Soul, Blues, Sixties Music Database
Show And Tell
Horace Andy covered one of our favourite songs by Al Wilson. It’s given the Ska Bluebeat Reggae treatment and not too bad either. He is a respected singer in Jamaica and have recorded several tracks with Massive Attack.
His origins are Jamaican and he is a Rastfarian.
Horace Andy
Blue Beat and Ska – It originated in Jamaica: late fifties early sixties – and gave birth to reggae, it soon came to Britain and if it were to have an alternative name – you might as well call it PRINCE BUSTER!
In the early 1960s in the UK early Blue Beat and Ska was beginning to be noticed.
Elias and his zig zag jive flutes had a hit in 1958 with
Tom Hark
UK top twenty The Magil Five Mockingbird Hill
Along came Millie Small and hit the number one jackpot with MY BOY LOLLIPOP
And Blue Beat records and the SKA genre was off.
Georgie Fame did some versions and we got to hear the Prince and the fantastic SKATALITES.
A great big UK Club hit in the Sixties
The Guns of Navarone and Perhaps were huge hits at London and Manchester’s ‘dive’ clubs.
These were the real deal!
Prince Busters Ten Commandments – Al Capone – the list is literally ENDLESS… as the great man kept on churning out record after record.
Ten Commandments inspired an answer back track from Little Norma.
The Manchester Twisted Wheel played loads of SKA and Blue Beat and so did the Blue Note Club.
An Emergency Case for Dr Ring Ding
![ROLAND ALPHONSO - Doctor Ring Ding [1966]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sIJUx6PK3Ms/hqdefault.jpg)
Dr. Ring-a-Ding – Rolando Alphonso & The Soul Brothers
Lots of Ska record labels popped up in the sixties and a huge amount from just one guy: Prince Buster. Apart from the main Blue Beat and Island labels most of the others were released from small companies in London, some direct from Jamaica. Atlantic Records USA released some SKA. But just as it got going the genre went underground and did not fully emerge until Bob Marley made his mark; and then it became Reggae!
BLUE BEAT
Collectors’ 45 Vinyl
Blue Beat Records was the label owned by Emile E. Shalit’s Melodisc Records company; formed in London1947, it began releasing Blue Beat and obtained many from Prince Buster and Coxone Dodd.
The label is now a LEGEND.
Chris Blackwell brought ISLAND records to London. He sold them out of the back of his Mini, travelling all around London’s record shops, then Millie was number one in the UK Pop Chart (on the Philips – Fontana Label) and he could then get the main Island label going more commercially. Many many Island 45’s were Ska.
The BLUE BEAT Catalog
Early releases are featured on this CD – Lets hope they come along with the rest as the next years cover the really great stuff!
DISC ONE: SHOCKIN’! THE ‘A’ SIDES
Bonus Tracks (The Subsidiaries):
DISC TWO: OH, MY! THE ‘B’ SIDES
AL CAPONE – Prince Buster
Mods could not sit down when this played!
BLUE BEAT info
Blue Beat – Wikipedia
UK Blue Beat releases
45’s
Georgie Fame – Blue Beat @ Guardian news article
One Step Beyond
Prince Buster
A huge favourite in Manchester’s cellar clubs in the 60’s: The Nile in Moss Side, The Blue Note and at The Twisted Wheel and The Jiggy! OO7 Shanty Town
Rude Boy – Desmond Dekker
Blue Beat Records – Wikipedia
This is the ‘B’ side of Rocksteady and is by Hopeton Lewis. In Manchester in the late sixties Blue Beat, SKA and Rocksteady and that Rude Boy stuff was mainly played in the West Indian clubs in Moss Side: The Nile Club and others (Shabeens). The only places that did play some of this type of music was at the Twisted Wheel and the Jigsaw clubs. The main location however, in the city centre, became The BLUE NOTE CLUB. Hopeton had a small hit with Take It Easy in late 1966; but I think Prince Buster had the original (he wrote it: C Campbell on his 1967, 45) and that’s the one we played at the Blue Note.
Hopeton Lewis – Wikipedia
![THE UNIQUES - Gipsy Woman [1967]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fhYmRPKzxv4/hqdefault.jpg)
Roy Shirley and the Uniques – People Rock Steady was a Ska beat related to Blue Moon with a great echo bass beat.
The Pioneers were a favourite Ska group in certain of the soul clubs in Manchester in the sixties – The Blue Note for instance. Their popularity was so great that they left Jamaica and came to the UK to live. They may still be here for all we know! Please let us know if they are.
Ska Kings – Jamaica Ska sounds EXACTLY like Byron Lee. Is it because Byron Lee was on Blue Beat Records in the UK and needed a new name for a record release on Atlantic but it had to be a different name? Because that is what he did for Eric Morris and Humpty Dumpty.
The Ska Kings started out as Byron Lee and The Dragonaires way back in 1950. They actually appeared in the first James Bond film Doctor No as a hotel band.
As far as we know the Dragonaires are still performing, no doubt with many changes in their line-up
Locomotive released this fairly pedestrian Bluebeat type song, reminiscent of the rocky steady rhythm. Having said that, became very popular in Birmingham.
Wikipedia: Locomotive (Band)
Formed in 1966
Disbanded in 1977
The Ethiopians were an early reggae / rock steady music group. The trio comprised of Leonard ‘Sparrow’ Dillon, Stephen Taylor and Aston Morris but in 1964 Peter Tosh helped Leonard Dillon start a solo career with producers Lee Perry and Coxsone Dodd. He wrote most of the songs for the Ethiopians, The Whip Everything Crash and Hong Kong Flu were later numbers.
Train To Skaville was a very popular track at both the Twisted Wheel and the Blue Note.
Wikipedia: The Ethiopians