Trojan

While Jamaica today is a huge cultural market, at the beginning of the 1960s not many people were aware of the artistic boom that was taking place there. But in Kingston, two young expats were already in the game: Chris Blackwell from England and Graeme Goodall from Australia (chief recording engineer of Jamaica’s national radio station, JBC). In 1959 they launched the label Island in order to draw attention to the local talent and in 1962, when ska took off, Blackwell decided to set up the label in London to better reach Caribbean emigrants (Goodall jumped ship soon after to launch the labels Doctor Bird and Pyramid, which produced Desmond Dekker's hit Israelites in ‘69, then leaving to direct Attack, Trojan's sub-label). Two years later, Island had its first success with Millie Smalls' My Boy Lollipop. But this embryonic market was already crowded: "In London, Island had to keep up with Melodisc, R&B, Rio and Doctor Bird, then two other major players, Pama and B&C, that stands for Beat & Commercial," says Laurence Cane-Honeysett. "B&C had been created by Lee Gopthal, also an expat from Jamaica, who was the owner of the offices that Island rented in London. After several years of fierce competition in fighting for the same artists, B&C and Island finally understood that it was easier to work together to dominate the reggae market. So, in July 1968, they pooled their resources to create Trojan, with Island’s catalogue and B&C's distribution networks. Trojan was born out of pure pragmatism."

The deal also allowed Chris Blackwell to compartmentalize reggae, having already reoriented Island towards pop and rock by signing artists such as the Spencer Davis Group. Reggae only returned to Island with Bob Marley in the following decade. Blackwell became less and less involved on a daily basis, Trojan being managed by Lee Gopthal and David Betteridge for Island. It was this duo who were responsible for creating a market for this music that still shocked the ears of metropolitans. "At the beginning, Jamaican music in the United Kingdom had poor figures. Apart from My Boy Lollipop, it wasn't until 1967 that we began to see Jamaican records appear in the charts, despite their virtual absence on the BBC Radio One playlists, the only official national radio station at the time," recalls Laurence Cane-Honeysett. “The creation of Trojan in 1968 coincided with the beginning of a new British subculture, the skinheads, even if the term was only used to designate them much later. This period was also the time when Jamaican music mutated from the catchy and soulful rocksteady to a new form quickly named reggae. Obviously, the Afro-Caribbean community was the biggest consumer but more and more white people – the youth from the working class and for the most part mods - became interested. On the other hand, the mainstream media considered this music idiotic and repetitive, which didn’t help sales."