#ATOMIC KITTEN SIMILAR ARTISTS SERIES#

He says they helped him through the trauma of experiencing intense racism as a schoolboy in Coventry: “So much power in those songs, that’s what uplifted me as a Black youth growing up in England.” Lynval Golding, guitarist and vocalist of The Specials, recalls growing up listening to Trojan Records progeny including Dekker, Livingstone, Ken Boothe, Nicky Thomas and Jimmy Cliff. Not solely restricted to Jamaican imports, Gopthal also began to back UK-based West Indian musicians like Dandy Livingstone, who penned the rocksteady anthem ‘A Message for You Rudy’, which would later be popularised by The Specials. Read this next: On Sundays, Glorious Sundays, the culture of the Windrush generation came to the fore

Both songs were released on Gopthal’s initial Pyramid label in 1967, which eventually was absorbed into the wider Trojan venture. Dekker went on to be the first chart-topping Jamaican artist with ‘Israelites’ in 1967, a hit that captured the poverty and hardships of the Caribbean. Combining unparalleled smoothness and irresistible stage presence, Dekker ingeniously combined a laidback melody that somewhat jarred to the social commentary of his lyrics: ‘007’ was about the gruelling violence of Jamaica's shantytowns. 14 in the UK's charts - one of the first rocksteady songs to reach commercial success. His efforts ensured that ‘007’ by Desmond Dekker & The Aces rocked to No. According to the 2003 book Young, Gifted & Black: The Story of Trojan Records, Gopthal recalled, “people thought I was mad to advertise on London and Caroline, but I was selling a hell of a lot of records.” Seeking new audiences but shunned by the BBC, Gopthal advertised the label on pirate stations Caroline and Radio London. Where Blackwell’s Island team focused on sourcing and producing the material, Gopthal concentrated on retail. Island Records’ stock was collecting dust in Cambridge Road, leading Gopthal to establish record distribution company, Beat & Commercial Records. “Nobody wanted to buy my records initially, the only people who wanted to buy were little Jamaican record stores,” recalls Blackwell. Despite this, British radio still refused to touch reggae records.

In 1964, Blackwell produced Millie Smalls’ ‘My Boy Lollipop’, which sold 7 million records and proved that Jamaican music could have worldwide success. It sold very well!” he tells Mixmag, laughing. “I packaged with a G-String, and Lee Gopthal, or his father, sewed it for me. Lee went on to purchase the building and leased a room to Chris Blackwell for his fledgling Island Records operation.Īt the time, Blackwell was distributing a raunchy title called ‘Music to Strip By’. In 1962, Lee was working as an accountant and living in the flat above his father’s tailor shop on 108 Cambridge Road, London. Gopthal’s father, Sikarum, arrived in the UK on the Empire Windrush in 1948, and Lee Gopthal followed in 1952. Read this next: Why the radiogram is a sacred piece of music technology Gopthal, who began selling reggae music to the West Indian community in London from the back of his car, stood out as an immigrant person of colour, running a label in a forbiddingly white world of music executives and radio disc jockeys. What veteran DJ and cultural historian Don Letts has often described as a “tool for societal change”, Trojan brought together Caribbean migrants and white working class youth, paving the way for a celebrated multicultural Britain. The same year that Enoch Powell fuelled xenophobic attitudes with his infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech, warning white Britons of a near-future where “Black man will have the whip hand over the white man”, Trojan Records kickstarted a heroic legacy of bringing West Indian music to the United Kingdom, and bridging cultures through music. Trojan Records was launched in the summer of 1968, the joint-venture of Indo-Jamaican Lee Gopthal and Jamaican-raised Briton, Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records, to cater to a budding population of Caribbean migrants in the UK who sought refuge in the sounds of home.

#ATOMIC KITTEN SIMILAR ARTISTS SERIES#

Mixmag is running an editorial series to mark the 75th anniversary of Windrush, find out more here

Atomic kitten similar artists