Name: Black Solidarity Version Excursion
Brand: Various

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

JRLP073

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

12 Tracks.

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-02-24

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5060135763237

Total Cap

Black LP

JRCD073

15 Tracks.

5060135763220/

Artist

Various

Genre GB

Reggae / Dub

Label GB

Kingston Sounds

At the beginning of the eighties reggae music became increasingly in tune with what was happening in Kingston’s dance halls... probably more so than at any time since the sound system operators had started to make their own shuffle and boogie recordings in the late fifties. The international audience and the critics were too busy looking for a new Bob Marley to appreciate what was happening downtown and failed to acknowledge that this was a return to the real, raw roots of the music. Brash, confident, young record producers who were totally in tune with the youth audience stepped forward and seized the moment... 

Oswald ‘Ossie’ Thomas began his apprenticeship in the music business at the age of fourteen and served his time as a record salesman for Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee and Winston ‘Niney The Observer’ Holness before moving on to Miss Sonia Pottinger’s Tip Top Records.

“I ended up working in three record stores on Orange Street from 1976 to 1981... Yeah man! Me deh ‘pon&nbsp;me bicycle till I buy my motorcycle! Them days records were coming out left, right and centre... every day!”&nbsp;Ossie Thomas.

It was during his time with Miss Pottinger that Ossie began to produce records for&nbsp;himself and in 1979 Ossie and Phillip Morgan began the Black Solidarity label based deep in the Kingston&nbsp;ghetto on Delamere Avenue. Phillip initially inspired Ossie to start the label and soon Triston Palma, Phillip&nbsp;Frazer and “a youth named Gary Robertson” joined in although Gary later left for Canada.&nbsp;

The Soul Syndicate rehearsed in the Delamere Avenue area and Tony Chin gave Ossie a cut of a rhythm&nbsp;that he used for Triston Palma’s ‘A Class Girl’... the label’s inaugural release. The record was a sizeable&nbsp;success and paved the way for hit after hit after hit on Black Solidarity. Ossie worked with just about&nbsp;everybody who was anybody during this critical period of the music’s development including vocalists Robert&nbsp;Ffrench, Little John, Sugar Minott, Frankie Paul and most notably Triston Palma.

For this release we have compiled some of the version sides to those releases. Dub still being an integral&nbsp;part of the Reggae Sound System Sound. So sit back and listen to what Black Solidarity, one of the most&nbsp;important and often overlooked labels were bringing to the dance, dubwise, back in those heady 1980’s&nbsp;times.

Black Solidarity Version Excursion

Music GB