“Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?” – Bob Marley
Hello all
Wow is it a hot one today, so a bit Reggae is needed to chill out to.
A couple of weeks ago I found a new label called Reggae Archive Records. Reggae Archive Records is a record label dealing in British Reggae from the ’70s, 80’s and ’90s.
Having already successfully turned the spotlight on Bristol’s lost reggae heritage, Bristol Archive Record’s new sister label Reggae Archive Records launches with similar ambitions for other UK towns and cities.
They aim to showcase music from British Reggae labels and artists. Music that provides a historical account/document of all things Reggae that should never be forgotten. Many of the artists and releases are rare, unknown or never before released. The material has been lovingly digitally remastered from vinyl, ¼ inch tape, Dat or cassette. The original vinyl releases would generally have been limited to runs of 1000 copies or less.
So I decided on some long lost music from the legendary Birmingham band Eclipse. Friends and contemporaries of fellow Handsworth band Steel Pulse. This is their first release, and these days I can taste it before I buy, via Spotify or Bandcamp. I liked what I heard and decided to go with the CD, it turns up yesterday, and nice package, the project has been completed with the full cooperation of the original band members. They have provided their recollections of the band’s history for the sleeve notes as well as supplying precious archive photographs. It all makes for a good read.
They are also working in partnership with the Fashion Records back catalogue. Fashion Records is a UK-based record label, publishing reggae music.
Founded in the summer of 1980, Fashion Records is one of the more successful UK-based reggae labels and one of only a few British reggae labels to release records that were produced in their own recording studio.
The label was the brainchild of John MacGillivray and Chris Lane, two reggae devotees, and was essentially a spin-off from MacGillivray’s Dub Vendor record store. The first Fashion release hit number 1 in the UK reggae charts in the summer of 1980 – Dee Sharp’s “Let’s Dub It Up”. In the next few years many British reggae artists, and artists who were passing through from Jamaica, turned up on the label: Keith Douglas, Carlton Manning (of Carlton & His Shoes), Alton Ellis, Carlton Lewis and Johnnie Clarke amongst others.
I am looking forward to other Reggae Archive Records and Bristol Archive Records, there are already some albums that have caught my eye, like The Bristol Reggae Explosion, Handsworth Explosion, and some non-reggae like The Three Stripe Collection 1985 – 1990 and there is even a bit of punk thrown in there as well.
I have also been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share it with you, as we did in the old days with tapes
The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify.
