A bit of a classic from 1979, as featured in the film Rockers, this is effectively a double-bill of vintage rocksteady duo The Maytones and the great toaster I-Roy.

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Ennio Morricone RIP

10th October 2020 · Music
 Ennio Morricone (November 10, 1928 – July 6, 2020)
 

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Sunday Times – July 10, 2011
 
Almost exactly nine years ago I was sitting on a bench in Washington Square Park in downtown New York, talking to Justin Townes Earle. He was a troubled young man who made music of searing honesty – the vital component of the hybrid of blues, country and folk that he sang and played.

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Public Enemy add their voice to the US election campaign with a powerful anti-Trump anthem from their new album What You Gonna Do When The Grid Goes Down?

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I see Neil Simon has died. I must say I had assumed he died decades ago but by coincidence last week I watched Murder By Death, a spoof whodunnit with an all-star cast.

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And now for something completely different. Straight outta Crown Heights, Brooklyn, here comes Matt Miller – aka Matisyahu – the only Orthodox Jew in reggae. (more…)

Revolution on the streets never sounded sweeter than when The Twinkle Brothers lent their smooth harmonies to a song about Mob Fury. (more…)

Wayne Smith’s landmark ragga anthem Under Me Sleng Teng in 1985 marked the move away from conscious reggae into digital dancehall music in Jamaica. (more…)

A mellow tune for a sunny afternoon by Don Carlos, original lead singer of Black Uhuru, the trio he formed in 1973 with friends Rudolph Dennis and Duckie Simpson.

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John Holt is one of my favourite singers and Police In Helicopter is a song that would probably be one of my Desert Island Discs. (more…)