2018 marks 50 years of Trojan Records, so we start today posting some classic Trojan albums to celebrate!
On July 28th 1967, the British-based Jamaican music company, Island Records launched a label to showcase the output of one of the most popular and successful producers of the ska and rock steady eras – Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid.
The imprint, called ‘Trojan’ after the title Mr. Reid
had acquired during his early days in the music business, surprisingly
failed to fulfil its potential and folded after a matter of months. And
this may well have been the end of the Trojan story had it not
been for the creation of a new Jamaican music company, launched in the
summer of ’68, which was in need of a suitably dynamic name.
The result of a merger between by Island Records and one of its main competitors, B&C, Trojan Records promptly
launched an ambitious programme of issuing singles on a variety of
labels that highlighted music from every producer of note, ranging from
British-based music makers such as Robert ‘Dandy’ Thompson, to such esteemed Jamaican operators as Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Edward ‘Bunny’ Lee and, of course, Duke Reid himself.
Trojan’s
rapid growth during its first year was due in no small part to the
development of a working class youth movement that embraced Jamaican
music as part and parcel of its culture: skinheads.
The
purchasing power of this fast developing demographic resulted in an
explosion in sales and in the summer of ‘69 the company enjoyed its
first mainstream hit with ‘Red Red Wine’ by a little known British-based singer Tony Tribe. Its success was soon eclipsed when the Upsetters, the Pioneers, Jimmy Cliff and Harry J’s All Stars all made their way onto the higher reaches of the mainstream listings.
The Trojan bandwagon rolled on remorselessly into the new decade, with the likes of Desmond Dekker, the Maytals and Bob & Marcia all flying high on the British Pop charts.
In the spring of 1971, Dave & Ansel Collins’ ‘Double Barrel’ provided Trojan its first UK number one, while further chart entries followed with hit singles by Bruce Ruffin, Greyhound and the Pioneers.
Aside
from their overtly commercial output, the company also highlighted
music by artists largely unknown outside Jamaica, many of which would
later become major international recording stars – among these were Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs and a Kingston-based vocal trio called Bob Marley & the Wailers.
Trojan remained hugely successful over the next year or so, with further major hits from Dandy Livingstone, John Holt, Ken Boothe and the larger than life ex-bouncer, Judge Dread, but in 1975, after experiencing financial difficulties, the label acquired a new owner in Marcel Rodd.
Rodd’s inexperience with Jamaican music proved costly and despite signing new deals with a number of up-and-coming producers, Trojan struggled, but as the seventies came to a close, the ‘Ska Revival’ brought a dramatic upturn in its fortunes.
The success of bands such as the Specials and Madness sparked renewed interest in vintage ska and reggae classics and for a time Trojan thrived once more, with compilations, such as ’20 Reggae Classsics’ and Bob Marley‘s ‘In The Beginning’, compiled by label manager, Patrick Meads, selling particularly strongly.
Unfortunately the good times were not to last and in 1985, with the ska boom long since over, Colin Newman – an accountant by profession and avid collector by nature – purchased the label. Under Newman’s direction, Trojan’s
primary focus was upon its formidable back catalogue, with various
specialists employed to ensure it maintained its position as the world’s
leading vintage reggae record company.
Some 15 years later, Sanctuary Records became Trojan’s fourth owners, paying over £10 million
for the privilege. Over the next few years the label went from strength
to strength, its already vast catalogue augmented by those of RAS and Creole, resulting in an astoundingly diverse range of releases, highlighting everything from ska to dancehall.
The Trojan Records story took its next dramatic turn in June 2007, when the Universal Music Group purchased Sanctuary in its entirety, so bringing the Jamaican music imprint back under the same roof as Island, the label that had been instrumental in its creation some 39 years before.
Universal maintained the catalogue for the next 7 years, issuing numerous acclaimed collections and reviving the much-missed Trojan Appreciation Society, before reluctantly selling the imprint to BMG, a subsidiary of one of Europe’s biggest media companies, Bertelsmann.
"Trojan Explosion" includes a bevy of ska and reggae favorites, including "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" by Jimmy Cliff, "54-46 Was My Number" by the Maytals and "You Can Get It If You Really Want It" by Desmond Dekker. Every
track is a classic, this whole album is an instant party. If people
aren't moving two minutes after you put this on, your obviously in a
morgue.
From the back cover: "An album that combines some of the very best tracks from the 'Explosion' series together with choice cuts from deep in the
Trojan vaults - 20 highly explosive Reggae hits...Stand well back when playing, it´s pure dynamite."
Tracklist:
1. You Can Get It If You Really Want - Desmond Dekker And The Aces
2. Reggae In Your Jeggae - Dandy Livingstone
3. Johnny Too Bad - The Slickers
4. Liquidator - Harry J. All Stars
5. Wonder World, Beautiful People - Jimmy Cliff
6. Them A Laugh And A Kiki - The Soulmates
7. 54-46 Was My Number - The Maytals
8. Cherry Oh Baby - Eric Donaldson
9. Let Your Yeah Be Yeah - The Pioneers
10. Dollar Of Soul - The Ethiopians
11. Young Gifted And Black - Bob And Marcia
12. Sweet Sensation - The Melodians
13. Elizabethan Reggae - Boris Gardiner
14. Mama Look - The Pioneers
15. Double Barrel - Dave And Ansel Collins
16. Small Axe - Bob Marley And The Wailers
17. Pomps And Pride - The Maytals
18. Return Of Django - The Upsetters
19. 007 (Shanty Town) - Desmond Dekker And The Aces
20. Phoenix City - Roland Alphonso
VA - Trojan Explosion - 20 Highly Explosive Reggae Hits (1987)
(320 kbps, cover art included)
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One of the most important progenitors of rap music, Gil Scott-Heron's aggressive, no-nonsense street poetry inspired a legion of intelligent rappers while his engaging songwriting skills placed him square in the R&B charts later in his career, backed by increasingly contemporary production courtesy of Malcolm Cecil and Nile Rodgers (of Chic).
