"THE STORY OF TROJAN RECORDS"
August 2018 Eye Books Hardback Edition
by LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT
Truly Beautiful History of a Great British
Reggae Label "Trojan"
Sets A Standard For Record Label Biogs too...
Back in the day I reviewed "The Story Of
Trojan Records" 6CD Box Set from 2011, Deluxe Editions of "Tighten Up
Volumes 1 and 2" - even Cane Honeysett's groundbreaking book "Young,
Gifted And Black" on Trojan (2003, Sanctuary Books) which published the
first decent Discography on all of its output - a Herculean work if ever there
was one. The booklet in the 6CD Box Set is gorgeous - but little (and I mean
little) will prepare lifetime fans of this fantastic English Reggae, Ska and
Dub label for 2018's Hardback extravaganza "The Story Of Trojan
Records" (Eye Books - ISBN 9781785630781) - its properly gorgeous.
I've just come from a 4-day review on
"Trojan 50" - the accompanying 4LP/6CD/2x7" Mega Box Set
celebrating 1968 to 2018 - and this tome is the companion to that. I'm now sure
that had this beautiful book been included in "Trojan 50" as well as
the "Art Of The Album" Book - we would be looking at Reissue of the
Year in any format.
What you get here is nearly 290 pages in an
almost LP-sized hardback book with literally ever page festooned with
memorabilia, 7" single labels, LP sleeves, Trade Adverts, Master Tape
Boxes, Press Releases, Buttons, Top 50 release sheets shown on the counters of
London specialist shops and personal recollections from people who were there
(Chris Blackwell of Island Records does the intro) - 70 to 80% of which you haven't
seen before. There's a 'picture sleeve' of Wilfred Edwards "I Love You No
More" b/w "More Than Words Can Say" on Island (early Sixties,
probably promo-only) that I've never seen and I don't think is even catalogued!
On Page 55 there's The Ethiopians album "Engine 54 - Go Rock Steady"
from 1968 - a British pressing on Doctor Bird in a Jamaican Wirl Records sleeve
- set you back £400 - if you could find one! You get Christmas campaigns
adverts, Fab 208 playlists, articles on Skinhead culture, Mods, Soul Boys, the
famous 14/6d price tag for their TRL series that included the one that started
it all - "Tighten Up". Speaking of that iconic album and so many
other LP covers - there's even a few pages on the gorgeous and sexy Lucienne
Camille - The Beautiful Face Of Reggae whose lovely figure and ample assets
thrilled and tempted many a young lad browsing the swirly racks in Woolworths.
There are articles on Trojan's Island LP
Revival releases - (the TRLS series with sought-after compilations like
"Ride Your Donkey" and "Guns Of Navarone" along with Derrick
Morgan's "Forward March!") - the famous red-covered titled sleeves of
the Trojan 'Hot Shots' 45s (usually 5000-only picture sleeves for the hottest
releases Trojan wanted fans to notice) - a stunning display of rarely seen
International Picture Sleeves (stuff like Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam" and
Nicky Thomas' "Love Of The Common People" which of course Paul Young
made a hit of in the 80ts) - right up the "This Is Trojan..." series of
CD sets in 2018. There are interviews with key players stretching from 1995 to
2017 like Dave Betteridge (former Island and Trojan Managing Director) - Chips
Richards (former Marketing Manager) - Graeme Walker (former Label Manager) -
Jim Flynn (former Director of B&C and Trojan) - Rob Bell (former Label
Manager) – Vic Keary (Sound Engineer at Chalk Farm Studios) – Rob Bell talking
about Producers like Lee Perry, Bunny Lee, Clancy Eccles and Leslie Kong
working in the famous Music House Studios - Phil Swain (Record Producer and Radio
Presenter) and many more. There are biographies of artists towards the end of
the text and peppered throughout (Ken Boothe, The Melodians, The Pioneers,
Marcia Griffiths, The Maytals and more) - absolutely wonderful stuff full of
memories hitherto unheard.
Even though a Discography would have been
stunning icing on the cake - you cannot call this 2018 Hardback Edition
publication anything other than a balls-to-the-wall triumph. Keeper of the
Trojan Catalogue flame now for many years - Author LAURENCE CANE-HONEYSETT and
the huge team that put this together (acknowledged on the last few pages)
should receive accolades a-plenty for "The Story Of Trojan Records".
I'll be dipping into this shapely peach for years. Well done to all involved...
PS: And for Gawd's sake - can someone in
Universal please do the same for Island Records, Polydor Records, Atlantic
Records etc. Why aren't these musical cultural giants catalogued in Book Form??
