I wrote about this ruling here but suffice to say that the number of Jamaican artists who stand to benefit to any kind of significant degree is pretty much zero. Meanwhile millionaires like Cliff Richards will continue to rake in the cash, Sir Cliff can easily afford all the botox and fake tan he’ll ever need already without making us wait another 20 years before we can enjoy more issues of the Blue Beat Story… but then again when was life ever fair?

Derrick Morgan – Leave Earth

So if your wondering how Sunrise can do it the answer is fairly simple and sadly there is no shock good news here. EU countries have until 2014 to enact this ruling under law. I expect that if we’re lucky we’ll get The Story Of Blue Beat 1961 part 2, the issues for 1962 and then nothing more until the year 2034. Nice one Cliff.

So what does 2 CD set The Story Of Blue Beat 1961 give us? The first 23 singles released on the label in ’61 are presented in chronological order, the A sides on disk one and the B sides on disc two alongside four bonus tracks featuring a release each from the Limbo and Melodisc labels of the same vintage. Any compilation that gives every release on a label, warts and all, is going to be a little mixed in quality and whilst there are a number of tunes here that would never grace a best of there are plenty of real greats. From R&B romps to early shuffle that lead to full blown ska there is plenty here to enjoy. The number of early Jamaican classics has increased significantly from the 1960 discs check for example Carolina – The Folkes Brothers, River Jordan by Clancy Eccles, Leave Earth by Derrick Morgan and Creation by Lascelles Perkins, this is a musical history lesson of the highest order.

The Charmers – Lonely Boy

The Story Of Blue Beat 1961: Part 1 will be on sale from 27th February.

High Plains Drifter

Val Bennett & The Upsetters: Val Blows In (A saxophone piece to the 1968 classic Bronco AKA Django Shoots First)
Count Sticky & The Upsetters: Boss (Possibly a UK production and not Perry?)
The Upsetters: High Plains Drifter (A next cut to Dig Your Grave)
Busty Brown And The Upsetters: It’s Growing (The basis for Return Of The Super Ape)
The Upsetters: The Man With No Name
The Upsetters: Don’t Want To Lose You (Taken direct from a dub plate, the quality suffers as a result but it’s not too bad. An uncredited vocal)
The Bleechers: What’s Wrong With You
The Mellotones: What A Botheration (Pan Mix) (A second and rare piece to What A Botheration with steel pans in the mix)
The Silvertones: He Don’t Love You (By Jerry Butler, originally titled He Will Break Your Heart)
Dave Barker And The Upsetters: Next To You
Dave Barker And The Upsetters: Sitting And Waiting (A version of the R&B tune Waiting And Drinking by Calvin Boze from 1949)
The Ethiopians: Awake (Elizabethan Reggae on the horns over an early roots vocal, it’s not obviously Leonard Dillon though)
The Upsetters: Amigo (A next piece to Siprano)
Jimmy And The Inspirations: Ain’t No Love (Jimmy London takes I’ve Never Found A Girl by Eddie Floyd and makes it his own)
Count Sticky And The Upsetters: Rockfort Psychedelion (This was released on Trojan in the UK as Rocco by the Rudies so unless that credit was wrong this is a UK production and not Perry)
Lee Perry And The Upsetters: A Big Joke (Lee Perry takes back Joe Gibb’s cut of Duppy Conqueror, Ghost Capturer and adds some organ and some laughter…)
The Inspirations: Buttoo Girl (A fine vocal cut on the Prisoner Of Love/Shocks Of Mighty rhythm)
The Versatiles: Thanks We Get (The first of three recordings of this tune Perry made with the Versatiles/Junior Byles)
The Faithful Brothers: Iniquity Workers
Junior Byles And The Righteous Upsetters: Rub Up Festival ’71

The Bleechers – What’s Wrong With You

Alongside the standard CD and double LP issue there is a limited edition of 150 issue with a silk screened sleeve (available directly from the Pressure Sounds website only). Sensibly enough you cay also buy this release as an MP3 download if you like that kind of thing.

The Ethiopians – Awake

If that isn’t enough there are also four seven inch singles. These take tracks from the LP but there are three version sides that don’t feature on the LP/CD so you may need to buy these too. Pressure Sounds have taken note of the quality 45′s released by the Japanese crews at Rock A Shacka and Dub Store and have produced some really nice items with these singles, they are well pressed feature lovely labels with a vintage feel and hand stamped sleeves, these are very nice indeed.

• Jimmy London And The Inspirations – Ain’t No Love/Version
  The version side is not on the LP/CD
• The Upsetters – High Plains Drifter/Version
  The version side is not on the LP/CD
• Count Sticky And The Upsetters – Rockfort Pscyhdelion/Val Bennett And The Upsetters – Val Blows In
• The Ethiopians – Awake/Version
  The version side is not on the LP/CD

A special thanks to the folks on the Pama Forum whose observations were used in this review, especially 3pan1, nickfa and Harry H.

First up is the compilation Club Reggae. This LP has been a staple of every bargain bin of second hand reggae albums since it first came out in 1971. As such I wasn’t massively excited when I saw a CD version. 12 tracks mostly well known and of varying quality, the theme that drew them altogether in 1971 was that these the kind of reggae tunes you might hear amongst the Motown and emerging glam rock in your local youth club or night club.

Andy Capp – The Law

This release sold by the bucket load first time round and spawned a further six releases, none sold as well as the first but all managed at least a few truly great tracks. On the first volume these include U Roy – Wear You To The Ball, Andy Capp – The Law, Hopeton Lewis – Boom Shaka Lacka and the Melodians – Rivers Of Babylon. If you don’t have these tracks already it’s a no brainer really but even if you do then it’s still worth considering this as it holds together nicely as a compilation and certainly represents a bit of UK reggae history.

Jump forward a decade and Island Records were doing deals with Sly And Robbie to give them their own Taxi imprint in the UK. To showcase the Riddim Twin’s productions the Sly And Robbie Present Taxi LP was released in 198. This gathered together tunes from around 1979 onwards and again whilst something of a mixed bag is generally pretty strong and features some out and out classics such as Dennis Brown – Sitting And Watching, the Viceroys – Heart Made Of Stone and Junior Delgado – Fort Augustus.

The Viceroys – Heart Made Of Stone

This release carries both Island and Trojan logo’s. As parent company Universal own both catalogues this mix and match approach is something that we’re likely to see plenty of though the Trojan name seems to be the main brand for the companies reggae product.

Check it.

The discography is a work in progress, if you can contribute then please get in touch.

To celebrate this new page and the memory of a classic label and a great sound system here is a nice late 80′s dubplate special by Pad Anthony for Unity Hi Fi recorded in the late 80′s at Jammy’s.