and a bit of a strut.

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It was a bit tougher than what you were generally hearing on the radio.

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He was right at the right time, you know, the way he used to open his mouth.

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-JAMAICAN ACCENT:

-"It mek you haccidentally fall."

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You know, brilliant lyrics.

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Great hardcore reggae at the time.

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# After a storm there must be a calming

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# You catch me in the palm you sound your alarm... #

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The Israelites and the hits, you know, that was my introduction to reggae.

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You know, I was fascinated about how do you play it.

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You know, even as early as that, I had the idea of merging

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rock music with reggae music, and finding some sort of middle ground.

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# Poor me, Israelites... #

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Hits like Israelites may have sounded like novelty music at the time,

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but they inspired a new generation with a taste for reggae, which they would eventually make their own.

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I think people forget that there was this golden period in the late '60s, particularly early '70s,

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where there was a lot of particularly melodic

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reggae tunes having top 20 hits.

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Hit the spot!

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Black people on the telly period in the '60s and '70s, even if they were a criminal,

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we'd be all... I was going to say ringing each other up, but we didn't even have phones in those days.

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But we'd be knocking on each other's doors, "Black man on the telly, black man on the telly!"

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If they were singing great music, even better.

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Work! Work!

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Work! Work! Work! Work!

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Your thing, baby, your thing.

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On a twist spin, baby.

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So by the time Dave and Ansell Collins had come along and was

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doing a kind of Booker T, with a James Brown kind of voice,

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"Huh! Hit it! I've made it! Uh!

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"Ow!"

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Much power.

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Good God.

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Too much, I like it, huh!

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What really got me was the fans.

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We had to actually run for our lives.

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You know, screaming and shouting

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and grabbing and tearing off shirts

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and all them things, you know, it was crazy but we enjoyed it.

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I am the magnificent...

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They would be banging on the door, they would be banging down the door,

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and you're saying, "Man, these people are crazy."

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It was a bit surprising, as well, to us at the time, because we never thought that English people

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had so much oomph

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where the music is concerned.

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In the early '70s, reggae inspired both the West Indian community and white working class fans.

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First mods, then skinheads.

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I suppose sort of late '60s, early '70s,

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when I was like a little suedehead, a little mini, sort of

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post-skinhead, I mean, going to the local dances on a Thursday night and just hearing black music.

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Desmond Dekker, Return Of The Django, Liquidator, I mean they were big records.

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You know, you'd always hear them. And that was kind of it, really, that was the start of the love affair.

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So in some ways for us it became our music, so to speak.

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Because, I suppose, the lyrics, the sentiment was sort of like,

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it was to do with a rebel stance, which we all associated with.

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It's protest music, protest against injustice.

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And they saw me as a rebel and identified themselves as such.

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So there was some compatibility there,

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I think so, because

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you should have seen them.

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An anthem of the Skinheads was Max Romeo's Wet Dreams.

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They loved the rebel beat and risque lyrics that saw it banned from clubs and BBC.

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# Every night me go to sleep

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# Me have wet dream... #

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# Every night me go to sleep

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# Me have wet dream

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# Lie down, girl, let me push it up push it up

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# Lie down

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# Lie down, girl, let me push it up push it up

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# Lie down... #

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I think what happens is that they have a lot of anti-social

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feelings bagged up inside, and there was no way to actually spell it out.

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And here I come, the rebel, blurting out something like that, creating an upstir.

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So it was a good time for them to jump on the bandwagon and vent their anger.

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# Lie down, girl, let me push it up, push it up

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# Lie down

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# Lie down, girl, let me push it up, push it up, lie down... #

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That "chk, chk, chk, chk", it's just wonderful.

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And I used to like it when I was 15.

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I thought the dances that the girls did with all their little feather cuts

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and their nice little tonic suits and things, that was just so cute.

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# Throw all the punch you want to I can take them all... #

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These records, which were helping transform teenage Britain, had been arriving from

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Jamaica since the early '60s when they were distributed by a profusion of independent labels.

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Producers like Jamaican-born Chris Blackwell were planting the seeds of the reggae music business.

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We were just about

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the first people who decided to record

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Jamaican artists making popular music for a Jamaican audience.

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# Well, won't you tell me tell me, baby

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# What is a boy to do?

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# Woah

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# Hey-yeah, hey-yeah

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# Tell me, baby

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# Don't you ever tell me, baby... #

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Giant sound systems took these Jamaican hits all over the island.

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# You're treating me bad... #

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I used to go dance when I was very small.

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I couldn't get in the dance.

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And even Coxone Sound System used to come and play in my area.

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And I've heard a lot of songs when I was looking for

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Coxone Sound, which was champion sound, man. Trust me.

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Sugar Minott was one of many artists who would later influence the British reggae scene.

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He learned all about ska music there.

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I used to imitate all those songs after the dance, the next day I used to know them all.

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So that's where I know about ska, you know?

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# You don't know you don't know... #

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Later on,

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I took over the management of the jukeboxes when I had some of my own records.

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SKA MUSIC PLAYS

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If I took off a record, which had been on the jukebox for a bit and replaced it with a new record

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that the people didn't like, you'd hear immediately.

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It was something that I really learned, you know, from that experience.

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Within about ten seconds they would say, "Take the record off."

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They didn't want to give it the time. That was it, it was just done within ten seconds.

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And then sometimes, you know, there'd be a record that they'd like

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and everybody would get really excited.

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You know, it was an incredible sort of experience of instant response.

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SKA MUSIC PLAYS

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You used to have people in Jamaica like Caribbean Distributing Company,

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they used to make a good living by, even now,

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buying records and sending them to England.

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England is the gateway to real reggae music.

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The name of the music in England was Blue Beat, it was called Blue Beat.

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And so I was trying to sort of market the music

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and everybody would say, "Oh, do you have some Blue Beats?"

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And so I really pushed the name ska, because in Jamaica, it wasn't called Blue Beat.

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In Jamaica, it was called ska, cos it's a sort of onomatopoeic word for the guitar on the offbeat.

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So I really pushed the name ska.

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The earliest ska performers arrived in Britain in the early '60s.

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Singers like Prince Buster followed their records into this country, and were mobbed by West Indians

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alongside adoring mods and skinheads.

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The first big Jamaican success in the British pop charts came in 1965.

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It was a Chris Blackwell production - Millie Small's My Boy Lollipop.

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# I love you, I love you I love you so

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# But I don't want you to know

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# I need you, I need you I need you so

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# And I'll never let you go-oh-oh

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# My boy lollipop... #

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This record of Millie, which I knew was going to be a hit when I finished

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working on it, it never got to number one, unfortunately - it got to number two.

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But it became a huge hit and it changed my life completely.

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# My lollipop... #

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By the early '70s, a small number of producers were firmly in control

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of the Jamaican and therefore the emerging British reggae business.

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Though tens of thousands of records were distributed around the UK,

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many artists were not receiving much reward.

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Accountability was always a problem.

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Because it was about them.

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"Oh, I'm selling your record in England and, you know, you'll just have to take my word for it.

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"This is how it goes."

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It was difficult to sue these people because you didn't know

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who to sue. We were told that it went to Jamaica to the producer.

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When we went to Jamaica to get our portion, we were told that it was left here and for Trojan

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to give it to us.

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I never really

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trusted these...outlets.

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You're supposed to get a percentage on every record that is sold.

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That is royalty, mechanical royalties.

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You could get publishing, money from publishing, copyright and these things.

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And I never used to get that at all.

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Just the £10 and that's it.

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You discover that you haven't got anything to show

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for what you have done.

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I became very depressed

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and I locked myself away

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for quite a while.

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Times were hard for Jamaican artists who had settled here

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but found there was little support for their careers or follow up to their early successes.

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Their records were one hit wonders.

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It was the tunes that mattered, not the artists.

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One reggae singer even recorded a musical plea to the BBC to play his people's music.

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# It is a long walk to the BBC

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# But I've got my walking shoes on

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# Can't take a plane, a bus or train cos my money ain't that long

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# But people, I believe

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# Oh, yeah!

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# That you love reggae still

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# Oh, yeah!

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# So I'm going to see the management Lord

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# Oh, yeah

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# To wipe away my fears I tell you to look out... #

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A lot of the DJs had a snobbery towards Jamaican music

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that sometimes bordered on racialism.

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There was nothing played on the radio.

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There wasn't a few, there was nothing played on the radio.

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I never sent any of the records to the radio after a bit because nobody was ever interested in them.

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I never sent them to the press because nobody was interested in them.

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You know, according to rock press and the whole student rock scene, reggae was like idiot music, it was

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regarded as some sort of weird novelty music.

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It wasn't taken seriously at all.

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# I am on my way, oh yes I will

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# Long walk to the BBC... #

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Determined to get radio play, producers began remixing

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Jamaican recordings to make them sound sweeter.

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First off, they reduced the bass frequencies, and then they added an orchestral sound.

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It seemed like companies like Trojan,

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to make the records accessible to the British buying public,

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seemed to add strings to make it more classical.

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And then there was things like Young, Gifted And Black,

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that went into the charts, Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths, Bob and Marcia, that had strings all over it.

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# Young, gifted and black

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# Oh, what a lovely, precious dream

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# To be young, gifted and black

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# Open your heart to what I mean... #

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First time when he does that...

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# The whole world, you know

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# There's a million boys and girls

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# Who are young, gifted and black

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# And that's a fact... #

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I was very satisfied and very pleased with the strings.

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And so to hear a Jamaican recording, probably the first

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to be so well endowed with such beautiful arrangements, I felt good to be a part of that.

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It was the music that we identified with,

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and my time in school, there wasn't many black kids in the class.

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There was about three or four of us at the time.

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-Present, Miss Atkins.

-We took our music to school.

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It was our music. It was something that we said, "This was ours."

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In the early '70s, British school curricula virtually ignored West Indian culture and history.

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Bearing in mind, you know,

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we were never taught about ourselves at the schools.

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It was always about William the Conqueror, the Battle of Hastings, Elizabeth I, the Spanish Armada.

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Things that really had nothing to do with our development,

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our growth, spiritually, physically, mentally.

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At that time, it was very important to me.

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As a matter of fact, I've never looked back since in the direction I've decided to take.

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As a first generation British-born black,

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we'd seen how our parents were really getting shafted

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by trying to anglicise themselves to be accepted.

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And we weren't buying that.

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What we did reject was the caution that our parents,

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and the restraint that our parents had.

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In a hostile racial environment, they were limited

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in the ways that they could fight against racial oppression.

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They had responsibilities. They had to put kids through school,

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they had to put bread on the table, send money back home to their families and so on.

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Though West Indians had been migrating here since the late 1940s,

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to do the jobs the British didn't want to do, many were still haunted, well into the '70s,

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by Enoch Powell's Rivers Of Blood speech condemning immigration.

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Though violence sometimes broke out, irony was perhaps a sharper weapon.

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COMIC JAMAICAN ACCENT: Hello 'dere.

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LAUGHTER

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DROPS ACCENT: Hey, you're lucky I came tonight, you know, cos I won't be here tomorrow.

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Enoch Powell has offered me £1,000 to go home.

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Which is great, really, cos it's only £10 on the train from here to Birmingham.

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LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

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We wanted to be British. We wanted to be fitting and become a part of the society, but we found ourselves

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in a racialised environment, and this is where reggae came in.

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Reggae afforded us our own independent cultural identity.

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We were rejected by the wider society, so this was our music, this was our culture.

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My generation, we were the rebel generation,

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and we refused to tolerate the things our parents tolerated.

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Listening to the imports coming in from Jamaica,

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you could keep in touch with what was happening in the society,

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you could keep in touch with the language.

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We knew what we were supposed to sound like, cos we were getting the music from Jamaica.

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But there was no visual accompaniment.

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I mean, I guess Bob would come along soon with the dreadlocks and everything,

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but for imagery of Jamaica, it would invariably come from a postcard.

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There'd be a man riding a donkey on a beach with a straw hat, or somebody limbo dancing.

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But then I saw The Harder They Come. That would have been in the early '70s.

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And I walked out inspired and empowered.

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I mean, we were all empowered after seeing The Harder They Come.

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I mean, it was the story of somebody who'd come from the country coming to the city to make it.

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And again, that really appealed to us, as, you know, we weren't exactly foreigners, we were born here,

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but we were made to feel like that.

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So Jimmy Cliff's struggle,

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yeah, it struck a chord with us.

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While cinemas introduced the Jamaican rude boy image to these shores,

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it was the sound systems that carried the music around the country.

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Home-made monster speakers updated the old Jamaican equipment.

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The sound system is totally responsible for the development of reggae in this country.

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Because radio didn't play it.

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In order to have the audience know that it was available, it had to be played on a sound system.

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If the sound system didn't play a particular record, you could bet it wouldn't be a hit.

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I remember in my teens standing up in front of the 18-inch bass speaker.

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That used to be a great feeling,

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hearing the bass running through your solar plexus or whatever you want to call it,

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running through your system. The bass.

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And Jamaican music is bass-led.

0:20:550:20:58

We would just be fascinated and in awe of these people.

0:21:080:21:11

They just look exciting, intriguing and different,

0:21:110:21:14

something you've never seen before.

0:21:140:21:16

They would be sitting in front of a speaker, and you could see their bodies going...

0:21:190:21:24

And I wanted to experience that.

0:21:240:21:26

And I used to stand in front of the speaker waiting for the beat of the bass line, so I could go...

0:21:260:21:31

Then you started to smell the weed, right, and it was part of their culture,

0:21:330:21:37

and it was a lovely smell. And I remembered dabbling, trying it out.

0:21:370:21:43

High as a kite!

0:21:430:21:44

There used to be, in the neighbourhood where I lived,

0:21:460:21:49

there always used to be house parties.

0:21:490:21:52

And I'd sneak out of my bedroom window

0:21:520:21:54

and go down the road to one of these house parties, stay there for a couple of hours.

0:21:540:21:59

And then come back, sneak back into the house,

0:22:010:22:04

hopefully without my parents finding out.

0:22:040:22:06

But occasionally I got caught and got the beating of a lifetime,

0:22:060:22:09

but for me, it was worth it.

0:22:090:22:11

What they were playing were the latest '70s imports

0:22:150:22:18

from Jamaica, featuring new artists like Big Youth.

0:22:180:22:23

The sound system, to be honest with you,

0:22:230:22:27

the sound system was our BBC and ITV and CNN and everything,

0:22:270:22:32

cos through the sound system we could get to communicate with the common people on the street.

0:22:320:22:38

To be perfectly honest with you, Big Youth took the scene.

0:22:460:22:49

Big Youth helped introduce the British reggae scene to mystical truths

0:22:530:22:56

about Jamaican street life, and the pride and the faith of Rastafari.

0:22:560:23:01

Big Youth came with kind of lyrics that were pertaining to what I wanted to know about, what I was studying.

0:23:060:23:14

It was Rasta lyrics, he was telling bits of scripture.

0:23:140:23:17

# So come on down along the sound The way is out, play

0:23:170:23:21

# Yeah!

0:23:210:23:23

It was just an amazing thing.

0:23:360:23:38

It was like, "Wow, where did this guy come from?"

0:23:380:23:41

The proverbial wisdom of Big Youth's first UK hit record was inspired by his Yamaha S90 motorbike.

0:23:410:23:49

So I said, "Ride on, but don't you ride like lightning.

0:23:490:23:53

"Say, man, if you ride like lightning, you'll crash like thunder."

0:23:530:23:57

# So come on down along the sound and lead

0:23:570:24:00

# The way is out, play.

0:24:000:24:01

# Huh, good gosh! #

0:24:010:24:04

It was just like something totally new, totally original, never heard it before.

0:24:040:24:09

And I said, "yeah, I want to do that," you know what I mean?

0:24:090:24:12

Young British musicians were enthralled by these Jamaican records,

0:24:140:24:18

and were desperate to see the artists who made them.

0:24:180:24:21

Those artists were now fleeing the island to escape political gang wars.

0:24:210:24:25

The songs they brought with them told of rough justice on the streets of Kingston.

0:24:250:24:29

# My name is Capone

0:24:290:24:31

# C-A-P-O-N-E

0:24:310:24:35

# Capone... #

0:24:350:24:37

If you listen to Guns Don't Argue and listen to the lyrics of that song,

0:24:370:24:42

because it was the time when the gun was just introduced to Jamaica.

0:24:420:24:49

You know, and it was introduced by the politicians.

0:24:490:24:52

What I was saying in that record, "I'm a defender, not an offender.

0:24:520:24:57

"So don't let the children cry, or you'll have to tell Al Capone why."

0:24:570:25:01

# Don't let the children cry

0:25:010:25:03

# Or you'll have to tell Al Capone why

0:25:030:25:06

# My bucka will drop you, don't you know?

0:25:060:25:09

# Yeah! #

0:25:090:25:11

HE LAUGHS

0:25:110:25:13

All these Jamaican imports would change the style and sounds of the British reggae scene.

0:25:190:25:25

The latest recordings of producers like Lee Scratch Perry and Max Romeo

0:25:250:25:30

were hotly fought over in the specialist record stores that sold them at top dollar.

0:25:300:25:35

It's like, going to the record shop, I was excited, you know?

0:25:360:25:39

You're like a little kid.

0:25:390:25:41

OK, let me go to Dub Vendor,

0:25:410:25:43

or Black, or Dread Records, or whoever it was at the time,

0:25:430:25:47

you'd go there and say, "Right, what have you got new?"

0:25:470:25:50

On a Friday evening, I mean, I was there till 8pm-9pm sometimes.

0:25:500:25:54

And the shop would be packed. And this is a small shop.

0:25:540:25:57

And as soon as you put a record on, it's played five seconds

0:25:570:26:01

and ten hands have gone up, wanting that record.

0:26:010:26:04

Because sometimes you might be in there and there might be only two records left,

0:26:040:26:09

and you walk in, and so there'd be people in there saying "No, you can't have that."

0:26:090:26:14

You know, we'd be fighting over who's going to get that seven-inch and who's not.

0:26:140:26:18

It depends just how much they've got in stock, cos it's not even a wink.

0:26:180:26:22

It's like, "Me, I'll take this. I was here first!"

0:26:220:26:25

But there was one Jamaican whose music combined a rude boy image

0:26:270:26:31

with Rasta consciousness in a way no other artist had.

0:26:310:26:35

He would take Britain and the world by storm.

0:26:350:26:37

At last there was a reggae star who'd be promoted as a hit maker and as an artist.

0:26:370:26:43

# Slave driver

0:26:460:26:48

# The table is turned

0:26:480:26:51

# You've got your fire You're gonna to get burned

0:26:510:26:56

# Yeah, slave driver

0:26:560:27:00

# The table is...

0:27:000:27:02

# Got your fire Got your fire

0:27:020:27:06

# you're gonna get burned, oh... #

0:27:060:27:10

Marley, the importance of Marley on the black British youth,

0:27:100:27:13

it's almost impossible to put into words.

0:27:130:27:16

I mean, I saw him play and it was like a religious experience - I mean, my top gig of all time -

0:27:160:27:22

and walked out of there a new man, a reinvented man.

0:27:220:27:26

Because we saw somebody here that was being accepted on his terms.

0:27:260:27:31

You know, no straightened hair, no speaking English, it was his way or the highway.

0:27:310:27:37

I think Bob Marley probably had the most impact of any artist

0:27:370:27:42

on us collectively as a group of mates.

0:27:420:27:45

We went to see him, and that to me was the closest thing to a spiritual experience I'd had.

0:27:470:27:52

He was incredible.

0:27:520:27:54

The band were brilliant, the Wailers were great, but he was something special.

0:27:540:27:59

# Today they say that we are free Only to be chained in poverty

0:27:590:28:05

# Good God, I think it's illiteracy

0:28:050:28:08

# It's only machines that make money... #

0:28:080:28:11

The Wailers had been together as a trio since the mid-'60s,

0:28:110:28:15

but now they were about to transform the British reggae scene.

0:28:150:28:19

It was probably the most important event in my life.

0:28:190:28:25

I felt we should position him more as a rock act, as a black rock act.

0:28:250:28:30

And in so doing, I wanted to move the music away from being its raw reggae,

0:28:300:28:37

into having some elements which I felt would pull in the people

0:28:370:28:45

who are interested in rock music, that kind of music.

0:28:450:28:48

Catch A Fire's original Jamaican tapes were adapted for the rock market by Chris Blackwell,

0:28:480:28:54

who overdubbed American musicians onto the recordings.

0:28:540:28:57

They started playing this strange music,

0:28:570:28:59

I mean, I'd never heard the likes of. It was...

0:28:590:29:03

Compared to anything else I'd ever heard in my life, everything,

0:29:030:29:07

the R&B, the church music, anything I'd ever heard, this was backwards.

0:29:070:29:13

GUITAR RIFF PLAYS

0:29:130:29:15

And Bob had his guitar on and he was going "chicka, chicka,"

0:29:180:29:24

like they do. And I was just meandering on the organ, like...

0:29:240:29:27

And he said, "No, no, bumbaclart, rasclart," all this, you know.

0:29:310:29:35

So I made it a chord, and went...

0:29:350:29:37

It's what he could teach you about his music that helped you with your own music.

0:29:410:29:46

For my generation that bought that album,

0:29:460:29:48

not only did we not know that Blackwell did that and there was an

0:29:480:29:50

original roots version, we didn't care.

0:29:500:29:53

It was those things that made our ears prick up

0:29:530:29:56

and go, "Wow, this is somebody that's really doing something different."

0:29:560:30:00

# Darkness has covered my light

0:30:000:30:02

# And has changed my day into night, yeah

0:30:050:30:09

# Where is the love

0:30:100:30:12

# To be found?

0:30:120:30:16

# Won't someone tell me?

0:30:160:30:18

# Life

0:30:180:30:20

# Must be somewhere

0:30:200:30:23

# To be found

0:30:230:30:24

# Instead of concrete jungle

0:30:270:30:30

# I say, where the living is hardest

0:30:300:30:35

# Your concrete jungle

0:30:380:30:41

# Man, you've got to do your best

0:30:410:30:45

# Oh-oh-ho-ho... #

0:30:480:30:50

But Blackwell still needed the help of a major rock star to get

0:30:520:30:56

Marley's music to the mainstream that reggae had not yet touched.

0:30:560:31:00

Now, at that time, there was no bigger artist in England

0:31:000:31:05

and maybe the world than... than Eric Clapton.

0:31:050:31:09

And when Eric Clapton picked some material from Bob Marley,

0:31:090:31:14

that, I think, was probably Bob's biggest break.

0:31:140:31:17

# I shot the sheriff

0:31:170:31:20

# But I did not shoot no deputy... #

0:31:200:31:24

The rock audience was becoming aware of reggae.

0:31:250:31:28

And the record business wondered whether other British bands

0:31:290:31:33

would grab this opportunity to reach a new audience.

0:31:330:31:36

# Freedom came my way one day

0:31:390:31:43

# And I started out of town

0:31:440:31:47

# All of a sudden I see Sheriff John Brown... #

0:31:500:31:54

But the fledgling black reggae bands found themselves in the shadow of Marley's music,

0:31:540:32:00

and they faced sceptical fans who were now looking for an authentic sound.

0:32:000:32:05

We had a split audience.

0:32:050:32:07

We had the slightly older generation that looked to Jamaica,

0:32:070:32:10

and then we had the British audience, who were still in a flux

0:32:110:32:16

as to whether they looked towards the Caribbean, which was authentic,

0:32:160:32:22

or looked at what was happening on their doorstep.

0:32:220:32:25

The young roots bands sharpened their musical skills in local bars and clubs.

0:32:280:32:33

At the same time, we're rehearsing every week, hoping that the band's successful.

0:32:370:32:43

Meanwhile, the parents have no interest in music at all.

0:32:430:32:48

They had their share of musical snobbery and prejudice to overcome as well.

0:32:530:32:58

Lots of people were hurling criticism at reggae.

0:32:580:33:01

"You just have to know how to play two chords and you're there."

0:33:010:33:05

A lot of reggae has been two chords,

0:33:050:33:08

but two of the sweetest chords you could put together.

0:33:080:33:11

We were more interested in trying to fuse

0:33:160:33:20

a pop style with a soul style with a reggae beat.

0:33:200:33:25

If you said roots and British, the two didn't sit side by side comfortably.

0:33:350:33:41

Roots was Jamaican.

0:33:410:33:44

Roots and British

0:33:440:33:47

didn't really work.

0:33:470:33:49

One band that quickly gained credibility with reggae fans was Aswad.

0:33:540:33:59

They offered a British flavour to Jamaican roots sounds.

0:33:590:34:02

Our attitude has always been that the band and the music

0:34:190:34:23

was about our experiences in inner-city London.

0:34:230:34:28

And a lot of the bands at that time were just copying music that came from Jamaica.

0:34:290:34:35

They weren't telling their own story.

0:34:350:34:37

And I think this was probably the unique thing about Aswad, and

0:34:370:34:43

later on we were not only identified with by the black youth, but also

0:34:430:34:49

white kids, Indian kids were identifying, because we were talking about what was happening to us.

0:34:490:34:55

# It's not our wish That we should fi-i-i-ight

0:34:550:35:01

# It's not our wish

0:35:030:35:06

# That we should fight fight fight... #

0:35:060:35:09

We were confronting the system

0:35:210:35:24

and how the system created a negative space

0:35:240:35:27

for people of colour.

0:35:270:35:28

This is where we were speaking from.

0:35:280:35:31

We used to use the term Babylon.

0:35:370:35:40

The Sus laws was an expression of Babylon.

0:35:400:35:43

It was the long arm of the law

0:35:430:35:46

that said, "If we suspect you might be doing something,

0:35:460:35:50

"that gives us the right to strip search you, on occasions publicly."

0:35:500:35:56

Your parents would say, "Look, don't go out on your own, make sure you come in before it's dark."

0:35:560:36:02

"Don't dress a certain way,

0:36:040:36:07

"because that will give them an excuse to stop you."

0:36:070:36:11

Social divisions were growing.

0:36:110:36:14

The summer of '76 would be long and hot,

0:36:140:36:17

the hottest since records began.

0:36:170:36:19

# Then it was 96 degrees

0:36:210:36:24

# In the shade

0:36:240:36:26

# Ten thousand soldiers

0:36:290:36:31

# On parade

0:36:310:36:33

# Taking I

0:36:360:36:38

# To meet to the big fat one

0:36:380:36:41

# Sent from overseas

0:36:430:36:45

# The queen employ... #

0:36:450:36:48

At the Notting Hill Carnival, tensions were building.

0:36:480:36:51

The British roots bands and their families were arriving.

0:36:520:36:56

Aswad among them.

0:36:560:36:58

We had just released our first album, Aswad.

0:36:580:37:02

It was just a great experience, it was a great energy.

0:37:020:37:05

# You got me on the loose

0:37:050:37:06

# Fighting to be free

0:37:060:37:08

# Now you show me a noose on the cotton tree... #

0:37:080:37:12

Then suddenly from Portobello Road, someone came around screaming, "The beasts are coming!

0:37:120:37:16

"The beasts are coming!"

0:37:160:37:18

We was at the point under the Westway when there was some scuffling,

0:37:200:37:25

and like the police went in to arrest somebody.

0:37:250:37:27

Suddenly, it was like a whole separation of people, of police...

0:37:300:37:37

It was like them against us.

0:37:370:37:39

Well, the first thing that we had to do was to get our instruments into the van,

0:37:420:37:46

so while things were going and missiles were flying around, we were loading stuff into the van.

0:37:460:37:51

Yeah, I just remember me and Joe spending ages trying to set this

0:37:530:37:56

car alight that was upside down,

0:37:560:37:59

and then a police motorcycle zoomed through, and I threw a bollard.

0:37:590:38:04

And shit, I don't know what I would have done if the guy had come off,

0:38:040:38:07

but it hit his front wheel and it staggered for a moment.

0:38:070:38:10

# Send in the riot squad quick

0:38:100:38:12

# Because they're running wild... #

0:38:120:38:14

By that time, the police were coming this way, and they were hurling missiles.

0:38:140:38:18

And the next thing that we had to do was to find our parents.

0:38:230:38:27

We don't know where they went.

0:38:270:38:29

That was our carnival experience.

0:38:310:38:33

Inner-city riots spread all around England, including Handsworth in

0:38:360:38:39

Birmingham, home of Steel Pulse, reggae's most militant and musically adventurous home-grown band.

0:38:390:38:47

# We're walking along just

0:38:470:38:51

# Kicking stones Me minding my own business

0:38:510:38:55

# I come face to face with my foe

0:38:560:38:59

# Disguised in violence from head to toe... #

0:39:020:39:03

Ku Klux Klan warned of the danger

0:39:030:39:07

of American-style white supremacists gaining a voice in Britain.

0:39:070:39:10

My imagination just got the better of me, where I started to imagine

0:39:100:39:14

me minding my own business walking along the streets of Handsworth

0:39:140:39:18

and then getting reprisal

0:39:180:39:21

from some white extremists of some kind.

0:39:210:39:24

So that's how that song came into play.

0:39:240:39:26

The hoods were made out of pillowcases initially.

0:39:260:39:30

We simply cut slits for, er... the eyes.

0:39:300:39:37

So the hoods was a very powerful, confrontational, militant statement, saying, "We're here, we're here to

0:39:370:39:44

"stay, and we are prepared to fight for our position."

0:39:440:39:47

# Here to stamp out black man, yah

0:39:470:39:52

# The Klu Klux Klan... #

0:39:520:39:54

At that time, I felt that Steel Pulse had their finger

0:39:560:40:01

absolutely on the button of really furthering British reggae music.

0:40:010:40:07

They were putting out stuff which was highly charged, highly political.

0:40:070:40:13

These were black people doing this, and that was just shocking, it was absolutely shocking.

0:40:130:40:21

But a new musical alignment was taking place

0:40:240:40:27

between what had until now been separate musical cultures.

0:40:270:40:32

It would radically change reggae's impact and acceptance almost overnight.

0:40:320:40:36

# It takes a joyful sound

0:40:470:40:50

# To make the world go round... #

0:40:500:40:52

In the late '70s, young British blacks found a musical and ideological ally in the punks.

0:40:520:41:00

# It's a punky reggae party... #

0:41:000:41:02

What we were writing about was everyday life,

0:41:020:41:04

and what the reggae musicians were writing about was

0:41:040:41:06

every day, contemporary life,

0:41:060:41:08

what's happening now, the violence, the poverty, the injustices.

0:41:080:41:12

Out of the punky reggae explosion came Rock Against Racism,

0:41:140:41:19

which was really a response to the rise of the right wing that was happening in the late '70s,

0:41:190:41:24

during the kind of time of social crisis, you know.

0:41:240:41:27

Rock Against Racism brought together reggae and punk bands in musical protest and solidarity.

0:41:350:41:41

Up to that time, black bands didn't play on the same stage with white bands.

0:41:460:41:52

That's a really important point to make, people forget that now.

0:41:520:41:55

You had black concerts and white concerts.

0:41:550:41:58

We got increasingly large stages to perform in front of, where the audience were

0:41:590:42:05

saying, "We never instigated this segregation between the musicians, and we support this coming together."

0:42:050:42:12

The Clash offered reggae performers a new audience, but this was reggae in punk clothing.

0:42:180:42:24

We weren't trying to do a slavish copy.

0:42:300:42:33

We were trying to give our interpretation of ingredients to our

0:42:330:42:37

music, you know, and people say, "Oh, it's not like reggae."

0:42:370:42:41

It wasn't meant to be like reggae.

0:42:410:42:44

It was our... We were a punk group, you know.

0:42:440:42:47

# Police and thieves in the street

0:42:470:42:50

# Oh, yeah

0:42:500:42:52

# Scaring the nation with

0:42:520:42:54

# Guns and ammunition... #

0:42:560:42:58

The Clash embraced the work of respected Jamaican artists and producers like Lee "Scratch" Perry.

0:42:580:43:04

The thing is, Police And Thieves was quite a popular tune at that time.

0:43:040:43:08

We decided to do a cover of it,

0:43:080:43:10

which was quite interesting, because Lee Perry said, when we finally met him,

0:43:100:43:15

"What do you think of our version?" He said, "Oh, you ruined it!"

0:43:150:43:18

which made me laugh!

0:43:180:43:20

# From genesis

0:43:200:43:23

# To revelation

0:43:230:43:24

# The next generation... #

0:43:260:43:28

The punk movement had in

0:43:310:43:33

common with the reggae movement was that it was frowned upon.

0:43:330:43:37

People, you know, looked at it as an inferior genre.

0:43:370:43:40

So together... you know, they came out fighting, you know,

0:43:430:43:48

and then everybody wanted a piece of reggae in his punk tune.

0:43:480:43:52

Dennis Bovell was asked to produce the debut album of the punk band the Slits.

0:43:550:44:01

It's very normal for me to feel that music was a conduit for protest,

0:44:020:44:07

and that's what punk was and that's what reggae was as well,

0:44:070:44:12

and I think that's where the two really came together,

0:44:120:44:15

talking about life on the streets when you were an underdog,

0:44:150:44:18

where you had no money, you had no voice,

0:44:180:44:20

and you wanted to point out the wrongs in the world

0:44:200:44:23

and your only way through that was through music.

0:44:230:44:25

I think what reggae really taught punk musicians was about space

0:44:350:44:39

and being brave enough to let there be holes and gaps,

0:44:390:44:42

and dub even more than that.

0:44:420:44:44

Because punk was very strict, very fast, you know -

0:44:440:44:47

get through it as fast as possible - very, very urban,

0:44:470:44:50

whereas reggae also came from an urban background,

0:44:500:44:54

but it was about letting go, being loose,

0:44:540:44:57

and it was such a relief after the strictness and minimalism of punk.

0:44:570:45:00

This is a street way of getting your voice out there

0:45:030:45:07

and, you know, punk and reggae both did that.

0:45:070:45:10

Reggae was now finding its way into even the most unexpected corners of the country.

0:45:140:45:19

Hidden away in a leafy London suburb was a musical foundry

0:45:210:45:25

that would feed British sound systems throughout the land.

0:45:250:45:29

Why write no more?

0:45:290:45:31

Keep it dubbing.

0:45:310:45:33

We're working it, you know.

0:45:330:45:35

Rock-solid base. We rule, innit.

0:45:350:45:37

While thumbing through the Yellow Pages one time,

0:45:380:45:42

looking for a place to cut an acetate,

0:45:420:45:47

found Hassell Recordings.

0:45:470:45:50

Phoned up, gone over there.

0:45:500:45:52

An elderly gentleman, who was famed for smoking a big fat cigar - John Hassell - answers the door.

0:45:520:46:00

We go into his house, into his living room, right,

0:46:010:46:06

and he's got this wonderful

0:46:060:46:08

German disc-cutting lathe set up in his front room.

0:46:080:46:11

They had come to cut an acetate -

0:46:130:46:15

the metal dub plate from which vinyl records would be cut.

0:46:150:46:19

And his wife Felicity has offered us a cup of tea, a cup of coffee.

0:46:190:46:24

Then we put on these tapes and it's, like, reggae.

0:46:240:46:27

You know, imagine stumbling on that through the Yellow Pages, right.

0:46:300:46:33

Then we were telling other people, "Listen, we found a guy

0:46:330:46:39

"who knows how to cut reggae."

0:46:390:46:41

Doing straight dub, are we?

0:46:410:46:44

You can have a fantastic-sounding thing on the tape

0:46:440:46:47

and then it all falls to pieces at the cutting end of it.

0:46:470:46:50

And someone who would be sympathetic to the frequencies

0:46:500:46:53

and know how to capture that sound from the tape onto the disc...

0:46:530:46:59

And John was a master at that.

0:46:590:47:00

It's an esoteric world. It's a world of subtlety and refinements.

0:47:040:47:10

To them,

0:47:110:47:12

sound is important, it has a meaning,

0:47:120:47:16

so it has to be done right and professionally and proper.

0:47:160:47:19

Next stop for Bovell's British dub cuts were the sound systems

0:47:220:47:25

where DJs would preview new tunes

0:47:250:47:28

and gauge whether the dancers liked them.

0:47:280:47:31

But sound systems only wanted to preview Jamaican imports.

0:47:330:47:37

To get British reggae played required a further sleight of hand.

0:47:370:47:42

So we had this idea

0:47:420:47:45

to get a machine that could make a big wide hole in records

0:47:450:47:50

that were pressed in this country

0:47:500:47:53

and don't put on it, "Made in England".

0:47:530:47:56

HE LAUGHS That was another dead giveaway!

0:47:560:47:59

You know, put as little information as possible.

0:47:590:48:01

Then parade them as pre-release and mix them in with the Jamaican stuff,

0:48:040:48:10

and very often they passed off as that.

0:48:100:48:13

That was definitely the way of getting our music played on sound systems.

0:48:130:48:18

To decide which pre-releases would become hits,

0:48:200:48:23

sound systems used the old Jamaican tradition of bare-knuckle competition.

0:48:230:48:28

It's like, you know, Mike Tyson fighting Lennox Lewis.

0:48:280:48:32

People pay to see and people want to go

0:48:320:48:36

because they don't know what the outcome's going to be, but they go.

0:48:360:48:40

You know, the sound system clashes, it's the same kind of thing.

0:48:400:48:45

They want to see who's going to play the best music on the night.

0:48:450:48:48

The most powerful and respected sounds were Jah Shaka, Coxsone and Saxon.

0:48:500:48:56

Each sound had its own partisan following and its own DJs.

0:48:590:49:03

We were always looking to Jamaica,

0:49:050:49:08

but when Saxon came along, you know what I mean,

0:49:080:49:11

Jamaica started to look to us, which was never done before.

0:49:110:49:16

There was a new confidence and a sense of home-grown identity

0:49:180:49:22

to the British sounds coming out of the black communities in areas like Brixton.

0:49:220:49:27

Perhaps British reggae's most distinctive voice in the late '70s was Linton Kwesi Johnson,

0:49:280:49:34

who pioneered a distinctively British dub poetry.

0:49:340:49:38

# Ganja crawling creeping through my brain

0:49:380:49:41

# The cold light's hurting and breaking and hurting

0:49:410:49:44

# Fire in the head and the dread beat bleeding, beating

0:49:440:49:48

# Fire, dread... #

0:49:480:49:50

Dread is dread, dread is fear.

0:49:500:49:53

Dread is a kind of terror.

0:49:530:49:54

Dread Beat An' Blood is kind of a metaphor

0:49:560:50:00

for the tension and the violence that were part of...

0:50:000:50:06

that culture of resistance

0:50:060:50:08

to which reggae was so essential.

0:50:080:50:10

His record Dread Beat An' Blood absolutely knocked us for six.

0:50:100:50:15

It was his delivery, his words were so clever, the beats, it was so understated.

0:50:150:50:21

It was like nothing you'd ever heard before. He was like a god to us.

0:50:210:50:25

I don't begin with a piece of music.

0:50:300:50:32

I begin with the word.

0:50:320:50:34

The language of the verse I write

0:50:340:50:36

will determine the rhythm of the music.

0:50:360:50:38

I hear music in language, so that...

0:50:420:50:46

in a poem like, for example, It Noh Funny, I say,

0:50:460:50:50

"Dem wi' tek chance," and that's exactly what the bass plays.

0:50:500:50:55

Da-da-DUH-da.

0:50:550:50:57

And the horn section will play the same rhythm as well.

0:50:570:51:00

That was my aesthetic -

0:51:020:51:04

that I wanted to write verse that sounded like a bass line.

0:51:040:51:08

I wanted to write lines of poetry that sounded like a reggae bass line.

0:51:080:51:12

The mix of instrumental sounds,

0:51:140:51:16

the bass and echo effects in Dread Beat An' Blood,

0:51:160:51:19

were the result of an unusual partnership.

0:51:190:51:22

The great thing about dub is that

0:51:310:51:33

it's the engineer's art,

0:51:330:51:37

it's what the sound engineer does.

0:51:370:51:39

It's the deconstruction of a piece of music

0:51:430:51:46

and its reconstruction as an act of illusion.

0:51:460:51:53

By act of illusion, I mean you have a spatial dimension,

0:51:590:52:03

which is created with echoes and reverbs.

0:52:030:52:05

British dub is quite a lot different to its Jamaican counterpart.

0:52:110:52:17

Quite a lot of young British people like the fact that

0:52:190:52:24

the echoes will take them into a different world, you know.

0:52:240:52:29

You could hear your favourite song mashed up.

0:52:290:52:32

It was like making scrambled eggs.

0:52:320:52:35

Bovell's first experience of this musical bricolage

0:52:380:52:41

didn't come from Jamaica, but from an album he had at home.

0:52:410:52:45

I thought that the first dub I'd heard was Jimi Hendrix,

0:52:450:52:51

a song called Third Stone From The Sun.

0:52:510:52:54

The amount of echo on the guitars and the sound effects in there

0:52:540:52:59

were positively the first sort of dubbing I heard.

0:52:590:53:02

Then to find that creeping into reggae, it was like, "Yeah!"

0:53:020:53:08

It was this mixture of early influences from pop records, school friends and sound systems

0:53:110:53:16

that would earn him the title Godfather Of British Dub.

0:53:160:53:19

Dub sounds became part of the musical mix for many British rock and punk bands at that time.

0:53:300:53:35

Police came along and turned reggae into rock and roll,

0:53:410:53:45

by adopting the Jimi Hendrix Experience style

0:53:450:53:51

of a three-piece band - drums, bass and guitar -

0:53:510:53:55

and, em, playing reggae.

0:53:550:53:57

# Dreaming dreams of what used to be

0:53:590:54:02

# When she left I was cold inside... #

0:54:020:54:06

'We completely...'

0:54:060:54:08

bastardised reggae. We plundered it without remorse.

0:54:080:54:12

We took from it what was useful to us, but we made no attempt to repackage it

0:54:120:54:18

and deliver it back unto the people, which would have been false.

0:54:180:54:21

The Police began life as a punk-reggae band in 1977 with an agenda all their own.

0:54:230:54:29

Roxanne, off their first album, became their signature tune.

0:54:310:54:34

# I've loved you since I knew you

0:54:360:54:37

# I wouldn't talk down to you

0:54:390:54:41

# I have to tell you just how I feel... #

0:54:420:54:45

The first time I heard Roxanne, I heard Sting come up with this song

0:54:480:54:53

and he had it as a sort of bossa nova with the chords going...

0:54:530:54:56

HE PLAYS BOSSA-NOVA STYLE GUITAR CHORDS

0:54:560:54:59

So it was very soft and a kind of sexy song.

0:55:060:55:09

"Yeah, really nice. But bossa nova? This is the punk scene.

0:55:090:55:13

"We're going to get killed!"

0:55:130:55:14

We started to sort of change it around.

0:55:140:55:18

We were sort of being influenced by reggae at that point,

0:55:180:55:21

to see if there was some way we could change the drumming.

0:55:210:55:25

And so we reggae-fied this bossa nova tune that he had written.

0:55:250:55:28

And it's not even real reggae.

0:55:280:55:31

Andy Summers, his guitar part, is not the up-chick, it's the downbeat.

0:55:310:55:35

He plays one, two, three, four, chick, chick, chick.

0:55:350:55:38

And that locks the whole thing together.

0:55:440:55:47

So with the straight four on the bar guitar

0:55:470:55:49

and the drums doing this kind of reggae feeling

0:55:490:55:52

and the bass line going with that - dum-DUM, da-da-da, dum-DUM, da-da-da.

0:55:520:55:56

# ..Oh, Roxanne, oh

0:55:570:56:00

# Oh, Roxanne, oh-oh... #

0:56:000:56:03

We tried to be as mercenary as possible

0:56:030:56:08

because we want to conquer the world, but actually we can't resist

0:56:080:56:11

playing with this thing that really is fascinating us and turns us on

0:56:110:56:15

and we find this new rhythmic formula,

0:56:150:56:18

which applies to Sting's new-found ability to write fancy chords

0:56:180:56:23

and with a guitarist who can play them.

0:56:230:56:25

It was like candy for us.

0:56:250:56:28

Here we go.

0:56:350:56:36

# ..Roxanne

0:56:360:56:38

# You don't have to put on the red light

0:56:380:56:42

# Those days are over

0:56:430:56:45

# You don't have to sell your body to the night

0:56:450:56:48

# Roxanne... #

0:56:480:56:50

At the same time, there was a little group of mainly Midlands bands,

0:56:520:56:56

digging further back into Jamaican history.

0:56:560:56:59

In Coventry, they were reinventing the sound of the '60s.

0:56:590:57:03

2 Tone were a kind of musical commune that included Selecter, The Beat and Madness.

0:57:070:57:11

They injected old-school Jamaican ska with a new punk energy.

0:57:110:57:17

The 2 Tone guys, they were from Coventry,

0:57:170:57:20

and Jerry Dammers, the maestro who pulled that all together, which was the weirdest thing.

0:57:200:57:25

I never got to know Jerry at all.

0:57:250:57:28

Some of the other guys, yeah,

0:57:280:57:29

but Jerry seemed like a complete mastermind.

0:57:290:57:32

I don't know what part of his brain was working, but some part clearly was in focus.

0:57:320:57:37

I'd say we were the beginning of the imitation generation, you know.

0:57:370:57:42

At least we were one of the first to do it.

0:57:420:57:44

We were like The Jam.

0:57:440:57:45

It was like imitating the past, but in real life.

0:57:450:57:47

This was our inspiration.

0:57:520:57:54

'It would be really hard to say why retro culture happened,

0:57:540:57:58

'but it did and it was exciting.

0:57:580:58:01

'I think it was good'

0:58:010:58:03

from the point of view that it probably...

0:58:030:58:05

introduced a younger generation into that music.

0:58:050:58:09

You go and find the originals and it's like, "Oh, that's what it's about."

0:58:090:58:14

Then those originals lead you on to something else.

0:58:140:58:17

They're like stepping stones, I think.

0:58:170:58:19

I think 2 Tone was important from that point of view, you know.

0:58:190:58:23

The ska that we played was very different.

0:58:280:58:31

We didn't really know how to play Jamaican ska properly.

0:58:310:58:35

If you listen to it, it's actually a strange fusion

0:58:350:58:38

of bits of skinhead style, bits of Mod style, bits of Jamaican rude-boy style.

0:58:380:58:44

Mixing it and matching it and...

0:58:440:58:47

creating something, which never actually happened in the first place exactly.

0:58:470:58:51

# Now you're on your own

0:59:130:59:16

# I won't return Forever you will wait... #

0:59:170:59:24

There are, I believe, periods of huge energy and change.

0:59:240:59:30

I think youth always needs something to kick against

0:59:300:59:35

and if the political climate feels more oppressive to them,

0:59:350:59:38

they will kick harder and something bigger and better will grow out of it.

0:59:380:59:43

# Call me immature Call me a poser

0:59:430:59:47

# I'll put manure in your bed of roses

0:59:470:59:49

# Don't bother me Don't bother me... #

0:59:490:59:52

In a way, The Specials were playing out the kind of...

0:59:560:59:59

drama of British society on the stage, you know.

0:59:591:00:03

That was part of the concept.

1:00:031:00:06

# You done too much Much too young

1:00:061:00:08

# You're married with a kid when you could be having fun... #

1:00:081:00:12

2 Tone. I think that we were using elements

1:00:121:00:17

of that time of what Jamaican reggae artists and Jamaican ska artists

1:00:171:00:22

like Laurel Aitken, Prince Buster, all those kind of people,

1:00:221:00:25

and The Skatalites were doing, but we were really of the punk generation.

1:00:251:00:31

Recycle it, OK?

1:00:311:00:34

Three Minute Hero was about

1:00:381:00:42

what it was like to have a job clocking on and just living, in a way, just for the weekend.

1:00:421:00:48

# They asked you if you're all right

1:00:481:00:52

# You said yes

1:00:521:00:54

# But all the time you know

1:00:551:00:58

# It's a mess

1:00:591:01:00

# It's 5pm and you're on your way home

1:01:001:01:04

# It's just another day with that endless grey drone

1:01:041:01:07

# Three minute hero, I wanna be... #

1:01:071:01:10

It was possible for us to use political lyrics with that kind of music and still keep it high energy.

1:01:121:01:20

Pauline's band, The Selecter added the strongest punk stamp to this 60s retro-culture.

1:01:221:01:27

They toured the country alongside The Specials, with high-energy songs like On My Radio.

1:01:271:01:33

On My Radio showcased the vocals because of the very high...

1:01:401:01:45

(HIGH-PITCHED) # On my radio... # business going on.

1:01:451:01:47

It sort of sounded a bit like Kate Bush crossed with, I don't know, Millie Small,

1:01:471:01:54

crossed with some other kind of reggae thing that was going on.

1:01:541:01:57

# On my radio... #

1:02:001:02:02

'It had all the ingredients of a quirky pop song

1:02:031:02:07

'and people loved it.'

1:02:071:02:09

# On my radio, my radio My radio... #

1:02:091:02:14

With 2 Tone at the time of the ska revival, I always found there was

1:02:141:02:18

a closer connection with punk than there was with ska.

1:02:181:02:21

It was like what would normally be a punk band

1:02:211:02:24

would get up there and play an offbeat

1:02:241:02:26

and suddenly you've got something that sounds vaguely like ska.

1:02:261:02:29

None of us was really interested in being part of what was effectively

1:02:291:02:34

just a ska revival.

1:02:341:02:36

To start playing ska was like taking two steps backwards.

1:02:361:02:40

We wanted something a little bit more long lasting.

1:02:401:02:44

# He wields his flute with an expert hand

1:02:461:02:50

# Then, all too soon... #

1:02:501:02:52

The band that would take '70s reggae into the pop charts for the next 30 years

1:02:521:02:57

was a bunch of Birmingham lads.

1:02:571:03:00

We called ourselves a jazz dub reggae band when we started.

1:03:031:03:08

But we wanted to make reggae music, you know. It was important to us.

1:03:101:03:16

It wasn't going to be Jamaican reggae, you know, because we were

1:03:161:03:20

a British band and we wanted to make British reggae, like a hybrid.

1:03:201:03:23

# There are murders that we must account for

1:03:231:03:28

# Bloody deeds have been done in my name

1:03:281:03:33

# Criminal acts I must pay for

1:03:331:03:36

# And our children will shoulder the blame

1:03:361:03:40

# I'm a British subject I'm proud of it

1:03:401:03:45

# While I carry the burden of shame

1:03:451:03:49

# I'm a British subject and I'm proud of it

1:03:491:03:54

# While I carry the burden of shame... #

1:03:541:03:58

Our environment totally shaped who we were.

1:04:011:04:04

I think if you went to Balsall Heath,

1:04:071:04:11

which is where most of us grew up,

1:04:111:04:13

and grabbed eight guys off the street, they'd look pretty much like us.

1:04:131:04:18

The same kind of racial mix.

1:04:181:04:21

We were immediately more attractive, I think, to a British audience because we were mixed.

1:04:211:04:28

As far as our image goes, we had no image. We just wear what we wore anyway.

1:04:281:04:36

We weren't into dressing up in uniforms and suits and whatever.

1:04:361:04:42

What you see is what you get.

1:04:421:04:44

We were called UB40

1:04:441:04:46

because we were all signing on at the time.

1:04:461:04:49

A friend of ours suggested the name when we were trying to think of a name.

1:04:491:04:53

He said, "You've all got UB40 cards, why not call yourselves UB40?"

1:04:531:04:58

It was honest, as well, because we really did come from that.

1:04:581:05:02

Without taking dole money we'd never have been able to afford to rehearse.

1:05:021:05:06

We'd have had to get a job. We were actually in the middle of that.

1:05:061:05:10

It wasn't something we took from the outside hoping we might attract an audience.

1:05:101:05:15

We were responding to the circumstances we were in.

1:05:151:05:19

So, obviously, when we made our first album, it was just a natural progression to call it Signing Off

1:05:191:05:26

because we weren't signing on any more.

1:05:261:05:28

It was a facsimile of the UB40 card.

1:05:281:05:31

It was pretty clever because it gave us three million card-carrying fans instantly!

1:05:311:05:37

It sold eight million copies, you know.

1:05:451:05:47

For an album made in a bedsit, that was pretty good going.

1:05:471:05:51

# Refugee without a home

1:05:521:05:55

# A housewife hooked on Valium

1:05:551:05:56

# I'm a pensioner alone

1:05:561:05:58

# I'm a cancer-ridden spectre that's covering the earth

1:05:581:06:02

# I'm another hungry baby I'm an accident of birth

1:06:021:06:07

-# One in ten

-A number on a list

1:06:071:06:10

-# One in ten

-Even though I don't exist... #

1:06:101:06:14

To us, reggae didn't represent palm trees and beaches, it represented the inner city.

1:06:141:06:19

When I heard reggae music, that's the image I picture in my own head.

1:06:191:06:24

By the dawn of the '80s, new-wave reggae from 2 Tone to UB40 was taking on Thatcher's Britain.

1:06:301:06:36

# Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?

1:06:391:06:44

# We danced and sang as the music played in any boomtown... #

1:06:461:06:50

We were touring the country.

1:06:551:06:57

Margaret Thatcher was busy closing down huge swathes

1:06:571:07:02

of British industry because they weren't profitable.

1:07:021:07:05

She was like...Al Capone, I would guess.

1:07:051:07:09

Because her mob weren't getting paid she was going to shut them all down.

1:07:091:07:13

That's what happened. We were touring the country and we could literally see it happening.

1:07:131:07:17

# This town is becoming like a ghost town

1:07:191:07:23

# Why must the youth fight against themselves? #

1:07:231:07:25

Ghost Town just captured what was happening

1:07:251:07:27

all over England at the same time.

1:07:271:07:29

It was all closing down.

1:07:311:07:33

Your local corner shops were closing down.

1:07:331:07:36

Dance halls getting closed down.

1:07:381:07:40

It meant something to you.

1:07:401:07:42

In Ghost Town...

1:07:531:07:55

I got a good solo in Ghost Town.

1:07:551:07:58

I think I did everything in that solo.

1:07:581:08:01

I was talking about suffering, I was talking about goodness.

1:08:011:08:05

If you listen to that solo, you hear everything that you like to hear in music.

1:08:051:08:10

I play my trombone to speak for all those who cannot speak

1:08:141:08:17

and because I have the opportunity to be there.

1:08:171:08:21

We know oppression very well.

1:08:281:08:30

We know oppression very well.

1:08:301:08:32

The death of Bob Marley, reggae's only superstar, saw him given a state funeral in Jamaica in 1981.

1:08:571:09:05

# I need strength to make my own way... #

1:09:111:09:15

The British roots bands that had once built themselves in Marley's image

1:09:161:09:20

now found they were losing the support of their record companies and their audience.

1:09:201:09:24

These bands - Aswad, Matumbi,

1:09:291:09:33

had gone...slower reggae and a bit more political.

1:09:331:09:39

And the...fun had gone out of reggae for a lot of those bands.

1:09:411:09:47

It was serious music now.

1:09:471:09:49

But the BBC playlists mostly remained a no-go area for reggae artists.

1:09:501:09:56

It's the brotherhood of flower pots. That's it.

1:09:561:09:58

'The industry still did not gravitate or cotton on to reggae music

1:09:581:10:02

'in its proper context.'

1:10:021:10:05

Music was still not played on the airwaves.

1:10:051:10:08

It still wasn't publicised in newspapers.

1:10:081:10:12

Interviews were still pretty much secluded to

1:10:121:10:15

the black community papers.

1:10:151:10:17

I can remember record company...

1:10:171:10:20

individuals saying to me, "Look, Michael,

1:10:201:10:23

"the audience likes to buy itself."

1:10:231:10:26

"What do you mean?" "You don't look like the audience."

1:10:261:10:28

# Red, red wine

1:10:281:10:32

# Goes to my head... #

1:10:331:10:36

Bands like UB40 we saw as cashing in

1:10:361:10:40

on all that hard work that we'd done to bring British reggae to a point

1:10:401:10:46

where we could exploit it, only to be superseded by what we thought at the time

1:10:461:10:53

was a more pastel, a weaker version, a commercial version of what we were doing.

1:10:531:11:01

# All I can do, I've done... #

1:11:011:11:06

I think there are some bands that think white guys

1:11:061:11:10

shouldn't be playing reggae and that we've stolen their music.

1:11:101:11:15

But they're as English as we are, you know.

1:11:151:11:17

# I'd have thought

1:11:171:11:20

# That with time... #

1:11:201:11:23

As the '80s unfolded, reggae moved away from its earlier militancy.

1:11:231:11:28

UB40 now did an about-turn and paid tribute to the softer

1:11:281:11:33

classic hits of the early '70s that had inspired them to play reggae in the first place.

1:11:331:11:38

# Red, red wine

1:11:381:11:41

# Stay close to me... #

1:11:431:11:46

Labour Of love, which was the album we'd wanted to do

1:11:461:11:50

from the beginning but everyone in this industry had gone,

1:11:501:11:53

"You can't do that, you mustn't do that.

1:11:531:11:55

"It would be commercial suicide."

1:11:551:11:57

And, of course,

1:11:571:11:59

as is usually the case, the opposite turned out to be the truth.

1:11:591:12:04

It turned out to be another stroke of accidental genius.

1:12:041:12:07

There was a more romantic British reggae evolving in the black community too,

1:12:111:12:17

for dressing-up, for feeling good, for a fun night out.

1:12:171:12:20

They called it lovers' rock.

1:12:201:12:22

We understand lovers' rock is similar to rock steady

1:12:231:12:29

but it's English style.

1:12:291:12:31

It's laid back.

1:12:311:12:33

The lyrics are a bit more soppy, know what I mean?

1:12:331:12:38

That's it, really.

1:12:381:12:39

But people love it.

1:12:391:12:41

It's love songs with a difference.

1:12:411:12:45

# Cos if I keep on seeing you, baby

1:12:451:12:48

# You're gonna make me feel so blue... #

1:12:481:12:51

Lovers' rock is...

1:12:531:12:55

one of the British-created vibes in reggae music.

1:12:551:13:00

You can be a revolutionary, you can be a soldier, but a soldier needs to come home to the family.

1:13:001:13:06

A soldier needs love, the same way.

1:13:061:13:08

It was time to dance with your girl,

1:13:081:13:11

whereas when you listen to the roots stuff,

1:13:111:13:16

it was chanting down Babylon on your own, basically, dancing on your own.

1:13:161:13:20

With lovers' rock, it was where you found yourself a girl to hold close

1:13:201:13:25

and dance to.

1:13:251:13:27

You dressed up to make an impression, right?

1:13:271:13:30

And if you knew someone who sang that tune, oh, you were famous.

1:13:301:13:34

It's a whole lifestyle, a lifestyle.

1:13:341:13:38

Just like the rasta and the roots culture was a lifestyle.

1:13:381:13:42

Lovers' rock IS the British sound.

1:13:421:13:45

Lovers' rock is the British sound of reggae.

1:13:451:13:48

From the days when people said "You cannot make reggae in London.

1:13:501:13:54

"You have to go to Jamaica, to get the feel."

1:13:561:13:58

In England, artists WERE the producers.

1:13:591:14:03

# Girl, you, high up above

1:14:031:14:09

# Girl

1:14:091:14:10

# You are high up... #

1:14:101:14:12

British-based musicians were honing their musical and business skills.

1:14:121:14:17

In our case, we played our own studio, right.

1:14:181:14:24

We didn't have some executive. That's why we fell out with Trojan.

1:14:241:14:27

Trojan wanted us to do cover versions of songs.

1:14:271:14:30

So a pop song would come out and they'd go, "That's it.

1:14:301:14:33

"That's your next assignment. Reggae version of that, please. Thank you."

1:14:331:14:38

And then, someone else would cop all the publishing, you know.

1:14:381:14:44

We wanted to write and produce our own material and it came out that way.

1:14:441:14:51

Though lovers' rock was mostly sung by women for a female audience,

1:14:561:15:00

the production was still handled by men.

1:15:001:15:02

All the producers were male.

1:15:041:15:06

I dared to have an opinion, which I did often.

1:15:061:15:09

-Well, yeah.

-And I would...

-..fall out with people!

1:15:091:15:12

-Fall out of favour very quickly, to have an opinion.

-Yeah.

1:15:121:15:15

And I did often find that I'd have to filter my opinion through a male,

1:15:151:15:19

to have it realised. It was about the track, wasn't it?

1:15:191:15:23

Yeah, it was about the track, then by the time you got to the vocals,

1:15:231:15:27

it was like near the ending of the session

1:15:271:15:29

and then you'd have the producer...

1:15:291:15:31

"Time is money!" And it's like,

1:15:311:15:33

I want to get everything perfect,

1:15:331:15:35

but there's never enough time to get everything perfect.

1:15:351:15:38

The studio time used to cost so much money back in the day,

1:15:381:15:41

so you sing a harmony and think, "That's not right.

1:15:411:15:44

"I need to do it again." He's like...

1:15:441:15:46

My first track, the first record that came out, was a demo.

1:15:461:15:50

I just went in there to try out.

1:15:501:15:52

And I'm thinking, "Ooh, that sounds familiar" and I came down

1:15:581:16:01

and I thought, "That's me, that's my song!" And it was on the radio.

1:16:011:16:06

-The next day.

-And I hadn't even had a chance to go back and review it and make sure it was in tune.

1:16:061:16:11

I was just sketching it.

1:16:111:16:12

# Ooh

1:16:121:16:16

# When I'm in love

1:16:161:16:22

# Oh, baby

1:16:221:16:25

# When I'm in love

1:16:251:16:29

# I'm hopelessly in love... #

1:16:311:16:36

I think what... I think for you, I mean, because Janet came before me, I was inspired

1:16:361:16:40

by Janet, so I remember seeing Janet do Silly Games on Top Of The Pops and thinking, "Oh, that's fantastic.

1:16:401:16:48

I could do that.

1:16:481:16:49

# You're as much to blame

1:16:521:16:55

# Because I know you feel the same

1:16:551:16:59

# I can see it in the eyes

1:16:591:17:06

# But I've got no time

1:17:071:17:10

# To live this lie

1:17:101:17:14

# No, I've got no time

1:17:151:17:18

# To play your silly games... #

1:17:181:17:23

It was still rare for black British reggae artists to appear on Top Of The Pops.

1:17:231:17:27

Some things hadn't changed in a decade.

1:17:271:17:30

# Silly games. #

1:17:301:17:35

When I recorded Silly Games again, Silly Games was recorded in the same way that Caroll and I spoke about,

1:17:351:17:42

in that you'd go into the studio, you'd do a tune, you don't know what's going to happen.

1:17:421:17:47

You just go in there. It was played by the sound systems for a while.

1:17:471:17:51

And it circulated in the community for about six months

1:17:511:17:57

before it actually got into the British charts.

1:17:571:18:01

We didn't even know how many albums or how many singles we'd actually sell,

1:18:011:18:05

so we didn't know how many hearts we'd actually touched.

1:18:051:18:08

Lovers rock suffered from reggae's old problems.

1:18:111:18:15

It was a cottage industry, dependent on the sound systems for distribution,

1:18:151:18:19

with little or no support from the mainstream pop record business.

1:18:191:18:23

The effects of reggae music,

1:18:261:18:27

as becoming pop music in the '80s, didn't really affect me,

1:18:271:18:33

because...I wasn't really invited into that world.

1:18:331:18:39

That was a record company push, that was like Virgin and EMI and the rest of them.

1:18:391:18:44

They weren't really interested in looking at black talent involved in reggae industry.

1:18:441:18:48

We weren't really invited to that party.

1:18:481:18:51

Lovers rock... In a funny sort of way,

1:18:511:18:55

it was reggae music that didn't frighten white people!

1:18:551:18:58

Safe to say, isn't it?

1:18:581:19:00

It was kind of, "Oh, this is nice. "You can dance to this", you know?

1:19:001:19:04

# Do you really want to hurt me?

1:19:041:19:09

# Do you really... #

1:19:091:19:10

George's debt to lovers rock was obvious in Culture Club's first big hit.

1:19:101:19:14

# Do you really want to hurt me?

1:19:141:19:18

# Do you really want to make me cry? #

1:19:181:19:23

But tabloid critics remained sceptical of George's dread credentials.

1:19:231:19:27

White people have always seemed to have a problem with me doing reggae. Not black people.

1:19:291:19:33

Black people say, "It's a nice tune, you can sing reggae good." I always get complimented.

1:19:331:19:38

White people seem to have a problem. I remember the first review that we

1:19:381:19:42

ever got for Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?

1:19:421:19:44

They said it was "fourth division, Kathy Kirby, watered-down reggae.

1:19:441:19:48

"The only think Culture Club have got going for then is the hideously unphotogenic Boy George.

1:19:481:19:53

I still remember it, word-for-word.

1:19:531:19:55

# You've been talking but believe me

1:19:561:19:58

# If it's true you do not know

1:20:001:20:04

# This boy loves without a reason

1:20:051:20:09

# I'm prepared to let you go

1:20:091:20:13

# If it's love you want from me... #

1:20:131:20:17

Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? was actually written as

1:20:171:20:20

the B-side of quite a famous reggae record.

1:20:201:20:22

I remember turning it over and playing the kind of dub version

1:20:221:20:25

and coming up with a kind of melody idea and then Mikey coming up with that brilliant baseline,

1:20:251:20:30

which one of the most memorable things about the song.

1:20:301:20:33

# Do you really want to hurt me? #

1:20:331:20:38

The reggae thing crept into a lot of what we did, you know, as a band.

1:20:381:20:43

We were a multicultural band.

1:20:431:20:45

It was a big thing for us.

1:20:451:20:47

# Don't put your head on my shoulder

1:20:471:20:52

# Sing me in a river of tears

1:20:521:20:55

# This could be... #

1:20:551:20:57

But I loved what we became. It was much more fun, much more exciting, kind of mixing

1:20:571:21:03

genres around and just sort of throwing them into a big pot and seeing what came out.

1:21:031:21:08

# Your time is precious, I know... #

1:21:081:21:10

The new-wave British bands adapted their image for videos, designed for teenage MTV audiences.

1:21:131:21:19

The Police dyed their hair blonde and took reggae into the rock video stratosphere.

1:21:261:21:30

# Walking on the moon

1:21:301:21:32

# I hope my leg don't break... #

1:21:341:21:37

'We were'

1:21:371:21:38

wearing the flag of convenience.

1:21:381:21:41

We were wearing the uniform de jour.

1:21:411:21:43

We had the haircut of the day - critical.

1:21:431:21:46

# We could be together

1:21:461:21:50

# Walking on walking on the moon... #

1:21:501:21:55

Well, every band struggles to get an audience. A bigger audience

1:21:551:21:59

and bigger and bigger and more and more and, at no time,

1:21:591:22:02

I don't think, is there ever a calculation of, "Well, am I now... Is this too much?

1:22:021:22:06

"Have I taken this too far? "No, let's take it further."

1:22:061:22:09

# This generation

1:22:101:22:12

# Rules the nation

1:22:121:22:14

# With version... #

1:22:141:22:17

The one black band that did briefly go global was Musical Youth.

1:22:171:22:20

Five school kids from Birmingham would turn an old reggae song

1:22:221:22:26

about smoking ganja into a homily to the cooking pot.

1:22:261:22:29

-#

-I say

-Pass the dutchie 'pon the left-hand side

1:22:291:22:34

# Pass the dutchie 'pon the left-hand side, it gonna burn

1:22:341:22:37

-#

-Give me the music, make me jump and prance

-It a' go done.

1:22:371:22:41

-#

-Give me the music

-Do you know?

1:22:411:22:44

Musical Youth getting into number one with Pass The Dutchie was...

1:22:441:22:47

Well, it was important to me because I made the video.

1:22:471:22:50

You've got to understand, this video was shown on Blue Peter

1:22:501:22:53

one afternoon and the next day it went to number one.

1:22:531:22:56

It was actually on the national news and then went to number one in 18 countries around the world.

1:22:561:23:00

# How does it feel when you got no food? #

1:23:001:23:03

Apparently, that was the first all-black video on MTV.

1:23:031:23:06

# How does it feel when you got no food?

1:23:061:23:10

Musical Youth reflected two cultures.

1:23:101:23:12

The first was the Jamaican homeland of their parents.

1:23:121:23:15

The second was their British upbringing and schooling.

1:23:151:23:19

# Give me the music Make me rock in the dance... #

1:23:191:23:22

Like the music itself, the twin cultures could now flourish side-by-side.

1:23:221:23:26

# Eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one-a

1:23:271:23:30

# It's I, Smiley Culture with the mike in my hand-a

1:23:301:23:33

# Me come to teach you right

1:23:331:23:34

# And not the wrong in the Cockney Translation

1:23:341:23:38

# Cockney's not a language It's only a slang-a

1:23:381:23:41

# And was originated, yah, so inna England-a

1:23:411:23:44

# The first place it was used was over East London

1:23:441:23:47

# It was respect for the different-style pronunciation... #

1:23:471:23:50

It's two different cultures and I feel that respect's due to both,

1:23:501:23:54

because I know both, so I thought that I'd do something

1:23:541:23:57

to kind of compliment that. It's looking at what you've got

1:23:571:24:00

around you and and making it into a lyrical thing.

1:24:001:24:03

# Say Cockney fireshooter We bust gun-a

1:24:031:24:06

# The Cockney say tea leaf We just say sticks man-a

1:24:061:24:08

# You know them have wedge while we have corn

1:24:091:24:11

# The Cockney say, you first, my son, we just say gwan... #

1:24:111:24:14

Whatever the lyric was, it was about the lyric and the whole story worked

1:24:141:24:18

as a story, as opposed to just having a verse here and a little thin chorus and,

1:24:181:24:23

you know, I think now it's more and more coming that way, but I think we were really ahead of our time.

1:24:231:24:29

# Rope chain and choparita Me say Cockney call tom-a

1:24:291:24:32

# Say cockney say Old Bill We say dutty Babylon...

1:24:321:24:35

Great. Not so much reggae, but the music is

1:24:351:24:39

definitely reggae-influenced, you know.

1:24:391:24:41

Smiley Culture had learned his style of video MC-ing with the

1:24:441:24:47

Saxon Sound System, which had been touring the UK since the mid-'70s.

1:24:471:24:52

He travelled with Saxon colleagues like Tippa Irie.

1:24:521:24:55

You used to just take styles from each other,

1:24:591:25:04

but the main thing is that we defeat the other sound, that's stringed up over there.

1:25:041:25:08

# No, me humble, me conscientious You know me righteous

1:25:081:25:13

# You want me on the ground Please wait, don't rush

1:25:131:25:15

# Tippa Irie is life and London blood

1:25:151:25:18

# But it's good to have the feeling you're the best... #

1:25:181:25:20

It's Good To Have The Feeling is really a lyric

1:25:201:25:23

that I wrote about the sound system stacks.

1:25:231:25:26

# Yes, it's good to have the feeling you're the best

1:25:261:25:28

# Cos I can show the north, south, east and west

1:25:281:25:31

# In London and Birmingham Enough to confess... #

1:25:311:25:34

But always original, always our own.

1:25:341:25:38

We wouldn't follow what they were doing in Jamaica.

1:25:381:25:41

# Putting that beat back... #

1:25:411:25:45

I think sometimes the understated backbone of British black music is the sound system.

1:25:451:25:51

It is reggae.

1:25:511:25:53

And we've all evolved out of that

1:25:531:25:56

collective experience of reggae in different ways.

1:25:561:26:01

It has spawned many sub-genres and many interpretations of it.

1:26:021:26:07

One of the best examples of that was Soul II Soul.

1:26:071:26:11

Reggae was being marketed for the '80s, packaged appeal to everyone, here and in the USA.

1:26:121:26:18

# Because it's all about expression... #

1:26:181:26:20

Our idea was based on the sound system.

1:26:201:26:24

We came up with an idea of a happy face, a thumping bass for a loving race.

1:26:241:26:28

One of our ideas was obviously to take the idea of the dread uptown.

1:26:281:26:33

So we were kind of creating a different style, a new myth, as it were.

1:26:331:26:37

And the whole effect of us trying to put all of these things into this

1:26:371:26:41

incredible melting-pot, which allowed us to be inclusive.

1:26:411:26:46

# I think you should come down

1:26:461:26:49

# And try to express yourself

1:26:491:26:53

# Yourself, be there

1:26:531:26:55

# Be there, be there, be there

1:26:551:26:58

# Be there I want, I want I want you to be there... #

1:26:581:27:01

The culture's blending.

1:27:031:27:05

It's merging more. I think that people...

1:27:051:27:07

It's hard, like I said, to distinguish between colour

1:27:071:27:11

as much any more, even though people kind of want to keep it black and white. I think you can't do that.

1:27:111:27:16

I think that it's just not going to happen any more. It's becoming people as opposed to just colour.

1:27:161:27:21

# Keep on moving

1:27:211:27:26

# Don't stop like

1:27:261:27:28

# The hands of time... #

1:27:281:27:32

In the 30 years since reggae first arrived here,

1:27:321:27:36

it had propelled and reflected many changes in our music and society.

1:27:361:27:41

And though reggae, as we knew it, had passed away, its musical descendants survive and flourish.

1:27:411:27:47

# This way, yeah

1:27:511:27:54

# Keep on moving, don't stop, no

1:27:541:27:57

# Keep on moving

1:27:571:27:59

# Keep on moving

1:28:021:28:03

Keep on moving, don't stop, no

1:28:051:28:07

# Keep on moving

1:28:071:28:09

# It's so tough

1:28:141:28:17

# It's tough today

1:28:171:28:19

# The right time is here to stay

1:28:191:28:23

# Stay in my life

1:28:241:28:26

# My life always... #

1:28:261:28:28

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