[peel] 1977 Festive 50 (a billion questions (very slight exaggeration))

[bill.spiby@...]

So Martin, was there a Dub of this track kicking around in 77 to your knowledge?

Certainly in general, reggae tracks seem to be the hardest to find definitive details on. But hey, that's half the fun.
> 
> From: Martin Wheatley <martinw@...>
> Date: 2008/10/22 Wed PM 10:07:13 BST
> To: peel@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: Re: [peel] 1977 Festive 50 (a billion questions (very
>   slight exaggeration))
> 
> 
> A generalised comment on reggae tracks in those days
> 
> Most of them started life as 'pres'.   That is 7" singles imported
> from Jamaica to the reggae djs and then shops here.
> 
> They were only actually released here if they caught on.
> 12" singles were not that common in Jamaica - the dub would
> be on the B side but the UK market wanted 12" versions
> If the artists were well known the tracks would find their way
> onto an album later.   Even today reggae albums are often
> a best of the tracks of the last 12 months padded out with a
> couple of new tracks.
> 
> Peel had contacts in a couple of the record shops who would
> supply him with new tracks as they came in because it helped their
> own sales
> 
> Althea & Donna was a strange track in that it was never intended
> They were 2 schoolgirls (one a daughter of Joe Gibbs I think) and
> they were hanging around the studio at the end of a session and Joe let
> them improvise over the backing track he was using.
> A few pres were done and one found it's way to Peel and he played it
> to a good reception and told Kid Jensen about it.   The rest is history
> 
> Noone in
> Jamaica took it seriously as proven by the fact that when they came over
> here they had no backing musicians and had to play on Top Of ThePops
> with a horrible BBC orchestra - a cringemaking bit of video that is!
> Two non musicians and a bunch of guys in suits playing reggae
> 
> martinw
> 
> 
> 

-----------------------------------------
Email sent from www.virginmedia.com/email
Virus-checked using McAfee(R) Software and scanned for spam